The Land Before Time

Following the release of An American Tail in 1986, Don Bluth’s follow-up feature film would be The Land Before Time in 1988 in a continued partnership with Stephen Spielberg. This time, however, the film was further co-produced by George Lucas, in notably his only collaboration with Spielberg outside of the Indiana Jones series. The Land Before Time has since notoriously spawned a long-running franchise of direct-to-video sequels (13 as of this writing) and a short-lived TV series, all of which are inexplicably musicals in stark contrast to the original film. While I was aware of this franchise as a kid, the only one I wanted to see above all the others was the original The Land Before Time, which I finally got the chance to see for myself after receiving a Blu-ray copy as a Christmas gift. While the film is really good on its own merits, I found it to be an improvement over An American Tail in many areas.

An American Tail

Although Don Bluth’s directorial debut, The Secret of NIMH, didn’t do well financially, with a box office of $14.7 million against a budget of $7 million, it attracted the attention of Stephen Spielberg, who collaborated with Don Bluth and Universal to produce An American Tail. Despite production troubles, which included creative differences and Spielberg learning just how complicated animation actually is, the film, notably co-produced in Ireland, released in late 1986 and made $104.5 million on a budget of about $9 million, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated film at the time. Critics were mixed on the film at the time, but its popularity would increase over the years, namely from those who watched it as children and retained fond memories of it. We never watched it ourselves until over thirty years later, which gave us more a fresh perspective and the opinion that while the traditional animation is still impressive to this day, the story is a bit choppy.

Monster House

In 2004, Robert Zemeckis’ ImageWorks began experimenting in motion capture animation with The Polar Express, which, despite uncanny valley criticisms, managed to do well enough for another film, Monster House, to be animated with the same technology in 2006. Though I had seen Monster House as a kid when it came out and liked it, I hadn’t really seen it since then, deciding to revisit it again nearly two decades later to see how well it holds up. Though the visuals are a little dated, it manages to hold up surprisingly well as a decent, timeless horror film.

Ready Player One

When Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg, was first announced, I didn’t know what to expect. When excerpts from the New York Times bestselling book floated around, I got the impression that it was basically wall-to-wall 80s pop culture references connected by a mediocre plot. This was one reason I didn’t see the movie when it came out initially, but after months of social pressure I finally caved in and actually watched it. To my surprise, it was better than I had expected, though still not that great of a movie.

In the year 2045, people escape to a VR universe known as OASIS, created by James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg) of Gregarious Games. After Halliday’s death, a pre-recorded message is sent out to world, revealing that whoever can find three hidden keys can unlock a hidden gate, behind which is an Easter Egg that will grant them complete ownership of OASIS, along with $500 Billion. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), an orphan living in the “stacks” in Columbus Ohio, seeks the Egg so he can have a better life, along with his online friends Aech (Lena Waithe), Daito (Win Morisaki) and Sho (Philip Zhao). His biggest hurdle, however, is Nolan Sorento (Ben Mendelsohn), owner of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), who seeks to control OASIS for himself by using countless employees and indentured servants, called “Sixers”, to find and complete the challenges.

The story is not that hard to follow, a plus considering the setting, but the individual plot points can be pretty hit and miss, oftentimes relying on certain coincidences/contrivances to help advance the story. For example, without spoiling anything, it apparently took thousands of players four years to even consider looking for an invisible wall during one of the challenges to obtain a key. Another challenge requires taking creative liberties with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) to “actionize” it, with one character saved from death, aka “Zeroing Out”, entirely because the plot needed him to stay alive. On perhaps a lesser note, it’s noticeable that the police don’t get involved at any point in the story until the very end.

That isn’t to say that Ready Player One doesn’t have interesting ideas, like the setting and the technology, just that the execution is unrefined.

One of the more obvious references; Wade Watts as Parzival (Tye Sheridan)
about to race with a replica of the DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Ready Player One, and presumably the reason a number of people saw this movie is the first place, is the numerous pop culture references. In-story, characters practically worship 1980s pop culture, as they believe that this period of time, which Halliday grew up with, could contain the necessary clues to finding the three hidden keys. From what little I saw in the novel, the references made as a result could result in unwieldy descriptions literally lasting at least a whole page.

