Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The concluding part of the saga is so much stronger than the second instalment. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to the Old West of 1885 to prevent his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) from being shot by the local cowboy Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who just so happens to be the great-grandfather of Marty’s old enemy Biff.

The DeLorean is damaged and they have to devise a new way of getting back to the future. But all this is complicated when Doc falls in love with a schoolteacher (Mary Steenburgen), and instead of Doc being shot it’s suddenly Marty who’s at risk.

This has all the laughs, thrills and romance of the first part, but none of the misjudged bleakness or over-the-top pantomime of the second. It’s once again extremely clever without being confusing, so well planned and executed are the intricate plot twists. And the piling up of reference points and jokes from the first two films makes it a real pleasure to watch.

It’s lovely that Doc has his own story and it’s nice that they found room for his character to be developed further. The high-speed climax is genuinely nail-biting and the coda is both absurd and satisfying. A truly joyous end to the trilogy.

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

This sequel is sillier than the first film and not as enjoyable, for various reasons:
• There are fewer laughs.
• Without the romance, some of the warmth is missing.
• The plot is more complicated, with events building up in parallel in different chronologies and talk of time paradoxes. It would make little sense if you hadn’t seen the 1985 original.
• Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen isn’t really charismatic enough to be fleshed-out from local bully to major villain.
• The “darker” moments feel misjudged, such as when we see Marty’s mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) reduced to a hopeless, broken alcoholic.
• The make-up used to age characters looks horrible.
• The future they visit (2015) is sketchy at best and we learn little beyond the facts that Jaws 19 is now showing in cinemas and that cars and skateboards can fly.
• Musically, there’s nothing in the soundtrack as punchy as “The Power of Love”.

All that said, there are many good things about Part II. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reprise their roles effectively and the film is at its best when the pair are in scenes together and able to play off each other. There are some nice jokes based on our knowledge of the previous film. And once again, there are some extremely clever twists.

Weirdly, Marty’s girlfriend is replaced by a different actor: Elisabeth Shue plays Jennifer instead of Claudia Wells. Weirder still, Crispin Glover is barely present as George McFly owing to a dispute over what he was paid. Given that this film recreates entire scenes from the first film – many of the key events are seen again, from different angles – building in his absence must have been even more challenging. For example, you see the Enchantment Under the Sea Ball from a different perspective, painstakingly re-enacted amid the new scenes, with George played by a not-quite-in-focus stand-in.

It ends with previews of Part III, which looks as if it will be even more ridiculous. Looking forward to seeing that.

Back to the Future (1985)

Absolutely wonderful time-travel comedy starring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. He is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a DeLorean modified by his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). He then has two major problems to resolve. Not only does the car lack the plutonium it needs to get him “back to the future”, but also his presence in 1955 leads to wide-reaching ripples in the fabric of time itself. For example, instead of his mother (Lea Thompson) meeting his father (Crispin Glover), she falls for Marty instead. As events start heading towards an outcome in which the couple never date and marry, Marty and his siblings begin to fade from his family photograph. That’s silly and makes little sense (they would either have existed or not existed), but pretty much all of the clever plotting works perfectly if you accept a few basic leaps of faith.

The direction by Robert Zemeckis is lively and precise. Every detail matters and the dovetailing of events in 1955 and 1985 is ingenious indeed. The storytelling is so clear and uncluttered that a potentially complex and tangled narrative really works. It's both an exciting adventure and a warm-hearted love story. Plus, there are plenty of laughs.