I was watching a few movies today from some years ago: Back to the Future I, II, III. I have become cynical, nit-picky and critical in my older age. I noticed some flawed thinking, writing or editing. Whatever you want to call it.
There is a part in "BTTF II" where Marty and Dr. Brown are talking outside the futuristic soda shop about the time machine and setting things straight to help Marty's son. They talked in detail about how and why Doc built the time machine and why he must destroy it once they take care of the "future." Well, without them knowing they are overheard by Biff Tanner — who is an old grandfather to Griff Tanner in the future.
Anyhow, Marty and Doc figured they fixed the future and were going to pick up Jennifer, Marty's 1985 girlfriend, who they left in an alley just around the corner from the soda shop. Which, said soda shop, originally was a short jaunt for Marty when they first got into the future from 1985. That was continuity mistake number one that stuck out and bothered me.
Upon arrival to get Jennifer's body, they see that she is being picked up by the cops and they overhear them saying they are going to take her back to her home, which is really the home of the future Marty and Jennifer. As Marty and Doc leave in the DeLorean, Biff comes out from his hiding place and gets an idea. We see Doc and Marty flying in the DeLorean to go get Jennifer when Doc mentions something about thinking he saw someone, a Taxi, tailing them. Marty and Doc took off from the soda shop area a good 5 minutes before Biff could have started to hail a taxi so how did he know where Doc and Marty were headed to get close enough to follow them. That is mistake number two that bothered me.
We jump forward to Doc and Marty landing down the street from Marty's "future" house. They have a quick disagreement about how Marty should stay by the car while Doc gets Jennifer because they shouldn't take the chance that Marty will run into "future Marty". Anyhow, we see Biff landing in a bright, yellow taxi, a few seconds after Doc and Marty did and only about 10 car lengths down and across the street from their landing sight. It even takes him a few seconds or so to get out of the cab, pay and get a "peeking" spot. Still, neither Doc nor Marty see any of this on a well lit street corner. We jump forward to Biff stealing the DeLorean without Marty knowing since he was the one that was supposed to stay behind at the car while Doc retrieved Jennifer. After a while later, we see Biff parking the DeLorean back in the same basic spot that he stole it from. We see Marty and Doc, with Jennifer in tow, coming towards him and once again they did not notice the car land or Biff just a few car lengths away hanging on a dumpster like he is out of breath or hurt or something. Biff's physical/mental state is not explained.
Anyway, we have no idea how Biff knew how to fly or engage the flux capacitor, much less knowing he has to reach 88 miles per hour for the time travel to occur. In the overheard conversation that Biff was privy to of Doc and Marty, not once did Doc or Marty speak of how the time machine was operated. It's just not conceivable that Biff would be able operate the DeLorean other than just driving it as a regular vehicle. This is mistake number three that irks me more than the first two.
Okay, after all this complaining, I know what you are saying. It's a movie about time travel, like that's believable. Point taken but just because the movie is basically fictional it doesn't mean that there have to be these critical continuity errors. It happens in a lot of movies and I'm just one of those people that happen to catch these errors and point them out. I can't help it. It just happens. I still enjoy the movie and will enjoy others. I am just irritated when these directors and/or writers are making all this money from their movies and they can't give us better quality/continuity. I work hard for my $7 to go to the movies. These movie people should too work hard for my $7.
There is a part in "BTTF II" where Marty and Dr. Brown are talking outside the futuristic soda shop about the time machine and setting things straight to help Marty's son. They talked in detail about how and why Doc built the time machine and why he must destroy it once they take care of the "future." Well, without them knowing they are overheard by Biff Tanner — who is an old grandfather to Griff Tanner in the future.
Anyhow, Marty and Doc figured they fixed the future and were going to pick up Jennifer, Marty's 1985 girlfriend, who they left in an alley just around the corner from the soda shop. Which, said soda shop, originally was a short jaunt for Marty when they first got into the future from 1985. That was continuity mistake number one that stuck out and bothered me.
Upon arrival to get Jennifer's body, they see that she is being picked up by the cops and they overhear them saying they are going to take her back to her home, which is really the home of the future Marty and Jennifer. As Marty and Doc leave in the DeLorean, Biff comes out from his hiding place and gets an idea. We see Doc and Marty flying in the DeLorean to go get Jennifer when Doc mentions something about thinking he saw someone, a Taxi, tailing them. Marty and Doc took off from the soda shop area a good 5 minutes before Biff could have started to hail a taxi so how did he know where Doc and Marty were headed to get close enough to follow them. That is mistake number two that bothered me.
We jump forward to Doc and Marty landing down the street from Marty's "future" house. They have a quick disagreement about how Marty should stay by the car while Doc gets Jennifer because they shouldn't take the chance that Marty will run into "future Marty". Anyhow, we see Biff landing in a bright, yellow taxi, a few seconds after Doc and Marty did and only about 10 car lengths down and across the street from their landing sight. It even takes him a few seconds or so to get out of the cab, pay and get a "peeking" spot. Still, neither Doc nor Marty see any of this on a well lit street corner. We jump forward to Biff stealing the DeLorean without Marty knowing since he was the one that was supposed to stay behind at the car while Doc retrieved Jennifer. After a while later, we see Biff parking the DeLorean back in the same basic spot that he stole it from. We see Marty and Doc, with Jennifer in tow, coming towards him and once again they did not notice the car land or Biff just a few car lengths away hanging on a dumpster like he is out of breath or hurt or something. Biff's physical/mental state is not explained.
Anyway, we have no idea how Biff knew how to fly or engage the flux capacitor, much less knowing he has to reach 88 miles per hour for the time travel to occur. In the overheard conversation that Biff was privy to of Doc and Marty, not once did Doc or Marty speak of how the time machine was operated. It's just not conceivable that Biff would be able operate the DeLorean other than just driving it as a regular vehicle. This is mistake number three that irks me more than the first two.
Okay, after all this complaining, I know what you are saying. It's a movie about time travel, like that's believable. Point taken but just because the movie is basically fictional it doesn't mean that there have to be these critical continuity errors. It happens in a lot of movies and I'm just one of those people that happen to catch these errors and point them out. I can't help it. It just happens. I still enjoy the movie and will enjoy others. I am just irritated when these directors and/or writers are making all this money from their movies and they can't give us better quality/continuity. I work hard for my $7 to go to the movies. These movie people should too work hard for my $7.
No comments:
Post a Comment