In the movie, these references are comparatively far subtler, like a modern “Where’s Waldo?” where eagle-eyed viewers may spot some visual reference to their favorite icons if it’s not already pointed out. Some of these references, just from memory, include Minecraft, Overwatch, The Iron Giant, Gundam, Akira, Street Fighter, Back to the Future, Superman, The Atari 2600 (both the console and games), The Shining, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Battletoads, Looney Tunes, Sanrio properties, King Kong and Batman (1966). And that’s just merely scratching the surface. I personally liked this execution of the references, since the game VRChat allows a system where player avatars can resemble copyrighted characters, though it’s rather noticeable that all the characters that Warner Bros. didn’t need to license are all characters owned by them in some form. As a result, the usage of the Giant from The Iron Giant, while somewhat justified in-universe and from a production standpoint as a replacement for Ultraman, feels wrong considering the message of the movie it’s from. I’ll also mention here that not even the music is safe from references, since aside from the licensed music, the score itself references composer Alan Silvestri’s work on Back to the Future and music from The Shining.

There’s not much I can really say about the acting, as the actors can’t do much about the general lack of depth in the characters, but T.J. Miller, surprisingly enough, stood out in his role as i-R0k. i-R0k doesn’t really do very much, but he manages to be a good source of levity due to his casual nature despite also taking his job as an antagonist seriously.

Ready Player One is very much a Spielberg film, but ultimately one that’s just okay. It’s not a bad movie, since the story does have some interesting ideas and a better execution of pop culture references than the novel, but the general lack of depth and a host of small issues ultimately hold it back from being great. Give it a try if you’re a Spielberg fan or someone who just wants a chance to see a lot of their favorite things onscreen, but this is otherwise a game you don’t need to play.

Back to the Future Part III

In honor of Trophy Unlocked’s fifth anniversary, we have decided to finish off the trilogy of re-reviews of the Back to the Future film series with a look at Part III. This movie was originally released in 1990, just one year after its more iconic predecessor, but filmed at the same time as Part II; both movies were then edited and released separately. Previously I had stated that Part II wasn’t as good as Part I, but still somewhat enjoyable. However, I couldn’t find myself feeling the same way with Part III.

Back to the Future Part III begins exactly where Part II left off: 1955 Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) had just sent Marty McFly from Part I (Michael J. Fox) back to 1985, but Marty shows up again almost immediately and tells Doc that he’s back from the future. The shock of this moment causes Doc Brown to faint. Doc Brown later wakes up in his house and Marty shows him the letter he had received from 1885 Doc Brown to prove that the events of Part II occurred. By following the instructions in the letter, Doc and Marty recover the DeLorean damaged during Part II in an abandoned mine so they can repair it and send Marty back to 1985, where the time machine is to be destroyed. However, Marty discovers a nearby tombstone that shows Doc Brown as having died within a week after the letter from 1885 was originally sent and 1955 Doc Brown helps to send Marty back to 1885 to prevent his temporal counterpart from receiving a fatal gunshot.

The tombstone which kicks off the plot.

While the story of Part II ended up being sillier than Part I, it seems that Part III manages to come up short even compared to the previous installment. For the most part, it seems to be going through the motions, resulting in an overall weaker story through even more repetition which, in some ways, mirrors the first movie. To wit: Marty goes back in time to prevent Doc Brown’s death and wakes up in a McFly residence after going unconscious somehow; Marty runs into a Tannen who later gets covered in manure; Doc and Marty come up with a plan to send Marty back to the future despite not having a proper fuel source and it pays off at the last possible millisecond. There are other little things as well, like constantly looking at a photograph to determine success with altering the timeline or Marty donning a fake name to blend in with the past and not screw up his ancestry, as well as the movie ending with the exact same shot from Part I, but with a train instead.

There are some elements which keep the movie from feeling completely like a carbon copy of the first installment, but they do little to alleviate how underwhelming it is. The most notable would be the introduction of Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), who serves as a love interest for Doc Brown and was the one who originally erected the tombstone discovered by Marty in 1955. While not a bad addition to the cast, she sadly doesn’t have much characterization apart from supposedly being a schoolteacher and sharing a love of Jules Verne with Doc Brown.

