In 1955, after Marty successfully completes his mission; the hover Delorean gets struck by lightning causing the time circuits to over load, thus sending the Delorean and Doc into the year 1885. Marty then receives a letter from Doc stating that he's living happily in 1885, and leaves the time machine in a cave for Marty so he can travel back home. However, it turns out that Doc gets killed by gun slinger Mad Dog Tannen a few months in that time period and Marty goes back to save him. However, the Delorean gets damaged during his travel, and now Marty can't bring the Delorean up to 88 Miles per hour to send him "Back to the future". Doc and Marty must now figure out a way to get the Delorean to work. Meanwhile, Doc finds love; Mad Dog is getting ready to kill both Marty and the Doc; and Marty is now in deeper trouble to being name called. Again, well written and never ever runs out of plot. However, people seem to dismiss this film because of its setting in the wild west. Is it a sequel that will damage the whole trilogy? Before I get started, I will NOT be reviewing it in time periods since the majority of the film takes place in the west.
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are once again great at reprising their roles as Marty and Doc and to still have the same magic and comedic timing that they had in the previous films definitely shows how much they're willing to make a third film as good as 1 & 2. It also shows that no one and I mean no one can play these characters as well as Fox and Lloyd. On top of it, this is also the closet that Doc and Marty have ever gotten. They spend time figuring ways to get back to the future; they help each other in bad situations; they spend most of their screen time together; they give the same comedy we know and love between them; and they even switch places. In other words, Marty acts more like Doc, while Doc acts more like Marty. It's very fun and enjoyable to see them closer than they were ever before and it's one of the main aspects that make the movie good.
Aside from the relationship between Doc and Marty, there's another great relationship in the film and that's the love between Doc and Clara (Mary Steenburgen). Some people find Clara annoying and find the love story to be a plot device for filler, but to be honest I don't see any of that. Mary Steenburgen as Clara isn't just perfect for the part, but she makes the character very fun, lovable and interesting. The chemistry between her and Lloyd is so beautiful and heartwarming that you can feel the love between them as well as knowing that the two are made for each other. It's a beautiful subplot of the film and really gives Doc more personality as well as bringing us a fresh new character that's just as interesting as him.
The films main villain Mad Dog Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) is an awesome villain. He's mean, he's tough, he's always ready to kill you, and of course carry's the same idiotic personality that the different versions of Biff have. He's so mean that he kills Marshall Strictland in a deleted scene in front of Strictlands kid, man give this villain some freaking credit. Mad Dog is just as great as all the different variations of Biff and to see him as a western gunslinger makes him even more awesome.
While some people dismiss the film for its Western theme, my question is have you ever seen the film? Granted, maybe it's not as great the previous two because the film does suffer from a few problems. For example, while the film has some great jokes and pays great homage to western films, most of the jokes are mostly rehashed jokes from the first two films only portrayed in a different way. To me it just feels like the writers are running out of ideas and jokes, and I guess are making these jokes to just reference the previous films then trying to write new ones. There's also this song by ZZ Top (Who by the way make a cameo in this film) called "Double Back" and while being a good song, it's not as great or memorable as the songs by Huey Lewis. Anyway, those are my problems with the film. Now here are the things I do like about this film aside from main characters. Again, while rehashing most of the jokes from the previous films, the new jokes are really funny, my favorite being the "Wake Up Juice" that they use on Doc. The action is very promising and the whole climax really held me on the edge of my seat like the Clock Tower scene from the first film for example. The Western setting works really well here and really gives the film its western feel and look with its score, atmosphere, homages to the Western classic and seeing the characters living there. Even Pat Buttram plays one of the residents in the town, can't get any more Western than that. It's also nice and interesting to see the history of Hill Valley and learning about the character's ancestors. The character who I find very enjoyable and fun throughout the whole film is Doc because he spends most of the film inventing stuff and talking about science which is always fun to hear from him. The film also nicely ends the trilogy with its morals on the future (Especially with Marty's subplot on being called a name).
While kind of lacking the full enjoyment that the previous films had, it's a great cap to the trilogy and should get more appreciation for what it achieves. However, there are people who seem to either love or hate the third film, all I can say is, if you hate the third film then you must of not enjoyed the second film either.
RATING 3/5
OVERALL ON THE TRILOGY
This trilogy is one of the best trilogies ever made! The characters and performances are unforgettable; the jokes are great; the different time periods our heroes go to is creative; its methods of time travel are very realistic; and the stories are solid! In fact, these films have so much going for it that people can countlessly talk about not only the characters, scenes and jokes, but also the little details that are shown; the behind the scenes stuff; it's overwhelming impact on popular culture and more! It's a trilogy that gets better and better every time I see it and to me it's one of the best film trilogies of all time.
RATING FOR THE WHOLE TRILOGY 5/5
Well, I reviewed every movie and spin off of "Back To The Future", did I miss anything?
No comments:
Post a Comment