I loved the first Back to the Future, it was fun, original and simply irresistible. Back to the Future 2 is a very good sequel, while considered the darkest of the three it is still quite bright in tone. It isn't as good as the first film though, moving a little too fast and a little too much crammed in such as the past, future and alternative universes idea. Still it is very enjoyable, with the acting from Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd as zany and as likable as ever before and the special effects even better than in the first film and that was a hard feat. The script is clever and fun, the direction is excellent and the sets are highly imaginative. Plus the score is great. Overall, a slightly inferior but very enjoyable sequel. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This sequel to the family-orientated sci-fi smash of 1985 is probably just as much fun as the first film, with an even more complex plot and a more frenzied approach to the narrative. The first half hour is a little weak, but once the major plot twist arrives the story begins proper and gets really good. The film also has a large amount of humour and slapstick-style comedy to appeal to the kids, and Christopher Lloyd's eyeball-rolling performance as the mad scientist is arresting for sure.

On the plus side, this film does some very inspired things with its time-travelling plot and is one of the most complex I've seen - the film takes place variously in the future, in the past, in the present and in a couple of alternate realities just to bamboozle you. You have to concentrate throughout at the risk of getting really confused by the whole thing, but if you stick with it you'll find it to be rewarding. Another plus are the special effects of levitating "hoverboards" and flying cars which haven't dated at all and are still impressive to this day, and plentiful too - every penny of the budget is up on screen somewhere.

There are lots of action sequences which are always entertaining, and Michael J Fox is endearing as the lead and I'm still surprised that this is the same guy who played the chubby weakling only seven years previously in CLASS OF 1984. The second sequel was shot back-to-back and released a year later, but the law of diminishing returns resulted in a film far less enjoyable than the first two in the series. I particularly like that most of the narrative in this one is comprised of a simple chase to capture a crucial book, which eases away all of the background complexity in favour of simple, crowd-pleasing entertainment.

This picks up right from where the first one ends. Marty, Doc and Jennifer goes to the future to help save his children in 2015. Only things go completely off the tracks when Biff in the future steals the DeLorean to change the past for his benefit.

The time travel in this movie is even more complicated. It revisits the 1955 timeline actually make it work better. The scenes where he revisits the same time as the original is truly inventive. The great thing is that it combines with the original to make the whole series even better. It's seamless integration is what makes this sequel superior to any other sequels. It's a work of mathematical genius from Robert Zemeckis.