Of course, there are some questions that bugged me a little as I was watching the movie regarding certain bits of time travel logic. “Thinking fourth dimensionally” has been shown to be important to using the DeLorean, but as far as I know, this is the first time Doc ever mentioned it. If it really was that important, why wasn’t it mentioned to Marty in the previous movies? I guess it was at least a little more straightforward than Part II in any case. As for the “time train” at the end of the movie, why did Doc Brown make it in the first place if he was so hung up on time travel being far too dangerous after what happened with the DeLorean? Also, how was he even able to make it in the first place when he said that suitable replacement parts wouldn’t be available until 1947, 62 years after 1885? Was there a second DeLorean floating around when Marty showed up that Doc cannibalized and the movie couldn’t be bothered to tell us about? Outside of the time travel, why did Doc and Marty actually test out pulling the DeLorean with horses when they easily dismissed other means of acceleration later? It seems they just wanted that shot to be in the film somehow and just went for it.

How is Doc Brown able to do this in the old west?

It is interesting that they attempted to integrate the Western genre, more specifically the Spaghetti Western, into Back to the Future, complete with all of the trappings. Unfortunately, that only makes the execution more lackluster, as it feels rather silly to watch, especially when there’s a performance by ZZ Top in the movie where they play an original song. At the same time, the movie seems to have the problem of trying to be a prequel to every joke in Part I, including, but not limited to, Tannens being bad with colloquialisms, the origin of Principal Strickland’s heavy discipline and, naturally, the manure scene. This only bogs down the plot further, as these jokes start to feel a little old.

On the topic of the comedic aspect, I still thought Part III was funny, but not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as Parts I and II. Repetitions aside, the character interactions are still enjoyable and there are a couple funny science jokes here and there. Unfortunately, the franchise also veered a little more into the lowbrow humor this time around by having Marty’s great-grandfather, a baby in 1885, urinate on him. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but the scene could easily have been done without that joke. The same could be said for when Marty dodges a stagecoach and accidentally steps in a pile of horse manure while still wearing his Nikes. Again, the scene could still have occurred without resorting to the cheap laugh.

With all of that said, the movie is still well-acted for the most part. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd still have amazing onscreen chemistry as Marty McFly and Doc Brown respectively, which serves as a primary motivator to keep watching. Christopher Lloyd gets credit especially for being able to convincingly portray different versions of Doc Brown with different memories and worldviews. Michael J. Fox also gets the opportunity to finish off Marty’s character development from the previous movie and show the lesson that you shouldn’t let others get under your skin, as forced at it may have been into the story. Thomas F. Wilson is also good at being able to perform yet another Tannen, but with a more murderous personality.

Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J. Fox (right) are the best part of the movie.

Then there’s Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton and Elisabeth Shue returning as Jennifer Parker. Steenburgen shows some clear talent and she does have a good amount of screen time to show it off, but Clara unfortunately suffers from a lack of solid characterization. Elisabeth Shue has almost the opposite problem, with almost no time until the last 15 minutes or so to show off her acting skills and the movie being obviously unsure of what to do with Jennifer in the end.

I also found the special effects to be quite good. The DeLorean’s time travel effects are still great to look at, as are Doc’s Rube Goldberg machines. However, there are times where the green screen effects are a little obvious. Perhaps this is because of how far we’ve come with special effects these days, but this also results in the “time train” coming toward the screen at the last moment of the movie look far less convincing than the flying DeLorean at the end of Part I.

Before I conclude, I would like to mention some interesting trivia about Part III. One of the most notable incidents occurred behind the scenes. While filming the scene where Buford Tannen tries to hang Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox was nearly hanged for real, as his hands had slipped from under the noose while trying film shots where the actor’s face is visible. At first the crew thought it was good acting, but when it was noticed that he had passed out, he was taken down from the noose and resuscitated.

