This is heavy.

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2016)

Time travel is a tricky subject in films. There's the old dilemma of all the paradoxes of timelines and butterfly effects and the awkward problem of trying to create conflict where the previous events have already established a status quo. Back to the Future neatly sidesteps this problem and presents an energetic mishmash of genres that became an instant hit and spawned an eager following. The script's building blocks pull together the plot intricately. Every little hint, every anecdote and appearance from the current timeline (Goldie Wilson's re-election van, the lighting struck clocktower) is re-enacted through the time machine back in 1955. You can only imagine the delight of audience at first seeing a young George McFly being subject to the same treatment, and recognising the fateful accident of the car hitting the young boy and gasp at how suddenly, the future is being morphed. And so we have a intriguing premise established so elegantly.
Even now the opening sequence is brilliant. We have this rather cryptic voice message from what seems like an eccentric madman scientist about the big experiment, the news report just as the camera reveals the case of stolen plutonium, and true to the key theme, an immense collection of clocks that tick so irregularly and mysteriously. Michael J Fox sees all this, doesn't make too much of it, and then we zoom out to the enormous amplifier that seems to be fit for only one thing in his mind: a guitar solo. He's a rockstar, and as he skateboards through the town to the very appropriate Power of Love, presents us with so many clues and landmarks that we will later look for in the same place, but decades earlier.
The opening sequence also does a lot of the lifting that creates the intrigue until we finally reveal Doc Brown and his crazy experiment. The iconic Delorean descending from the billowing smoke is epic, and so is the first attempt at hitting 88 miles an hour where the car flashes and disappears in a trail of fire. Zemeckis has become a household name for pioneering visual effects but it's the sort of low key work here that doesn't interfere with the excitement of the scientific breakthrough and lets our imaginations go wild (we see this again in the excellent world-building in the sequel). And in the ending, he hints just a little at the next adventure, and the sleek hover and fly off into the distance is short but sweet. There's also some inspired camera-work here and there. Cundey loves the dramatic crane up and reveals, and these work very effectively in the context of the narrative; the vast, undeveloped plains of Lyon Estate, and the triumphant sign of the fire trails after the lighting strike.
Michael J Fox as the lead character is just perfect. His height adds an extra dimension to the heroism; Biff towers over him and it becomes something other than a physical confrontation (it would have been easy to write in the son beating up the bully for his father). He oozes cool - there's the impromptu moment where he creates the first skateboard and weaves in and out before dispatching the car of bullies, and a moment of pure cheesiness and romance which he turns into a rock and roll romp - but of course they haven't got to that musical period yet. And he's also capable of being less than all style - see the hilarious way in which he stumbles out of the Delorean and is mistaken for an alien and his ufo. Thompson's young Lorraine is also excellent; each lovestruck sigh and desiring murmur of the dreamboat Calvin Klein is adorable and reminds us that this is exactly how it happened, only with a different boy. The Oedipus angle of it all is handled well, and with humour (My name is Darth Vader) - it could have been creepy or uncomfortable, but Lorraine is sweet and the resolution is satisfying. There are little kinks here and there, and the Libyan terrorist shoot-out perhaps a little too goofy, but Back to the Future is a delight.