Cliche

Rating: Null/10 (2 August 2003)

In the so-called "glory days" of the Old West, the 'good guys' wore white hats and the 'bad guys' proved their ultimate stupidity by wearing all black in the scorching heat. Back to the Future Part III is a return to those roots in a very un-original and un-exciting fashion. Robert Zemeckis' talent that was so boisterous in the first two movies has fallen into a layman's movie that anyone else could have made. Too bad it took Death Becomes Her to reboot his system as to where it belonged.
The story is the first problem, the plot is so ridiculously awful that it tarnishes the original beyond belief. Second, Christopher Lloyd is wasted for the first time in a fruitless position. In the original, he was the wacky inventor. In the second, he was the worrisome custodian of the space-time continuum. Here he is the melodramatic sap. Michael Fox isn't much better as he, once again, proves that he's only good for laughs.
While not as gizmo-happy as the second movie, the effects leave much to be desired. Even the period of 1885 is not represented well. It is all a bunch of gags and cliches that we have seen before many other times. I preferred the sci-fi parody of 2015 instead, but I'm not a Western aficionado.
The editing, yet again, is underdone and the script stumbles along in the middle third of the movie. The camerawork isn't as inventive, but Zemeckis never has been a big stickler about what he projects. Only in Forrest Gump has he been so concerned about that. Finally, Alan Silvestri's score is so inferior this time around. The previous films had a resonance similar to Predator, but The Abyss will remain my favorite compilation on his part. Unfortunately, none of that magic is here. If only it were, how beneficial it would have been...
Overall, the weakest link in the trilogy. Why is it these movies only get worse as time goes on? 2 out of 5 stars.