![]() ![]() In maybe my favorite gag of the whole film, he’s attacked by a hologram rendering of a shark in an interactive advertisement for Jaws 19, directed by Max Spielberg (Tagline: This time it’s REALLY REALLY personal). Marty’s exploration of futuristic media feels so on the money to what’s currently going on. BTTF Part II’s satirical edge really sings for me when it puts our consumerist mediascape into its sights. I don’t want to belabor this likely reductive political point too much, but I will say this: It is very scary to watch this character do his thing in a post-2016 election society, and it is very satisfying and hopeful when he gets his just desserts. Many online meme-purveyors have made mention on how Future Biff’s miserable attitude, wild hair, gaudily materialistic trappings, and inexplicable rise to power mirrors a certain United States President who was elected in 2016. There’s a ton of prescient satire embedded in Gale’s screenplay. Mad props to DP Dean Cundey and production designer Rick Carter for leaning into this space and crushing it. Much of the film’s futuristic look, especially in its night scenes, feel atypically grimy. We fulfill the first film’s cliffhanger promise of flying cars right out of the gate, and it is an instantly enthralling leap into the futuristic frontier for the filmmakers. ![]() It’s dark and shadowy, with pops of green sticking out in an ominously cloudy grayish purple. That work’s “1955 America” is photographed in bright, even flat lighting, presenting that era both sincerely and satirically as being “wholesome.” But our first image of 2015 feels more like Blade Runner than Leave It to Beaver. The very first image we see after the cold open and title sequence (ooh, that Alan Silvestri score still slaps) is shocking to those familiar with the world of the first film. Why all the hoops to jump through, Double Bobby? (The nickname I’ve given Zemeckis and Gale, which I have totally earned the right to give) Why not just set a science fiction story in the dang future and have fun with the speculative fiction of it all? In Part II, they certainly got to, with delightful results. But it also renders the film less as a pure sci-fi piece and more of a 1950s period piece with sci-fi window dressing. Yes, I know the first film’s usage of the title cleverly frames “the present” as “the future” they need to get “back to” having been stuck in 1955. If you give me a title like Back to the Future, I expect to see the future. ![]()
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