Member review

Back to the Future, a true 80's sci-fi classic that holds up today.

The story is a quirky one indeed, following Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travelling into the past with his friend, Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) DeLorean time machine and his quest to return to his own time, all the while meeting some familiar faces and making some small changes to the space-time continuum.

Whilst the plot is what keeps the movie moving and the audience engaged, it is the comedy that really shines in this film. From Christopher Lloyd's larger than life performance as Doc Brown, to Marty McFly's likeable sarcasm, and to Biff, with possibly the most quotable line in the movie "make like a tree, and get out of here" the comedic writing and timing in this movie is great, even making the action scenes pop with a noticeably zany undertone, this film nails all comedic aspects it attempts.

Whilst the comedy in this film is spot on, there are a few things that fall a bit short of the mark. Characters such as Biff and Marty's parents could be seen as underdeveloped. With Biff I felt he lacked depth of character, he was just a necessary obstruction in the story to be overcome, and his reasons for being a bad guy stem from nothing more than just being unintelligent and violent which leaves me wanting for something more. In the case of Marty's parents, I feel like they are hard to root for, with George being so helpless and his mother being so underdeveloped, apart from having an interest in Marty. It sometimes made George hard to root for, I felt I was only wanting him to achieve personal growth for Marty's benefit, not because I was invested in his character.

Overall, I feel that this is, probably, director Zemeckis' most influential work to date in the eyes of modern film lovers, with its zaniness and take on time travel still affecting pop culture to this date. This is a film that if needed to be described in one word, I would say, enjoyable. It's an 80's classic that is still as relevant to audiences today as it was in the 80's, despite some minor faults. As such I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.