On a minor, but interesting, note, Ronald Reagan nearly played a minor role in Part III as mayor of 1885 Hill Valley. A former actor, he had actually been a fan of the films, enough to quote the original movie in one of his speeches. Robert Zemeckis thought it would be funny to have him in the movie and contacted Lew Wesserman, Reagan’s former agent, to contact him about the part. Though Reagan had actually considered the offer, he ultimately turned it down.

Then there are the connections between the movie and Clint Eastwood, apart from Marty assuming his name in 1885. The location where Part III was shot was actually the same one used to film Pale Rider (1985), starring Clint Eastwood (humorously enough, Back to the Future Part I outperformed Pale Rider at the box office). During the latter half of the movie, Marty is also seen wearing an outfit similar to what Clint Eastwood had been wearing in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The scene where Marty is shot by Buford Tannen is also ripped from A Fistful of Dollars, where it is discovered that he had been protected by a cast iron plate on his chest. Observant viewers will notice that this was foreshadowed as early as Back to the Future Part II, where the aforementioned scene from A Fistful of Dollars, although different, is being viewed by 1985-A Biff Tannen.

The scene from A Fistful of Dollars as seen in Back to the Future Part II.

Overall, Back to the Future Part III is the weakest entry in the trilogy. The story is nearly a carbon copy of the original, the characters are a little underwhelming apart from Doc and Marty and the humor isn’t up to par with previous entries. Plus, the Western elements don’t seem to gel quite well with the rest of the film. This is alleviated somewhat by decent special effects, but that doesn’t completely save it, as even then errors can be spotted more easily by modern audiences. Its only purpose for existing is to round out the (largely unnecessary) trilogy created through the success of the original. It may be enjoyable by hardcore Back to the Future fans, but those seeking a good Sci-fi comedy or Spaghetti Western may find it underwhelming. Personally, I’d just stick with the original.

Back to the Future Part II

To continue our series of re-reviews of the Back to the Future trilogy, we’re going to cover Back to the Future Part II, released by Universal Studios in 1989. However, the timing of this review is also to commemorate a milestone, for if the posting has been timed right, it will be the exact date and time that Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrive in the future (or at least the future depicted in the movie): Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 4:29 PM. This exact date and time will only occur once, so what better way to celebrate it than by posting thoughts on the movie itself?

Back to the Future Part II begins exactly where Part I left off, where Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is arriving at 1985 in the DeLorean to take Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Jennifer Parker (Elisabeth Shue) “back to the future” to prevent their future children from doing something disastrous. When they arrive in 2015, Jennifer is knocked out and Doc Brown gives Marty clothing to help him blend in, as well as specific instructions on what to do at Café ‘80s to prevent his (Marty’s) son from getting into trouble. Though the plan works, they later find out that an elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) has stolen the DeLorean and used it to create a dystopian version of 1985, aka 1985-A, where his younger self is a multi-billionaire. Marty and Doc Brown must now figure out what exactly happened to cause this and use that knowledge to fix the timeline.

Behold, the proper day on the time machine.

Compared with the first movie, I felt that Part II was a bit sillier. While the movie has become more iconic over time for its unique vision of 2015, more on that later, it relies a little more on the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief than before. For instance, how is it that Marty wouldn’t have been able to hear or notice the DeLorean being stolen by an older Biff Tannen? How is it that in the return trip to 1955, no one notices the various things that Marty does even when logically he would be heard, such as the case of communicating with Doc Brown via walkie-talkie while in the back of 1955 Biff’s car? The plot in general also requires Doc and Marty to be very inattentive with the Delorean, as they so easily leave the door open, creating an opening for 2015 Biff to steal it in the first place. Because of the number of these moments that can pull someone out of the film, it’s pretty obvious at times that there wasn’t meant to be a sequel and the only way to cover it up is to go through several time hops. For that, I’d conclude that Part II just simply isn’t written as well as Part I, which had a much tighter and better thought-out script.

While this movie may not be as well-written, that doesn’t stop it from being funny, albeit not quite as laugh-out-loud funny. The jokes still aim for smart humor that doesn’t stoop to appealing to the lowest common denominator, save for maybe the repeat of the famous manure scene. Character interaction is still a great source of humor, especially when it’s between Doc and Marty or between the 2015 and 1955 Biff Tannens. As with Part I, the science jokes are pulled off well and the minimal swearing that exists is done in a humorous fashion.

