Franchise Reviews - Back to the Future Part II

You'd think a story as tightly-written as Back to the Future wouldn't leave much space for a sequel, let alone two. But they still went for it.

Back to the Future Part II picks up immediately where the previous film left off. Marty is back in 1985, and his adventure in the past has had an effect on his family: His father's now a self-confident and successful science fiction author; his mother is physically active; even Biff is nicer, running his own auto detailing business.

As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc shows up and takes them both to the Hill Valley of 2015 to stop their future son from getting involved in a robbery with Biff's grandson Griff, setting off a chain of events which would bring down his entire family. The plan is successful, but Marty ends up buying an almanac of sports statistics with the intention of betting on the results in his own time. When Doc lectures him, Jennifer is mistaken for her 2015 self by the police and taken to her futuristic home. While Doc and Marty try and get her back, Biff borrows the DeLorean to give the almanac to his younger self in 1955.

When Marty and Doc return to 1985, they find that Hill Valley has become a lawless dystopia where Biff is a corrupt billionaire and married to Marty's mother. In order to restore the previous timeline, they go back to 1955 to recover the almanac. However, it's the same night that Marty went back to 1985, so they also have to take care not to interfere with those events and create a time paradox.

Once again, the film shows the tight writing of the previous one. Although I wish we had more of the stuff 2015 boasted in 2019, instead of the alternate 1985 which the film seemed to more accurately predict.

However, there is one glaring issue in this film; Marty doesn't like being called chicken, which results in him being goaded into fights or shady business deals. It's something which wasn't addressed in the previous film. In fact, it almost contrasts the Marty of the previous film. He'd been rejected at a school dance audition, and Jennifer was persuading him to send a tape to a record company. My best guess is that he's picked up more courage since his trip to the past, becoming more comfortable with his newly improved family. Nonetheless, it still detracts from what is otherwise a great film.

Also, that kid in the diner is Elijah Wood.