Film Review: Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Despite being part of the title, future was never directly shown in 1985 Hollywood mega-hit Back to the Future. It only appeared as tantalising glimpse of future technology at the very end of the film. This, however, didn’t bother the audience, but it gave a good opportunity for screenwriter Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeciks to give new setting for inevitable 1989 sequel Back to the Future Part II.

The new film begins exactly at the time and place the previous film ended - October 26th 1985 in Californian town of Hill Valley. Shortly after finishing his time-travelling adventure, teenager Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Jennifer (played by Elisabeth Shue, replacing Claudia Wells from the original film) are summoned by inventor Emmet “Doc” Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd) to join him in another time-travelling mission. They go to Hill Valley on October 21st 2015 where Marty is supposed to prevent his son Marty McFly Jr. (also played by Michael J. Fox) from ending in prison. Marty succeeds, but seeing his future family and self far from wealth and success he had imagined gets him an idea to take sports almanac as a souvenir and use its data to bet on sports events knowing the results in advance. Marty ultimately gives up on it, but not before his archenemy Biff Tannen (played by Thomas F. Wilson), now an old man, overhears his plans and borrows Doc’s time travelling DeLorean to meet his younger self on November 12th 1955 and gives him an almanac. When Marty, Jennifer and Doc return to 1985, they can’t recognise Hill Valley. The place is run by Biff, now wealthy and extremely powerful man who turned charming little town into hellish place of violence, poverty, crime and corruption. Doc concludes that the only way to alter the timeline is for him and Marty to travel back to 1955 and try prevent young Biff for getting his hands on almanac. While they do it, they must try not to be noticed by past versions of themselves.

Zemeckis is director known for his pioneering work with new film technologies and having Part II set in the future was good excuse to employ some revolutionary special effects. The most important technological innovation was VistaGlide motion control camera system, which allowed the same actor to be shot separately and to appear in the same shot playing different characters. Future setting, unlike the previous film, also allowed Zemeciks to use much more special effects while depicting futuristic world of 2015. Unlike bleak and dystopian visions that dominated 1980s science fiction films, future in Back to the Future Part II is actually bright, with futuristic Hill Valley looking like happy place where parks, lakes coexist with “cool” technological gadgets like holograms, flying cars and hoverboards. Zemeckis in many ways extrapolated the happy, self-confident vision of 1980s America (given homage through nostalgic “Caffe 1980s”) into 2010s, with many real-life 1980s brands being subjects of semi-humorous product placements. This is, however, limited to the first third of the film, which is replaced with much darker and dystopian vision of alternative 1980s (in which, like Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Richard Nixon competes for fifth presidential mandate) that takes part in second third, and uses the same technique as Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Final third of the film, however, returns into very familiar territory and depicts 1955 events. Although Zemeckis tries very hard to use different perspective and give original “spin” to various scenes and lines of dialogue, some of the audiences would feel cheated and see the film as unoriginal and too repetitive.

Zemeckis originally wanted to make another segment, with plot being set in Old West era, but it became quite apparent that the resulting film would be too long. So, another solution was found in that plot being reserved for the third film, which was ultimately shot back-to-back with Part II. The second film, however, ended with cliffhanger to be resolved in final sequel. This practice is quite common for 21st Century, but in 1980s audiences found it annoying and, despite very good box office, commercial results were significantly worse than with 1985 original. Critics were even less enthusiastic, attacking Zemeckis for lack of originality and relying too much on special effects and “cool” gimmicks instead of having good story or intriguing characters.

Although some of those complaints hold water and Part II, like so many Hollywood sequels, is predictably inferior to 1985 original, Zemeckis actually did very good job with this film. Plot, despite being terribly complicated, is presented in entertaining and comprehensive way. Despite darkness in the middle part, this film is mostly entertaining and family-friendly. There are some questionable creative choices (like Michael J. Fox appearing in drag playing Marty’s daughter) and the heavy make-up used for older versions of some characters isn’t convincing. Yet, the cast does very good job, especially Thomas F. Wilson who plays three versions of the same character. Fox is decent in his role while Christopher Lloyd does solid job, hinting much meatier role in the third film. Elisabeth Shue is good as Marty’s girlfriend, although script actually leaves her little to do. Alan Silvestri does good music score, although some might complain that it borrows too much from his brilliant work on Predator.

One of the greatest ironies of Back to the Future saga is that the second film became its most popular part in our times. This is mostly due to its 2015 setting, which allowed many of nostalgic fans to make serious or humorous comparisons between our world and the way Zemeckis imagined future (with some details, like plasma-like television sets, being correct, while others, like flying cars, being obvious misses). This all culminated as October 21st 2015 approached, which coincided with first months of presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Many commentators began to see similarities between greedy, arrogant and brash tycoon living in kitchy skyscraper palace depicted in the alternative version of 1980s and the real life personality which, according to film creators, had served as its inspiration. When Trump actually entered White House, many saw dystopian segments of Back to the Future Part II prophetic and, at least for few years, it became difficult to talk about 45th US President without mentioning Biff. Now, when this part of the future is past, perhaps this film could be judged on its own merit, and the verdict, despite some flaws, should be very good.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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