I also wish to point out that the movie seems to like hitting a lot of the same notes from the original. These include Marty regaining consciousness in a McFly residence and being confused about his temporal location, a Biff Tannen being covered in manure, Mr. Sandman playing when visiting 1955 and Marty being chased by Biff and coming out on top. For that last one, I could see the repetition of the hoverboard chase being justified as both versions are in different time periods and feature Marty against different technology. Whether these repetitions in general are good or bad is up to you.

With that said, I have to commend the special effects during the revisit to 1955. The scenes that were reshot are generally pretty convincing replications and it was very interesting how they were able to incorporate multiple copies of Doc and Marty into the appropriate scenes. Though it’s not perfect, it does at least help to sell the idea that the Doc and Marty of Part II were running around during Part I as well. As for the effects in general, the time travel is still good to look at and the variations in the sets for Hill Valley are rather impressive. The effects are also good enough to sell the 2015 technology as plausible, so it’s no wonder an audience watching it at the time would’ve wanted their own hoverboard or self-lacing shoes (or “power laces” as Marty calls them).

I should talk about the movie’s time travel logic, which is still fairly consistent from Part I. However, it seems to work a little differently despite this. Doc Brown mentions that 1955 seems to be a very crucial point in history, as 2015 Biff’s tampering skewed the timeline to create an alternate 1985, dubbed 1985-A. The idea, then, is that by going back and stopping 1955 Biff from maintaining control over a future copy of Grays Sports Almanac, the timeline created by the events of Part I will be restored. In some ways it feels like it shouldn’t work that way, but you have to be able to gloss over any inconsistencies for the sake of the plot, tying back into how this installment further stretches willing suspension of disbelief.

Despite what I have said already about the quality of the writing, the movie is still well-acted. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd still have a great onscreen chemistry that sells the friendship between Marty McFly and Doc Brown. If nothing else, you’d want to watch Part II just to see them act. However, I find it a little odd that Marty was suddenly given a trait where he doesn’t like people calling him a coward. It does help to reinforce the message that you shouldn’t let your emotions get the better of you, and Fox incorporated it into the character in a believable way, but it still felt a little out-of-character in comparison to the first movie.

Michael J. Fox (left) and Christopher Lloyd's (right)
interactions are the best part of the movie.

Newcomer Elisabeth Shue also proved herself in the role of Jennifer Parker, playing her with more of an onscreen presence than Claudia Wells. In this way, she seems to be better suited as Jennifer, but it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t really get to do much of anything in the movie to show off her skill. It’s fairly obvious that the writers didn’t know what to do with Jennifer as a result. Thomas F. Wilson had his own challenge as well, having to play multiple versions of the same one-dimensional jerk, Biff Tannen. Though Tannen is still a pretty flat character, Wilson manages to succeed in at least making each version of the character feel a little different, such as having 2015 Biff be noticeably smarter than his younger 1955 self. The other returning actors play their roles in reshot scenes very well and sell the revisit fairly convincingly.

Elisabeth Shue (right) replaces Claudia Wells (left) in the role of Jennifer Parker.

Before I conclude, I would like to take this space to talk about the movie’s vision of 2015, more specifically the way 2015 has turned out in real life versus what’s depicted in the movie, at least at the time of this posting. For the sake of brevity, I won’t mention everything that was depicted, as there’s too much background detail to get into, but I will focus on a select number of items.

For non-technology matters, we first have the idea behind Café ‘80s. We don’t have such a location today for ‘80s nostalgia, but we do have a Café ‘50s, which covers nostalgia for the 1950s. While Café ‘80s in the movie can be seen as a cover for a lack of inventing 2015 culture, it does serve a purpose in suggesting that people would be very nostalgic for the ‘80s by this time. People in fact are, although interestingly some ‘90s nostalgia has been slowly creeping in.

