Many people's least favourite of the trilogy.

Rating: 2/10 (21 May 2004)

Part II takes the surface characteristics of the original but somehow forgets to transfer the original's essence. There is something perfect in the original that just feels forced in the second one. The second one also begins the characteristic of global-scale reproduction of sequences from the original. reproducing entire sequences from the original, set in different eras and reworked. This is done for comedic purposes. We're supposed to recognise the sequences and say "ha ha, that's right." It is most certainly done intentionally.
Like many sequals it tries to be bigger than the original and ends up being worse. A movie which tells us one brilliant small story vibrantly, so we never forget it, will usually be better than one which tries to tell us many large events and stories. It gives us more time jumping, which ends up making it uneven (which is why it stays in your mind less, I think). Its very episodic, with only the thread of getting the sports alamac off Biff and Marty and Doc to hold it together.
It involves larger-scale changes to the future: Biff's becoming rich means the entire world is thrown into disarray for a portion of the film, entire areas are slums, brothels and biker-gang hovels. This kind of superlative treatment of plot will only really work for kiddies, who'll find it too unpleasant anyway.
Plus, it also makes a whole lot less sense. Because it deals with so many time-jumps, there are so many more places to slip up and disregard the rules established within the world of the film for time travel: that interacting with anything in the past will change it, for instance.
What is clever about the second one, and was always the thing I liked most about it when I was a boy, was how Marty and Doc go back to when the first film was taking place, and we run into those events again, we see Marty, George and Lorraine doing their bits from the first movie. Its fairly obviously trying to get people to say "oh isn't that clever," but its still pretty fun all the same.