Originally posted by: CO
Gaffer, not to get off topic, the BTTF sequels are good, but they don't have the magic the original had, and I guess it is hard to explain. The original BTTF was just about a kid learning about his parents growing up while he was stuck back in time, so in a weird sense, the time travel is the side story of the movie. What makes the Original great is that it makes everyone in the audience whether it be a parent of their kids reassess where they were at that time in their lives? Nobody pictures their parents partying and drinking in high school, because they are your parents! And some parents are naive to think that their kids would do the same because.....they're your kids! The great irony about the Original BTTF is that nothing changes between generations, and that your actions do have consequences, hence the changed ending in the new life Marty walks into after he gets back. I guess this is the reason those films back in the 70's/80's were great, cause they said something like this in the movie, and as a kid you may not get it, but years later this is why they stay great.
Gaffer, not to get off topic, the BTTF sequels are good, but they don't have the magic the original had, and I guess it is hard to explain. The original BTTF was just about a kid learning about his parents growing up while he was stuck back in time, so in a weird sense, the time travel is the side story of the movie. What makes the Original great is that it makes everyone in the audience whether it be a parent of their kids reassess where they were at that time in their lives? Nobody pictures their parents partying and drinking in high school, because they are your parents! And some parents are naive to think that their kids would do the same because.....they're your kids! The great irony about the Original BTTF is that nothing changes between generations, and that your actions do have consequences, hence the changed ending in the new life Marty walks into after he gets back. I guess this is the reason those films back in the 70's/80's were great, cause they said something like this in the movie, and as a kid you may not get it, but years later this is why they stay great.
Honestly, I was going to say exactly that, but I didn't want to get too far off-topic, so I just stayed general. Yeah, the magic of the first one was amazing, and only as I got older did I realize that, and that's because I saw BTTF2 first. Therefore, I saw it in trilogy style. Of course, the "To Be Continued..." on the original VHS versions did little to keep me from thinking it was the first part of a time-traveling epic. It was only when the DVDs came out, and I realized it was just a single movie originally that I began to see and appreciate the original story for what it was. But the reason I didn't say this before was because I was trying to say that I think that all three movies are exceptionally strong. None of them fail to capture my interest or provide me with a compelling plot or characters. It's just that the sequels have a different story than the original. But, honestly, in that sense it's not much different from the Star Wars trilogy except that I feel the BTTF movies manage to maintain the same level of quality while ROTJ dips just a little bit.