A worthy climax to a fine trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2005)

While it doesn't have quite the same ingenuity and vitality that made the first two parts such great entertainment, the third and final part of the excellent Back to the Future trilogy still offers two hours of solid entertainment. The first part saw our heroes go back into the past slightly, and the second part saw us travel into the future; so to be different, this one finds us massively in the past, in the great Wild West. What follows is a mixture of various western tributes (some of which are blatantly obvious, others less so) combined with a fun, if slightly predictable, plot line. Marty McFly has had to travel back to 1885 in order to save Doc Brown, whom Marty has discovered will die on Monday if he doesn't do something about it. With the space time continuum in disarray, Marty must struggle to save Doc Brown from a notorious gunman known as MadDog (who looks suspiciously like Biff from the other two films) while also making sure that he doesn't change anything as it will have serious repercussions on his future. That's the future from 1985 onwards, not the 1895 one. I think.
For a trilogy of films predominantly aimed at children, this has one hell of a confusing plot. Luckily, however, through tight scripting and a nice plot pace; Robert Zemeckis tells his story well, and even if you're not sure of the plot line on the whole, it's always obvious what's immediately going on. The film features a number of nice set-pieces (much like the other two) and there honestly isn't a moment of down time in the entire film (or trilogy, for that matter). As you might expect, the best set-piece has saved until the end; and the train chase climax blends tension, suspense and humour to ensure that the film ends on a high. The characters are well done and entertaining throughout, and both the leads; Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were born to play the roles that they play in this film. Both have made other movies, but neither one has even come close to being as memorable as they are here; and that reinforces my point. On the whole, this is a worthy climax to a very fine trilogy and it should please everyone who sees it!