The week of October 21st, 2015, I realized that the Back to the Future trilogy was being featured on Amazon Prime streaming; as well as the documentary, Back in Time. So I finished the series last night and decided it would be interesting to share my review of all 3 movies, in hindsight.

Now that we are officially living in the future, according to Back to the Future Part 2, I was able to see how each of the 3 movies still holds up.

Here’s my analysis:

Back to the Future Part 1 is the best.

Part 3 is my favorite.

Part 2 was my least favorite and the least relevant to the series.

Back when I was a kid, I thought Part 2 was the best one because it attempted to show me a glimpse of the future. Hoverboards!

But really, Part 2 was the strange off-the-beaten path installment that have easily been removed from the series and the storyline would have been just as strong. Not to mention, seeing it again as an adult, Part 2 was the darkest and most tedious of the series.

I was surprised at how little of Part 2 actually took place in the good version of 2015. Most of the movie is in the dystopian version of 2015 and then back to 1955 again.

The reason I like Part 3 the best is because I feel it’s the most charming. The plot was simple enough and I loved the chemistry between Doc Brown and Clara. I appreciated how it utilized so many of the original characters of the first two movies.

Just overall, it’s easier to watch; and I feel, the most fun.

Granted, Part 1 is the best. It’s not my personal favorite, but it’s the best. It was the most original, innovative, and legendary.

Interestingly enough, the critics of Rotten Tomatoes agree with my assessment that Part 1 is the best, Part 3 is the second best, and Part 2 is the least best.

In closing, I want to point out this:

Despite these movies being generically remembered as “family friendly” movies, for the most part, they are not:

If Part 1 were released today, it would definitely be rated PG-13.

It features constant swearing (nearly every word in the book) as well as religious exclamations (using God’s name in vain), casual marijuana use (the band at the prom), attempted sexual assault (George McFly saves the day by stopping Biff from taking advantage of his future wife), implied sexual activity involving minors (17 year-old Marty McFly and his girlfriend are planning to spend the night together in the back of his Toyota pick-up truck) and violence: Doc Brown is shot in the chest with machine guns by Liberian terrorists.

Part 3 is the tamest; containing the least profanity, hardly any innuendoes, and the violence is simply cartoonish. It would uphold its PG rating.

Part 2 is somewhere in between the two, but I could easily see it being rated PG-13.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve have recently seen the Back to the Future trilogy, I would be curious to see if you agree with my assessment.