By Mario Canul
Time travel has been one of the most popular plot devices in science fiction. The idea that a character can travel to the distant future or the distant past and create a huge range of possibilities in terms of setting and plot. It is no surprise to anyone that this trope has made it into the big screen several times. One of the cult classics of such genre would be the Back to the Future trilogy. The one I will be reviewing is part two.
The set of characters is the same as the previous part of the movie. You have Marty McFly as the protagonist; the whole story revolves around his life changing through the alteration of the past and future. The name for the creator of the time machine is Doc Brown; he is good friends with Marty and it is actually because of him that the plot takes off. After the events of Back to the Future Part I, Doc Brown goes to the future to learn more about what happens to Marty as well as see how far science has gone. He learns that there is an issue with Marty’s kid where he makes a mistake and ends up in jail. Marty and Doc go to the future and alter it. However, Biff, the antagonist of the previous movie who is now an old man, sees them talk about a time machine. He follows them with an Almanac of all sports scores from 1950 to 2000. After following them, he notices the time machine is unsupervised, so he leaves with it back to 1955, where he gives the almanac to his younger self, telling him to use it to become rich, changing the plotline and creating a new 1985 that Marty comes back into and has his world flipped upside down, making it his mission to revert back to the old 1985 timeline by going back to 1955.
The actors in the movie worked overtime, as they played multiple roles. Not only did they play the characters from the present in 1985, but also the characters from the future and the past. I believe the actor that had the biggest and most positive effect on the movie was Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown. He played the character extremely well, his lines were always funny and memorable, with the right mix of comic relief and scientific jargon. Michael J. Fox playing as Marty McFly also kept the movie in a vibrant and amusing tone. Fox and Lloyd had perfect chemistry. I believe they single-handedly made the movie successful; the other actors did well, but nowhere near as well as these two. 
I didn’t really enjoy the scene where you see Biff’s empire in the altered future, the lighting was too dark, it just didn’t fit the goofy and laid back theme of the movie. Alas, it was necessary to show the other side of the story, namely the problem of the plot and why they should fix it to return to the previous timeline. I like how events that occur in part two are not directly linked together, but rather it is an entirely new plotline that only uses the same characters, the same settings and the use of the DeLorean time machine. It is interesting to note that the spatial setting is the same in all scenes—the only difference is the year and timeline. For example, at some point, a character will go from 1985 to 2015, and then back to 1985; however, the second time he goes to 1985, the setting will be completely different.
The moral of the story is that, assuming time works on the same principles as this movie, we should not try to mess with it, as complications would arise. Timelines would break, and from the previous movie, people would cease to exist. Other lesser obvious themes include that we should not be greedy as Biff was, as greed ultimately turns people evil.
This movie has a nice share of weird, funny, goofy and serious moments. There’s not a lot of violence, but it does touch on some pretty morbid topics. Overall, I would recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 13.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
