Marty's time-traveling adventures come to an end in Back to the Future Part III. The third movie in a trilogy is always tough to critique because you not only have to judge the movie by itself, but you must also judge it based on the context of the entire series. So here goes...
Is it a good movie? Yes.
Is it as good as the first one? Not even close.
Is it better than its hot mess predecessor? Absolutely.
Is it a fitting end to the trilogy? Eh...
The Old West setting never really did it for me. It relied too much on fish-out-of-water humor and I realize all the movies are based on that sort of humor, but there's a big difference between the 30-year leap and the 100-year leap. It seems too gimmicky. Plus, Marty has no real connection to the time period. In 1955, there was a problem with his parents. In 2015, there was a problem with his children. Sure he has relatives back in 1885, but they're not the ones who need assistance.
The real problem with the third film is that the focus shifts from Marty to Doc, and that can't happen in a trilogy. The trilogy should complete a three-movie character arc. Marty has nothing to do in this movie, and centering the plot around Doc's love interest is just sappy, lazy storytelling. I don't give a shit about Doc getting laid! Travel in time, bitches!
The other issue is that there's a simple solution to their dilemma that makes the whole train hijacking unnecessary. There are two DeLoreans in 1885, the one Marty traveled back in and the DeLorean hidden in the mine. Marty and Doc can't travel back to the future because Marty punctured the gas tank. Easy fix: syphon the gas from the mineshaft DeLorean into the other DeLorean...problem solved. They can't use the mineshaft DeLorean to time travel because Marty needs that to travel back to 1885 in the first place, but he doesn't need it to have a full tank of gas when he gets it. Booya! I just bitch-slapped Doc Brown...with my mind!
Admitted, the train hijacking scene is fairly badass, but the ending with Doc showing back up in 1985 in a flying time-traveling train is fucking STUPID! He just spent the entire trilogy whining about how dangerous it is to mess with the timeline and how he wanted to destroy the time machine to avoid causing further damage and he breaks those rules to give Marty a FUCKING PHOTOGRAPH! DUMB!
In conclusion, I just wanna say one thing...BIFF TANNEN, BITCHES!
Why It's Passable: The Clint Eastwood stuff is pretty funny and the train climax is pretty cool, but I've got a better ending. Mad Dog Tannen finds the time machine in the mine and uses it travel into the future to team up with Biff and Griff Tannen to form the most evil alliance known to mankind. Obviously they turn the entire world into a giant casino and make breast implants mandatory...BUTTHEAD!
Best Quote:
Doc: And in the future, we don't need horses. We have motorized carriages called automobiles.
Drunk: If everybody's got one of these auto-whatsits, does anybody walk or run anymore?
Doc: Of course we run. But for recreation. For fun.
Drunk: Run for fun? What the hell kind of fun is that?
No comments:
Post a Comment