If there's a sequel that does so many things right and wrong, the second part to the "Back to the Future" trilogy might be one of the most conflicting in recent memory. Taking place immediately after the first film, Doc Brown has pulled Marty McFly to the future of 2015 in order to prevent their children to be locked in prison. After quickly taking care of the problem, Marty has the idea of buying a sports almanac in order to earn tons of cash, which Doc immediately dissuades him from. However, an observant and elderly Biff manages to take both the almanac and the DeLorean without the two knowing, allowing him to travel back to 1955 and give his younger self the almanac in order to become a billionaire. Because of this, as Marty and Doc return to 1985, Hill Valley has become a rundown criminal hang-out as Biff is the corrupt ruler of the town. Now, Marty and Doc have to travel yet again to 1955 in order to retrieve the almanac and prevent the dystopia reality to occur. The biggest problem with the sequel, and I think a lot of people can agree, is that there are clearly too many things happening in the story. The storyline regarding the future of 2015 is wrapped in the first third of the film, which also shows a meaningless plot-point of Marty's future being in trouble due to a car accident messing up his musical career and getting fired by his employer. That plot-point practically disappears throughout the rest of the film and is only ever brought up again in the end of the third film. The time spent in the alternate 1985 is only 20 minutes or so, less than a third of the film, which is odd considering how crucial it is to the trilogy. And the story where Marty is back in 1955 takes up the rest of the film, all leading up to a cliffhanger ending that ties directly to the third film. Speaking of the third film, this movie is constantly teasing elements of the third movie from Doc's favourite time period, him wanting to study women, Biff's ancestor being an outlaw, and countless other references. While I enjoy the 2015 and alternate 1985 settings, I hate that the majority of the film takes place right back in 1955, despite some enjoyable moments regarding Biff and his older self. On top of the rushed and messy narrative, the script has quite a few odd elements and contrived moments. From Jennifer being brought with the guys to the future only to be constantly unconscious, Doc wanting to destroy the DeLorean even before they see the alternate 1985 timeline, Marty leaving the door open to the DeLorean, to Marty being triggered whenever someone calls him a chicken, the script is far weaker compared to the first film. Still, the tone stays consistent and there are about the same amount of jokes in the sequel with the focus on the character interactions and the future setting.
The cast of the first film returns, albeit a few got replaced during the way and the side characters aren't nearly as memorable. Micheal J. Fox is great as ever as Marty, the good-hearted yet careless teen who has to fix his biggest mistake of having the almanac get into Biff's hands. I do like that he's given much more range in his comedic and dramatic chops, particularly in the alternate 1985. Although I like his portrayals of the future Marty and his son, I don't understand why he's playing his future daughter though. Christopher Lloyd is always loveable as Doc, who has been more seasoned with the future and the problems of time travel. While I don't like the contrived nature of him wanting to destroy the DeLorean right before anything terrible happens, I do like that the character himself does change to be more of a buzzkill as he doesn't want to carry Marty's mistakes onto his shoulders. Lloyd still has some fun moments though with the character, such as how he removes the old-man makeup in the beginning to show that he's 30 years younger, even though he still looks the same except he has no wrinkles. Thomas F. Wilson as Biff however practically steals the movie from the iconic duo. While he was enjoyable in the first film, he's the star of the sequel as he not only has more enjoyable versions of himself such as the grumpy grandpa, the chaotic grandson, and the Trump-esque businessman of the alternate 1985. He's so over-the-top in his performances that the interactions with any of his characters with either Marty or each other are probably the best moments in the film since he's both so interesting and entertaining to watch. Lea Thompson returns as Lorraine with the same amount of charm as before. Although the film is mainly focused on her 1955 counterpart, I do like the sweet old grandmother in 2015, and the submissive depressed wife to Biff in the alternate 1985. While all of these performances are as memorable as ever, there are some issues with the extended cast. Elisabeth Shue replaces Claudia Wells as Jennifer, who is not only miscast as she looks much older, but utterly redundant to the story as she's completely sidelined after the first act. It just makes you question why have the character in the first place. As for Crispin Glover as George McFly, he not only replaced by some look-alike, but he's barely in the film due to Glover not wanting his likeness involved in the film, causing the scenes in 1955 to be worked around with not having his character shown much. There are reasons as to why Wells and Glover didn't return, but the producers really didn't care for the integrity of the characters, especially with George being the heart of the first film. As for the side characters, well, they are less of them in the sequel that catch your attention. Outside of Principal Strickland, Marty's children and Biff's/Griff's gang members who are just filled with as much personality as you can for these limited roles, there's just a lack of notable background characters to make the settings feel as life-like, unlike the first film. It also doesn't help that Marty's siblings and a few other characters are just completely absent. Regardless, Fox, Lloyd, Thompson, and Wilson all do their part in carrying the torch to not only top their performances from the previous film, but to make the sequel almost as loveable.
