They didn't save the best trip for last

Rating: 7/10 (22 October 2002)

Back to the Future Part III is a difficult film for me to review. On the one hand, I am far from enamoured by it, but on the other it's the final act in the otherwise excellent time travel trilogy. First off, it must be stated that this entry is the weakest of the three. Many Future fans will disagree with me, citing Part II as the weak link. What they overlook is that Part II has no grand finale like Parts I and III and inevitably suffers because of it. Nothing is tied up, loose ends remain, questions go unanswered and confusion reigns  so it requires the last chapter to put the world of Marty McFly to rights. But Part II offers greater all-round entertainment, its darker tone offset by some exhilarating action and futuristic special effects.
Part III is, to all intents and purposes, a love story with a formulaic Western theme. It is more like the 1985 original in style, with much of the film taking place in one setting, with only two bouts of time travel, culminating in a rousing finale. Unlike Part I, however, this film is lacking the extra ingredient to push it out of the pretty good and into the great. Robert Zemeckis' direction focuses this film on Doc for the first time and perhaps it is this shift in emphasis that left me somewhat disappointed. Interesting though Doc is, and pleasing as it is to see another side of him as he falls in love with school ma'am Clara, our hero throughout the series has been Marty. We have rooted from him from the very beginning and Doc's romance does not hold quite the same appeal. Consequently, I am not a fan of the introduction of the Clara character. It's difficult to explain but I felt like Marty does in that she is forever getting in the way, a barrier to his and Doc's preparations to return home. She is not a dislikable character but in a way I ended up resenting the amount of influence she is has over Doc and hence the storyline. Not enough goes on in the middle of the film when, with no relatives' lives to put right, Marty is a spare part for too long.
The pace is deliberately slower than Part II  which was breathless throughout  but the film meanders, only getting out of second gear when the time travel sequences are involved. That's not to say it's without its merits. Doc and Marty's friendship is explored in greater depth and to good effect. Marty's refusal to rise to the bait of another nefarious Hill Valley Tannen, Buford Mad Dog' this time, shows a belated maturity  sticks and stones and all that. He later changes the course of his own destiny (the result of which was an unhappy and newly unemployed 47-year-old Marty in Part II), which demonstrated admirable character development. The denouement displays some of the inventiveness lacking throughout the rest of the movie as an exploding steam train propels the DeLorean towards 88mph. It's a gripping last half hour, the pace having been noticeably upped for the better as the time machine careers towards a ravine, with Doc choosing to save the meddlesome Clara over a return to the future with his mulletted protégé.
Upon returning to 1985, the DeLorean is destroyed by an oncoming freight locomotive, something which I was not altogether happy about. It was such a sad moment given that the time machine had been one of the central characters throughout the whole trilogy. Its destruction would be akin to that of the Millennium Falcon going down irreparably in Return of the Jedi  not at all a fitting end for a fine piece of kit. And the final act where a married Doc returns with pearls of wisdom, two sons and a time travelling, flying steam train is preposterous and wholly unnecessary. Sure, let us know what happens to him but one senses that by having the train take to the skies a la the DeLorean at the end of Part I, Zemeckis was attempting to add a symmetry to the trilogy that was not needed, or at least not in that manner. It was a silly ending and the whole "the future is unwritten" and "it's what ever you make of it" flies in the face of the first 40 minutes of Part II which was all about altering future history'. What exactly was the point of them doing something about Marty's kids when the future, according to Doc, remains a mystery?
Nevertheless, the trilogy had to be rounded off somehow and it wasn't the worst ending the filmmakers could have conceived. It does, however, leave a slightly bad taste in the mouth which is a great shame considering what, in the previous two films, had gone before. Back to the Future Part III as a stand alone film might well have cut the mustard. The love element and the old West feelgood factor might be enough to win over those after a pleasant afternoon's viewing. Throw in the spectacular ending and you've not got a bad film at all. But it suffers by comparison to the high standard of what has gone before, not least the exemplary Part I. Back to the Future is among the best films of all time so following it was never going to be easy. Part II was sufficiently bright, breezy and imaginative to keep fans of the first film happy, without ever hitting the heights of the original. Part III though has neither the happy-go-lucky charm of the first film nor the high-octane thrills and spills of its sequel. For fans of the trilogy, it is a solid enough way to wave goodbye to Doc and Marty. It has the in-jokes, the music and the blink-and-you'll-miss-them touches that let you know you're watching a Back to the Future film. But it's by far the worst of the bunch and that I'm afraid will be its damning legacy.