When it was released in 1985, Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future announced Family Ties‘ Michael J. Fox as a bonafide movie star and confirmed its director as someone who could deftly balance action and comedy. Zemeckis was coming off of Romancing the Stone, which showed his ability to tightrope walk between those categories, but it was Back to the Future which proved definitively that there was perhaps no one better in the business when it came to merging multiple genres and turning out a product that appealed to every ticket buying demographic on the planet. However, even though the director and the (vast majority of the) cast came back, the two sequels fell short.
That’s not to say Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III are unwatchable, or even especially poor, but they undoubtedly lack the spontaneous magic of the trailblazing original film. But just how far short do they fall? Let’s find out.
3) Back to the Future Part II
While its hilariously off prediction of life in 2015 has its charms, Back to the Future Part II is nonetheless the only installment of the trilogy that comes close to being a slog. However, it’s also something of an important film, as both it and its sequel were early examples of filming sequels back to back and, more specifically to Part II, returning villain Biff Tannen’s future version is a not so veiled copy of a businessman who would later become a public figure who managed to be despised by many and beloved by others.
On one hand, an issue with the two sequels is that they repeat many of the story beats of the original film. That does help them feel directly linked to the 1985 classic, but it also makes them feel woefully unoriginal. And, with Part II, it often feels as though it’s directly repeating those story beats without any added nuance outside of it taking place in the future. Did you enjoy Biff and his gang chasing Marty McFly in the ’80s? You’ll love an even goofier version of Biff and his gang chasing Marty McFly in the oh so distant future of 2015, but with Marty on a hoverboard this time.
2) Back to the Future Part III
Many of Back to the Future Part II‘s issues continue with Back to the Future Part III, but it gets away with them a little better. It also continued to show how much of an asset Thomas F. Wilson was to this franchise. And, as Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, he gives the trilogy its most intimidating villain and, thus, stakes that do a great job of mirroring the first film’s “Marty may never exist if this doesn’t go right” plotline.
But the real reason Part III beats Part II is Mary Steenburgen. She was the addition to the dynamic that Back to the Future needed. Her sweet, sheepish performance was right on the money and her character, Clara Clayton, was the perfect way to allow Emmett “Doc” Brown to grow as a character.
1) Back to the Future
One of the definitive ’80s movies, there’s precious little to write about Back to the Future that hasn’t been written before, including in this list. It’s one of those projects where every piece of the puzzle was included in the box and made for perfect complements to one another.
It’s a film with high stakes but a light tone and great chemistry between the leads without a screenplay that relied just on said leads. Like Gremlins and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future is something every human should watch when they’re young, yet retains the exact same level of appeal once that human grows older. It’s cinema magic.
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