One of the stations did a BTTF marathon this past weekend and I was explaining to Mrs. Cups (who hasn’t seen any of the movies) why they’re good and why I like the second one the best (I think going back to the first movie is a fun twist).
She asked “Do most people like the second one better?” and my first instinct was to say yes, but then I thought that honestly most people probably like the first more. So I ask, which BTTF is your favorite? (I’m including three but, you know, no one really likes that one).
The original is my favorite. Part III is pretty good, too. Part II isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s the least enjoyable of the three, to me. (Also, it got the timing wrong for the Cubs winning the World Series, by one year. )
The producers have an explanation for that: Doc and Marty’s time traveling adventures caused disturbances in the space time continuum that led to the 1994 player’s strike. As a result, the outcomes of each World Series got pushed forward one year (due to there being no series in 1994).
I posted some (negative) comments on BTTF 2 in January and I’ll repeat them here.
The thing that struck me is that only Michael J. Fox and Thomas F. Wilson are given anything to do in the film. Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd’s performances consist of standing around delivering awkward chunks of exposition (“Hey, remember that time when Marty was a kid and someone called him chicken and then he got hit by a Rolls Royce and he broke his hand and he couldn’t be a rock star and his whole life went downhill from there?”) and unsubtle plugs for Back to the Future Part III .
The part in 2015 was basically pointless (aside from a few amusing jokes about life in the future) up until the point where Biff brings the almanac back to his younger self (and then returns the time machine to Doc and Marty for some reason?). The brief part in the evil 1985 was probably the most interesting section because of how crazy it is. I remember the trip back to 1955 being pretty cool as a kid, but it was only mildly entertaining the second time around. And then it ends on a dumb cliff-hanger.
Not to mention the weirdly smutty parts for what is essentially a trio of kids’ movies. (Did we really need two separate gags about breast implants?)
I do have to admit that I thought the “they go back to 1955?” section was way more of the movie than it actually was. Like you said, there are almost three full sequences that happen BEFORE that part happens that I just didn’t remember.
I was an outlier, and picked 3 as my favorite (note, I did not say best), and my order would be 3, 1, 2.
My thing is that I find McFly to be . . . boring? He’s a little punk (and has reasons, obviously there are serious anger control issues in the blood over generations, as well as his family circumstances prior to the reset) who is honestly a bit of a f-up. Doc Brown is a genius, willing and able to keep trying to be creative in the face of repeated failures (my wife is working on her PhD in Physics as an experimentalist, so she roots for him as well). So, movie one is fun, but too much McFly fixing his own self created problems. And while he theoretically grows a bit by the end, he ends up repeating the same pattern of being a screwup throughout 2 (and I think 2 is a hot mess, and Biff being cartoonishly evil while Marty’s mom gets to be cartoonishly slutty are just . . . jarring).
By three though, we see Doc Brown doing some growing up of his own, and McFly actually confronting his anger issues, as well as being willing to be responsible for himself without the MacGuffin of the time machine to try to ‘fix’ things.
That isn’t to say 3 is the best, like most people, I’d rate the quality as 1,3,2. It is still my favorite.
I like the first one the most but the sequels seem to be trying to hard to include little references and connections. And the whole “chicken” thing was stupid.
I always enjoyed the 2nd one the best when I was younger so I’m also surprised that so many people consider it the worst. The 3rd was always my least favorite because I don’t care about westerns. I’d rank them 2,1,3.
Part II is my favourite, because it’s by far the most creative and interesting.
It has the imaginative and fun 2015 setting, the two versions of Marty in 1955 with the events of the first movie happening in the background, and the screwed up alternative timeline in 1985. And all the running jokes.
The whole plot hangs together pretty well, better than most time travel stories. But it depends on having the first movie fresh in your mind. It’s not a stand-alone movie.
2, 1, 3 for me as well. The imagination and sheer craziness of 2 has always appealed to me, although I’ll grant that 1 is a tighter and more coherent film. 3 is okay, but the western setting doesn’t interest me, and too much of the plot is concerned with getting the DeLorean up to 88 mph.
I enjoy all three Back to the Future movies, but like the fast-moving II best. Watching bits of the first movie going on in the background of the second movie–delightful. (Maybe not original–Tom Stoppard did it earlier in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, after all–but plenty of fun anyway.)
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