Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Originally Reviewed

Wednesday November 21, 2007

Great Scott! Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown return for Part II of the science fiction classic series Back to the Future! With even more futuristic technology than the first film, Back to the Future Part II proves to be a highly entertaining adventure, but still doesn't manage to compare to the greatness of the original.

After returning from the year 1955, Marty is met by a frantic Doc Brown who insists Marty come with him back to the future to prevent his kids from falling into some serious trouble. While in the future old Biff overhears Marty and the Doc talking about the time machine, at the right time Biff borrows the time machine taking a trip back to 1955 and providing his young self with information that causes a total timeline change. When Marty returns to 1985 he discovers a crime riddled Hill Valley, the death of his father, and that his mother is married to Biff, now a multi-billionaire. Marty and the Doc discover that old Biff had given his younger self a sports almanac which provided all the sports scores for decades to come, making it impossible for Biff to not win on any sports bet he placed. Now the only way to set the timeline right is to go back to 1955 and get the almanac from the young Biff before he has a chance to turn Hill Valley into a literal sewer.

A couple things I learned about this film that kind of surprised me was that Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, was played by another actress and that there was a big controversy over the existence of hover boards. Claudia Wells played Jennifer Parker in Part I, while Elizabeth Shue played the character in Parts II & III; this was something I never realized until recently. Also there was a big fiasco over the rumor that the hover boards in the film were real, this was news to me as well. I happened to check out some of the bonus features on the DVD and caught Robert Zemeckis in a old interview stating that they happened to get their hands on some which had been banned due to protesting parents. After hearing this I foolishly searched the internet in search of my own hover board, only to discover it had been a joke or marketing ploy for the film which eventually got out of hand. Seems after Zemeckis's interview back in the early 90's hordes of people began to pester him about the hover boards and Mattel began getting thousands of calls and letters from people wanting to buy a hover board! Needless to say Zemeckis soon caved and admitted that was all a ruse.

Overall, Back to the Future Part II is a great transition between Part I and Part III, nicely connecting to the first film while throwing in the occasional hint about what to expect in the finale. As a film by itself though Part II is nowhere near as satisfying as the original, the story really lacks the brilliance that made Part I great and relies too much on Part I to carry it. This made the film stand out as more of an extension of Part I than a new adventure. In the end, it's a fun ride, but really isn't complete as it's own film and needs Part I to make it whole. 

8/10