When it debuted in the winter of 1989, this sequel's wide-eyed portrait of the future was so ambitious and dramatic that it was tough to look beyond the superficial. Today, a mere four years removed from the distant year 2015 depicted on the screen, those predictions seem more like a creative writing essay from the science fiction magazines of the 1950s. They remain endearing and entertaining, albeit in a different way - the jokes still work, but their more serious elements either don't play or, worse, come off as pure camp. And, with the shiny veneer of that potential future relegated to nothing more than a running series of sight gags, the holes and flaws of the plot itself find themselves stripped bare.

It comes as something of a shock to me, given my fond memories, but this really is not a good film. What screen time the cast doesn't spend breathlessly explaining the plot (which is, perhaps, fifty percent of the runtime) is devoted to revisiting several of the best scenes from the first movie, rather than creating fond memories of their own. It's an overly elaborate story, unashamedly building to the split-narrative climax, that has neither the steady pace nor the genuine charm of the original. Plot holes the size of a steam engine are the least of its concerns, given that the first film managed to be such a success in spite of similar problems.

Would you believe audiences booed this movie when it came out? It is true, let me tell you why.

While BTTF has now gone down in history as one of the best "trilogies" of all time, at the time when part TWO came out, the fact they had also shot part THREE at the same time had been kept a complete secret.

Most of you who read this may not have been alive at the time, so you have to imagine that after "Back to the Future" was a literal sensation when it came out, people were pretty skeptical about a sequel coming out four years after the first could be nearly as good as the original. I only went to see it opening weekend with friends because we'd actually gone to see the first one when it came out in 1985 and had decided to go judge the sequel under the same circumstances.

Overall, the audience had a great time that night watching the movie; that is, until the last few moments. To reiterate, no one knew that Back to the Future part TWO was going to be the middle chapter of a TRILOGY. Despite how positive the audience reaction had been throughout the rest of the movie, as soon as the words, "To Be Continued..." appeared on the screen, the audience turned and started booing! I swear it is true! My friends and I were caught up as well, we booed along with everyone else and walked out bitching about feeling cheated.

In conclusion, despite being the best of three movies, at the time, audiences BOOED this movie the opening weekend because movies rarely IF EVER had "TO BE CONTINUED..." at the end of them! The cultural grudge during the time between the release of TWO and THREE has lost to history after the trilogy as whole became accepted.

This was one I think I was slightly disappointed in when I first saw it in theaters back in '89 and even with subsequent viewings on VHS and DVD, however I've come to appreciate it more over the years post-2000s. Lots of fun though feels disjointed at times going back and forth in time from 1985 to 2015 to alternate 1985 and back to 1955. But I did like the technical aspects re-creating the events of the first movie. **4.0/5**

PS: Still remember back in the day seeing a TV special and believing the hoverboard was real, lol.

You gotta go forward to save the past and back to alter the future.

Yikes!

Back to the Future Part II sees Marty & Jennifer coerced by Doc into travelling forward in time to correct the future. But Biff is still around and spies an opportunity for untold riches; which he takes. Meaning our three time travelling wonders have to find a way back to the past to stop Biff from changing the course of history.

The gargantuan, and deserved, success of Back To The Future ensured {demanded} that a sequel would follow. So taking the bull by the horns, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gray crafted not only a sequel, but a trilogy, of which part two is ultimately a sort of interim plot filler for the finale to come a year later. There's no doubt about it, part two is at first a puzzle box of a picture, one that had this particular viewer back in the day venturing in for multiple viewings to unravel the deft, daft, but intricate plot.

I have grown to love part two very much as I have got older, with each viewing tending to reward me just a little bit more. Directed with absolute keenness by Zemeckis, the film moves at such a pace there is barely time to catch breath, something that hardly helps one to follow exactly what is going on. But it does make sense under scrutiny, and as we lurch from one magnificent set piece to another, we find a dark undercurrent of bleakness in amongst the froth.

The makers offer up two visions of the future, one is all colourful and swamped in glorious 80s nostalgia, yet it's knowingly enveloped in consumerism and hi-tech reliability. The other is bitten by greed and almost under despotic control, it's food for thought and rather wry in its telling. Not content with that, the makers whisk us back to 1955 just to remind us that a time of innocence and hope did exist; and simultaneously with skill they repeat the ending of part one with the additional story of part two! Clever eh? The returning cast are again uniformly strong {Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson & Christopher Lloyd} while Elisabeth Shue confidently steps into Jennifer's shoes after Claudia Wells {Jennifer in part one} fell ill and was unable to continue the role. Alan Silvestri's score still packs a cross dimension's punch and the effects crew again come up trumps {it's ace in HD}. It now can be seen as the bridge between two better movies, that's for sure, but I liken it to Spielberg's Temple Of Doom-more darker than the more favourable films in a series; but one that is crucially still having fun. It may be a high-tempo ball of funny confusion at times, but this one, courtesy of it's ream of homages and sly observations, is one of the best trilogy sandwich fillers going.

Munch it. 8/10

My favorite out of the series. I like this one better, because your rewatching the 1st one as the 2nd one is helping the 1st one at the same time. So you get to enjoy the 1st one again with new twists added from the 2nd one. But you can't see yourself watching the 1st one while watching the 2nd one, because the 1st one is not suppose to see the 2nd one watching it, and vice versa. Otherwise something bad will happen if the 1st and 2nd one see each other. Lol you get what I'm saying!