Back to the Future Part II2015...the future. (Couldn't help it.) Watching Back to the Future Part II has become a wholly different experience now that time has caught up with the movie, which--like all stories about the future--predicted many things to come, some right, some not so right. Sure, I'm still waiting for my hoverboards and flying cars, but like them or not, I think the future would be pretty scary if all lawyers were abolished--thankfully, kids aren't wearing their pockets on the outside of their pants...yet. The future looks a little familiar, but different enough so that we know it is not "our" world...kind of like the feeling Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) gets when he returns home to 1985 to find things a little different than when he made his trip to 2015, and not for the better.
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Back to the Future Part II is the follow-up to the nostalgic classic which introduced us to flux capacitors, flying DeLoreans, and the microcosmic community of Hill Valley. The story picks up literally at the denouement of Back to the Future, a near shot for shot remake of that last scene. And while this has the convenient effect of introducing Elisabeth Shue as Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, it also sets a trend throughout the rest of the film to reintroduce us to those familiar moments we remembered fondly in a cohesive way. The film turns the nostalgia of that movie on its head, such as with the 80's Cafe, with kitschy decor not unlike those 50's diners still around; as Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd)--the brilliant, if eccentric, inventor of the time machine--observes, they are "not done very well". That nostalgia is a current which runs through the whole film, since we repeatedly revisit times and places from the first movie. After Marty comes across a sports almanac in 2015, chronicling fifty years of events--a devastating pandora's box--the greedy aspirations to get rich quick by Marty in turn become the greedy aspirations of nemesis Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), across a span of sixty years, after the almanac slips his grasp. Time has caught up with Back to the Future Part II at least in respect to the proclivity for people to look wistfully on nostalgia in their entertainment and think back on the "good old days", even if those good old days were the present Marty hails from. The town square of future Hill Valley boasts movie theaters airing "Jaws 19"--the shark still looks fake, even as a hologram--and isn't it strange that an antique store has prime real estate downtown? It is ironic that the films first scenes mirror some of the most exciting moments from the original, like Marty--mistaken for his son, Marty, Jr.--being chased across the town square (this time on a borrowed hoverboard) by Griff Tannen (also Thomas F. Wilson)--only the year has changed, a fact which is not lost on "old" Biff, who finally gets wise to the scene he experienced first hand thirty years before. Numerous other touches spark memories of Back to the Future--between the consistent musical score, the (mostly) consistent cast playing roles varying in age as before, and so many great lines revisited, sometimes subverted for comedic punch. For instance, when Marty discovers how Biff Tannen got a hold of the almanac--literally stealing his idea to get rich--he gets abducted by Biff's goons. He is awoken by his mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) in a scene which parrots in part the original where Marty was surprised by Lorraine's appearance, only this time yielding an even bigger surprise.
Back to the Future Part II is surprisingly urgent in its pacing, considering it is a movie about people who have command over time itself. But Marty and Doc are anxious to remedy the error in judgment made by themselves; one does wonder why Doc really brought Marty into the future, considering the rest of the film hinges on the premise that past events dictate the outcome of the future. In a way, maybe it was Doc's way of showing Marty at least some kind of sign of things to come, a reward for all he had to endure at the hands of his experimentation with time, albeit one which led to a more favorable outcome for his life the first time around. When I was a kid, seeing Back to the Future Part II (when I did get to see it) was like a glimpse into what to expect from the future. The movie hits the nail on the head on some things; the McFly residence's big screen television would have seemed unconscionably decadent, even for the Eighties, but is far more commonplace today, and would be a fit in most homes. And for fans of vintage movie formats (you know who you are), there must be something bittersweet and alarming when Doc and Marty emerge in the future of 2015 in an alley, dumpsters packed full of laserdiscs and DVDs. As always in the series, time and place is a crucial detail. It is no coincidence that the erstwhile slacker George McFly (Jeffrey Weissman/Crispin Glover) is revealed to be born on April Fool's Day; and in the unfortunate alternate present Marty inadvertently creates, George's death is appropriately on the Ides of March. Doc Brown's fascination with the Wild West is romanticized in his mind, just as the Eighties are sometimes viewed wistfully by those today, recalling the memories of childhood; but this nostalgia suddenly becomes a weird kind of dystopian reality for us when Doc and Marty discover how altered 1985 has become under Biff Tannen (the millionaire) and his reign over the city, now beleaguered by gambling, toxic waste, and violent shootouts. Marty and Biff's confrontations make up the meat of the story in this film, as they end up chasing and confronting each other at every time and turn. The big moral of the story in Back to the Future Part II is that your actions have consequences; it is a heavier impact in this film--as Marty's vices and weaknesses lead him and his loved ones into catastrophic upheavals, and he is forced to clean up his mess, learning the virtue of restraint over arrogance.
Recommended for: Fans with a love of Back to the Future and the great legacy created by it--guaranteed to scratch that nostalgia itch. On a note of trivia, as a kid, the novelization of Back to the Future Part II was the first novel I ever read--truthfully, because I couldn't go to see the movie in the theater--so I suppose it has some responsibility for my interest in literature in a weird way. Little causes can have surprising effects.
Back to the Future Part II is surprisingly urgent in its pacing, considering it is a movie about people who have command over time itself. But Marty and Doc are anxious to remedy the error in judgment made by themselves; one does wonder why Doc really brought Marty into the future, considering the rest of the film hinges on the premise that past events dictate the outcome of the future. In a way, maybe it was Doc's way of showing Marty at least some kind of sign of things to come, a reward for all he had to endure at the hands of his experimentation with time, albeit one which led to a more favorable outcome for his life the first time around. When I was a kid, seeing Back to the Future Part II (when I did get to see it) was like a glimpse into what to expect from the future. The movie hits the nail on the head on some things; the McFly residence's big screen television would have seemed unconscionably decadent, even for the Eighties, but is far more commonplace today, and would be a fit in most homes. And for fans of vintage movie formats (you know who you are), there must be something bittersweet and alarming when Doc and Marty emerge in the future of 2015 in an alley, dumpsters packed full of laserdiscs and DVDs. As always in the series, time and place is a crucial detail. It is no coincidence that the erstwhile slacker George McFly (Jeffrey Weissman/Crispin Glover) is revealed to be born on April Fool's Day; and in the unfortunate alternate present Marty inadvertently creates, George's death is appropriately on the Ides of March. Doc Brown's fascination with the Wild West is romanticized in his mind, just as the Eighties are sometimes viewed wistfully by those today, recalling the memories of childhood; but this nostalgia suddenly becomes a weird kind of dystopian reality for us when Doc and Marty discover how altered 1985 has become under Biff Tannen (the millionaire) and his reign over the city, now beleaguered by gambling, toxic waste, and violent shootouts. Marty and Biff's confrontations make up the meat of the story in this film, as they end up chasing and confronting each other at every time and turn. The big moral of the story in Back to the Future Part II is that your actions have consequences; it is a heavier impact in this film--as Marty's vices and weaknesses lead him and his loved ones into catastrophic upheavals, and he is forced to clean up his mess, learning the virtue of restraint over arrogance.
Recommended for: Fans with a love of Back to the Future and the great legacy created by it--guaranteed to scratch that nostalgia itch. On a note of trivia, as a kid, the novelization of Back to the Future Part II was the first novel I ever read--truthfully, because I couldn't go to see the movie in the theater--so I suppose it has some responsibility for my interest in literature in a weird way. Little causes can have surprising effects.