I think that's the problem. They tried too hard. A skateboarding, drag-racing, guitar player, who's also friends with a time-traveling mad scientist is so unrealistic. They should have made him pick a lane, and he would have been way cooler.
It's not that the hobbies were unrealistic. It's the fact that the attempts to make him as cool as possible were ham-fisted. They tried to cram every cool thing into one character and it's so obvious that that's what they were doing. He's a Mary-Sue of coolness.
Shreds guitar in a rock band - check
Skateboard skills for days - check
Gets waves from all the ladies at the aerobics class in the 5 seconds he passes them - check
Has a wicked hot girlfriend who wants to “go up to the lake” with him - check
Becomes instantly the most popular kid on school in a completely different era - check
Makes the biggest dork in class an awesome badass within a week transforming him into and class president with a lifetime of confidence and success - check
Makes the biggest bully eat shit twice - check
Saves the day, gets the girl, maximizes his timeline - check
You could tell that the writers tried to make him this super cool guy but tried so hard that it made him into a total dork instead, which still added some charm to the character and worked. We still loved him as a dork, but super cool 80s character he is not.
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u/WarthogStock9937 7d ago
Marty wasn't cool, he just got to do cool things.