While I thought that Robert Zemeckis was at his prime in the first film when it comes to his directing, the sequel pushes him to his limits when it comes to the ambitious yet flawed vision. The 2015 Hill Valley is perhaps the most iconic aspect of Part II. Of course there are plenty of inaccuracies, but the vision is just so imaginative and colourful. From the flying cars, wacky clothes, automated machinery, to accessing things with your thumbs are just the tip of the widely-inventive "future". You can tell that this is where a large amount of effort was put into the production, set, and visual design, which is more impressive when you consider that the setting is only prominent in the first act of the film. The alternate 1985 Hill Valley is effective at being covered in the grimy night and heavy amounts of shadows to show the corrupting darkness that has captured the town. However, it's easy to see that not much time was thought into this setting due to the lack of in-universe detail of how Hill Valley became the way it is. The 1955 Hill Valley is just as colourful and simple as before, but the charm isn't as effective due to it not only being the backbone of the entire film, but it being so prominent in the previous film. Dean Cundey returns as cinematographer along with a new camera system that allows a great use of panning to allow an actor to play multiple roles in a single setting. While I prefer the grounded and somewhat limited scale of his work in the first film, I appreciate the more inventive camerawork alongside the trademark cranes, zoom-ins, long takes, which matches the new level of ambition for the sequel and a sense of professionalism. Alan Silvestri returns to compose the sequel and offers a far more standard soundtrack as a result. Although he puts his full attention on an orchestrated theme for the music of the film, the issue is that there's barely anything new or noteworthy in the sequel. It's good to listen to, but there's no sense of evolution or identity. As for the licensed songs, well, there aren't any. Aside from "Johnny B. Goode" and a poorly-dubbed "Earth Angel", there isn't any new songs to tie in for the sequel, which is a shame as having a specific song to introduce the 2015 and alternate 1985 Hill Valley would be really effective. The visual effects however are perhaps the most effective aspect to the sequel. This is right before CGI really took over in the industry, which is why a lot of effects are using tons of practical and editing techniques from green-screen, miniatures and compositing. I made a mistake in my previous review of the first film where I mentioned that there was a use of CGI, but the truth is both films never used CGI at all, aside from that "Jaws 19" ad in the sequel. The compositing isn't perfect and there are some iffy uses of green-screen, but other than that, the effects are very commendable, especially the flying cars and the camerawork and editing that allows the same actor to share the same space with themselves. Overall, the filmmaking manages to outshine the first film in some ways, but is lacking in others, which is why I stated that Zemeckis was at his prime with the first film.
"Back to the Future Part II" is a worthy follow-up in some ways. The tone and humour are as familiar as ever, Marty, Doc and Lorraine are all entertaining as before but with an added hint of mellow and change to their characters that don't heavily alter their personality, Wilson is by far the best actor in the sequel as he's extremely involved with the various interpretations of Biff and Griff, the 2015 Hill Valley is so imaginative in its inaccuracies and goofy vision of the future, the alternate 1985 Hill Valley is cosmetically an interesting dystopia despite not much time or background into the world, Cundey's camerawork has improved even more with the new camera system and ambitious panning and tracking shots, the effects match up to the ambition of the sequel with the various use of the clever cinematography and editing along with some nice-looking compositing, matte-paintings and miniatures for the 2015 "future", and Zemeckis putting all of his directing efforts at recapturing the magic of the first film along with an ambitious vision in trying to please all of the fans of the first film. However, the sequel falters in plenty of areas that aren't easy to defend. The story is very all over the place as it constantly jumps around setting after setting with a different goal after another, the decision to have the second half of the film be a revisit to 1955 is very underwhelming despite the effects and performances, the constant teasing of the set-ups in Part III feel really hammered in with no subtlety in retrospective, the pointless sub-plot of future Marty being fired, there are some contrived moments for the characters that feel really forced, Jennifer was completely pointless in the narrative, Glover's absence makes the character of George completely sidelined and unimportant, the lack of memorable side characters and the missing characters from the previous film, and Silvestri's composing leaves little impact along with no licensed songs to help add some charm. While the sequel can at times wow you and offer a twist to the magic of the first film, the script and story really kills off its chances of being nearly on par to the first film or being considered a worthy follow-up. By sequel standards, it's not that bad, but considering how perfect the first film is, it's pretty disappointing.
Verdict: 7/10. A good, if flawed, movie on its own merits, but is a huge step in quality from the masterpiece that is the first film. Still worth a watch for the charm, effects, and performances.
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