In the background of 2015 Hill Valley, one can see a poster that says “Surf Vietnam.” In real life, it is not as unlikely for people to take a vacation in Vietnam; the inclusion of this in the movie was probably a joke relating to the fact that when it came out, 1989, we had just gotten out of Vietnam. On a different note, the fashion sense displayed in 2015 Hill Valley isn’t exactly the same as it is in real life. Some things are still around, like acid-washed jeans, but the film could not have predicted the various “hipster” trends that have cropped up and we certainly don’t wear hats like the one Marty Jr. wears. Part of the fashion sense in 2015 Hill Valley also included self-adjusting jackets, which we don’t have, and self-tying sneakers with power laces. While Nike did end up making shoes that look like those in the movie, they were a limited run that was auctioned off and they certainly didn’t have power laces.

One thing that certainly didn’t match up is the rate of inflation. Marty is depicted as purchasing a Pepsi Perfect drink at Café ‘80s for $50. While Pepsi has released a limited run of Pepsi Perfect for $20.15 (essentially regular Pepsi but in the Café ‘80s packaging), regular soft drinks can still be bought at a price of ~$1-2. One other particularly notable thing displayed in the movie is the Cubs supposedly winning the 2015 World Series in baseball. While the 2015 World Series has yet to occur at the time of this posting, the Cubs are participating in the 2015 National League Championship and are also the favorite to win the World Series, though they won’t be able to face Miami.

On the subject of technology, there are a number of things I can quickly get out of the way. While hydrators for fast meal prep are used in Marty’s future household, we do not yet have the technology in real life, though scientists have been working on 3D-printed food; Pizza Hut is still around. Cars in real life 2015 still run on fossil fuels and we have yet to create the Mr. Fusion technology; although Mr. Fusions do exist in real life, they are merely prop replicas. 3D movies are rather popular at the moment, being prominently advertised and integrated into newer television models. In that vein, widescreen TVs are pretty much standard and we do have the ability to watch multiple channels at once, but only through channel mixes where you can only hear one source at a time. We also do not have Jaws 19 in the theaters, but we do at least have an official faux trailer.

"The shark still looks fake."

Fax machines, though still used, have been all but phased out at this point, with texting and email taking its place. Landlines are still heavily used, but videophones haven’t really caught on, unless you count video chat through smart devices or other internet services such as Skype. Food kiosks like the ones shown in Café ‘80s are becoming more of a reality, with McDonald’s testing them in the US after finding success in the UK. Lastly, although we are capable of playing video games without a controller with such devices as Sony’s EyeToy and Microsoft’s Kinect, they haven’t really caught on as much as the companies had hoped and controller/mouse and keyboard use is still very predominant. And while we don’t have Doc Brown’s rear-view glasses, we do have Google Glass as well as the Oculus Rift and other such devices.

With those out of the way, I can mention the two biggest technologies shown in the movie, those being flying cars and hoverboards. Flying cars have been around for a while as a concept but at this point there are no consumer models. I found out there is a company called Terrafugia that is working on making one as the wave of the future, but they have yet to create something ready for purchase. I’m also aware of the idea of flying ambulances, but as far as I’m aware they’re also not ready for widespread use. As for hoverboards, which was introduced as a concept in this movie, models are being developed, but are still very much in the prototype stage. Lexus released a video about a fully functional super-conductor model they have created, but it only works within a specially designed skatepark that has magnetic rails built underneath. As such, it may be quite a long time before the public can get their hands on one. Until then, there are replicas of the Mattel hoverboard from the movie, but it could set you back a small fortune.

Back to the Future Part II, while iconic and somewhat enjoyable, isn’t quite as good as Part I. The characters may be well-acted, but the story has a looser plotline and requires more willing suspension of disbelief than before to work out. Often, it is very obvious that Part II wasn’t intended to exist. If you’re watching this unnecessary sequel for pure entertainment and can overlook the logical errors and inconsistencies, you’ll likely enjoy it. For others, the logical flaws could be enough to break the immersion, which is something that a good movie shouldn’t do. It’s fun to see the futuristic vision of 2015 from the perspective of 1989, but you’re otherwise better off sticking to the original film. Of course, the ending of Part II also contains a teaser reel for Part III, so if you watch it, you’re pretty much committed to finishing the trilogy anyway.

