Back to Back to the Future

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2016)

Since Part II and Part III of this franchise were shot together does that mean we can refer to it as Back to Back Back to Back to the Future?
The paradoxes don't end there. They've not even begun yet. The fact that Part II contradicts the laws of 4-dimensional physics laid down in the first movie is not a problem unless you want it to be. There are a lot of wannabe smart-asses out there who think they are overnight geniuses for picking plot holes in Part II. Robert Zemeckis has said that it is the most complex film he has ever made. I think that the complicated nature of the story, the dark middle act, and abrupt cliffhanger perhaps alienate some of the more simple viewers and that has led to Part II being the most underrated and misunderstood of the series.
It's also my favorite for those exact reasons, and more.
Like the first movie Part II is an icon of a now past future. It may have got some predictions laughably incorrect but it did get many frighteningly accurate. Video phones came true, hover- boards entered pop culture, and a madman with bad hair became the most powerful man in the world. But since this all exists in a timeline manipulated by Marty and Doc it is all in its own universe and therefor plausible. Who's to say that it wasn't Doc Brown himself who invented the technology of flying cars.
With the distractions of visual effects, action scenes, and complex stories it is easy for one to forget that the Back to the Future movies are comedies. It is my personal opinion that Christopher Lloyd and Crispin Glover were robbed of Academy Awards in 1986 (does anyone give a crap about William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman or Don Ameche in Cocoon?). They were not even nominated. Doc Brown and George McFly are characters that stay with you. However, Part II is Thomas F. Wilson's time to shine and he absolutely dominates this movie. Biff Tannen is my favorite character of the series - a lunkhead bully, cruel just for the sake of being cruel, who is so dumb that even his older self is bemused by his stupidity. While Marty and Doc are the leads it is Biff who is the comedic heart of the series.
There are weakness though. Silvestri's score for this entry is the worst of the series - full of underscoring and tension with very little in the way of excitement outside of the opening and closing credits. I'm not entirely satisfied with Doc's silly "it's just a big coincidence" explanation for old Biff going back to November 5th 1955 either. I know it' supposed to be a joke but I think a smarter reason would be that the date would have been stored in the time circuits and Biff simply selected it because it seemed appropriate. But I'm being far too pedantic.
The best scene in all of the Back to the Future movies is without a doubt the lightning striking the clock tower while Marty and Doc struggle to send the 1.21 gigawatts into the flux capacitor. The editing and timing of this is absolutely perfect down to the last frame. Not only do we get to experience it again in Part II but it even continues with the other Marty interrupting Doc's celebration. I first saw this movie in Summer 1990 while on a long plane journey so the trailer for Part III at the end wasn't so much a tease for me. I only had to wait about a week before I was sitting in the cinema watching it.
Fun times. If only I could go back and relive it again...