Back to the Future

As we continue forward through the years, there will always be new movies to entertain and appeal to a wide variety of interests, some more niche than others. Similarly, as Trophy Unlocked continues operations, we will strive to review whatever movie catches our eye and inspires us to not only view it, but write out our feelings about it. We’ve been doing our best to accomplish this goal for three years now, but back when it was solely updated by me, I had been pretty enthusiastic about the idea of reviewing. I still am and I love to write down how I feel about a given movie, game or comic, but the very early days of this blog are what I would consider my worst, since I had almost no idea of what I was doing and my writing style hadn’t begun to take shape just yet. That was how my second review became devoted to not just one, but three films all at once; you may know this as the Back to the Future trilogy. Looking back at how I went about it, I’m not entirely satisfied with my treatment of the franchise. My writing seems more amateurish compared to what it is now and I was, somewhat obviously, a much more hardcore reader of TV Tropes (side note: I still read TV Tropes, but I’ve saved my extensive reading periods moreso for after I’ve already seen/played/read something), which may have had a large influence on that earlier style. Now that my reviewing abilities have improved drastically, I’ve decided that for Trophy Unlocked’s third anniversary, I’m going to go back to the original Back to the Future movie and give it a more proper treatment. If you’re still on board, then let’s turn on the flux capacitor and set the time circuits for the year 1985, back when it was okay to like Robert Zemeckis.

Behind them, all hope Zemeckis had of remaking Yellow Submarine.

The year is 1985. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) lives with his family in Hill Valley, California. His family isn’t particularly ambitious, as his father, George McFly (Crispin Glover), works under an old bully named Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson); his mother, Lorraine Baines-McFly (Lea Thompson), is overweight and has a problem with drinking and smoking; and his siblings, Dave (Marc McClure) and Linda McFly (Wendie Jo Sperber), are on the lower end of the totem pole. The only thing Marty has to look forward to is his date with Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells), but unfortunately his plans are in jeopardy after Biff has nearly totaled George’s car and tries to get out of paying for the damages (in fact adding damage to his suit to George’s potential bill). As his life is falling apart around him, Marty delivers on a request made to him by Dr. Emmet “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to meet him at the Twin Pines mall at a particular time. There, Doc Brown shows Marty a time machine he created out of a DeLorean and has him help document its first test run; with his dog Einstein buckled into the front seat, Doc Brown’s experiment is a success. Things quickly turn sour, however, when Doc Brown reveals to Marty that the flux capacitor, which makes time travel possible, runs on plutonium, as well as how he obtained it by essentially stealing it from Libyan terrorists. Right on cue, after plutonium is placed into the DeLorean, the terrorists show up and gun down Doc Brown as an act of revenge. In a last ditch effort to save him, Marty manages to escape into the time machine, where he travels back into the year 1955, completely unaware as to what is about to happen to him over the course of a single week in the past.

Above: Where Marty ends up.
Below: Where Marty starts out.

This premise is actually pretty unique, at least for when the movie came out in 1985, and the execution turns out to be pretty well done. This film is first and foremost a comedy, but there’s a good amount of suspense to keep the viewer interested as Marty races to not only get back to 1985, but also undo everything he’s done wrong to alter the timeline from its original state (more on that later). The more serious moments play out in a surprisingly realistic way, helped by exposition brief enough to not only fill us in on how certain characters behave, but also not interrupt the natural flow of the story.

Back to the Future’s sense of humor is also of the variety that I prefer, which is to say that it is smart and doesn’t go for the cheap laugh. Much of this comes from how the characters interact with each other, coupled with perfectly timed responses, casual but somewhat restrained swearing and some science-related jokes which are accessible to a wider audience yet don’t make the speaker the butt of the joke. One particular gag may not seem to fit in with the smart humor, that being the famous manure scene, but its execution and the fact that it is merely one joke of many helps to really sell it and make it a classic moment.

While we’re still on the subject of the story, I’d like to add that though the movie is well done, I am aware of certain inconsistencies, plot holes and possibly questionable morals. However, I’m not going to really touch upon those because there are already like a million Cracked.com articles which cover these subjects extensively and I don’t want to come off as parroting their informally informative findings. Therefore, I suggest that you look to them for such info after reading the rest of this review.

For instance, a California license plate can't have eight characters.

To get back to the subject of the movie’s time travel logic, I found it to be very consistent with itself. Back to the Future’s logic works as such: As soon as you make any major change to the timeline, such as running into your own mother in the past and causing her to inadvertently become enamored with you, you’ve created a completely separate timeline. In other words, Marty started off in the unaltered Timeline A, but through all of his changes he has created the new Timeline B, which is what he experiences through the rest of the movie (and he can never go back to Timeline A even if he wanted to). To that end, they did a good job keeping true to this and showing how it all worked out in the end. This is helped by the many well-framed shots which display fully how different 1985 and 1955 are from each other in ways that seem like they’d fit with each time period; clearly the filmmakers really did their research. In fact, it becomes a sort of fun game to try and find all of the subtle changes made as a result of Marty’s adventures through the time stream once he inevitably gets back home.

One thing which must also be praised is the acting in Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox does a very good job as Marty McFly. His expressions and body language are enough to sell a teenager living in 1985 with a family as socially low-ranking as his. As a result, all of his actions and reactions come off more realistically and help him feel pretty relatable as well. Fox’s ability as an actor may waver between roles, but he plays the part so naturally that I can’t imagine any other actor playing Marty McFly on the silver screen. In a similar vein, Christopher Lloyd positively nails his role as Doc Brown. Lloyd brings a certain amount of energy to the part that I don’t think anyone else can replicate. Doc Brown is very enthusiastic about his work and is more than willing to share his discoveries with Marty. While we don’t know how the two exactly met, the two characters have perfect chemistry onscreen, also being good foils for each other’s personalities, to the point where their odd friendship is wholly believable.

Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J. Fox (right) have great chemistry.

The other actors are good for their respective roles as well. Crispin Glover manages to make George McFly a pretty embarrassing character to watch, though he does have a couple well-timed moments of humor, and Thomas F. Wilson’s Biff Tannen is pretty imposing as a bully. While Claudia Wells is known for her part as the original Jennifer Parker, she doesn’t really do much in the film despite having some solid acting ability (it’s possible the writers didn’t know what to do with the character). Unfortunately she hasn’t appeared in any Back to the Future film since, as she was unavailable for the sequels, but due to my visits to Comic-Con, I’m aware that she hits the convention circuit, offering autographs in exchange for money (whether or not the autograph is worth a trip is up to you).

Also notable are the music and effects. I felt that, apart from the good score by Alan Silvestri, the music was chosen rather well. The placement of Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes is well-chosen and Earth Angel by The Penguins works for the time period (incidentally, both songs were released in 1954, so it would be believable for those songs to be used in a 1955 setting). While Earth Angel and Johnny B. Goode, the latter of which is by Chuck Berry, are covered well in the film by the in-universe Marvin Berry and The Starlighters (with Marty filling in on guitar), the most interesting songs to me are the original songs by Huey Louis and the News; The Power of Love and Back in Time. The former captures the romantic portion of the film quite well, though it is the latter that I associate the most heavily with Back to the Future due to its use in capping off the events of the film; In a way, I feel that any experience with the franchise is complete if it features this song.

Marty McFly in the process of inventing Johnny B. Goode.

As for the effects, they hold up surprisingly well. The visuals used for the time travel are very fitting and all of the practical effects related to the DeLorean are very rightfully iconic. It’s easy to get lost in the detail on the time circuits and the way the flux capacitor looks is always fascinating in its simplicity. While I’m sure some aging stands out more for some, there is one particular effect that doesn’t really look good when I see it and that’s when Marty watches his hand disappear while playing Johnny B. Goode. It sort of just looks like a third arm suddenly appeared in front of his body thanks to the very awkward rendering of the moment.

When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit!

Back to the Future is an example of a movie where all of the right elements came together in just the right way. The story is well-written, despite spawning a ton of Cracked.com articles, the chemistry between the characters is believable and the music and effects are done brilliantly. While there may be a problem here and there, these don’t ever detract from the experience and each subsequent viewing is still worth going through. Though a bit dated, this film is an instant classic that should be viewed by anyone curious about 80’s pop culture.