Top Gun: Maverick

[glb]

5 hours ago, Gabe said:

I thought this was decent.

 

I haven't seen the original (nor know what happens other than his friend dies and his son is in this one) but I didn't feel I needed to. I imagine there are some callbacks I would've missed, but they didn't impact on my enjoyment. 

 

I felt the action was surprisingly low-key and a bit too easy when they got to the actual mission though. It was well-shot and pretty easy to follow though, which isn't something you can always say about similar films. 

 

Would I watch it again? No, I don't think so. The core story isn't particularly interesting, there's little characterisation of, well, anybody and it leans into - and relies on - Cruise's charm over a compelling tale.

 

He is pretty charming though. 

 

Spoiler

The main callbacks are with Goose and Ice, which the film does a good job of including without hitting viewers over the head too much I think.

 

There is plenty more for fans of the original but also think the balance is pretty good between milking that nostalgia and offering something fresh, albeit familiar.

 

EDIT: spoilered first part in case anyone hasn’t seen the film yet and is going in cold.

[pastry]

yeah one of the good things really is it didn't trade too heavily on nostalgia (well.. outside of the entire premise anyway!). It was better for it.

[Ork1927]

I watched this again tonight with my 12 year old.

 

He enjoyed it - thought the middle was a bit slows down ‘what was the point of all the stuff with Jennifer Connolly’  but thought it was really good.

 

For me, on a second watch, it held up really, really well although did feel a little slower in the middle.

 

But the 3rd act, even knowing what was going to happen, was still edge of seat stuff and is just tremendous.

 

Cinema was about a third full feels very good for a Friday night for something that has been out for ages.

[glb]

Got a screener for this from work. Curious to see if it carries well onto a television screen (think it will)

 

Could also end up being the film that finally convinces me to get a soundbar…

[rafaqat]

Saw this at the Everyman.  I fucking loved it.  I love the 80's. I love fighter jets. I loved the original Top Gun. I used to read about the capabilities of the f14 and thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to target multiple enemy aircraft simultaneously and have variable sweep wings. It was my dream fighter jet. I used to love borrowing military aircraft books from the library.  I love the sound guns make (watch The Raid with a good sound system).   So I was proper nerding the fuck out in this one.  And then I heard the sound of the flares/chaff being launched. Holy shit balls.  Yeah. I really liked this film. I didn't feel any of the music was memorable but that was a minor thing.   First movie to tempt me back to the cinema after lockdown.

[womblingfree]

Just saw this. I always hated Top Gun. Even when I was twelve I thought it was creepy jingoistic rubbish.

 

This on the other hand I bloody loved. Just enough schmaltz, not too much, a few cheesy callbacks, not too much, and usually punctuated by a gag, plus a great cast. But really it’s those flight sequences. Sweet mother of god, I almost had to reach for the barf-bag with all the G’s going on. Incredible.

 

Also the fact the baddies were

 

Spoiler

non-existent, faceless foes from non-denominational baddy-land

erased a lot of what I hated about the first one,

 

It was basically two hours of

 

Spoiler

training for the attack run on the Death Star.

Someone sign whoever made this for the X-wing movies.

[womblingfree]

On 18/06/2022 at 19:04, Jammy said:

 

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he nearly cried at the end when they were on the carrier because he was so happy they all made it back.

 

This was also great.

 

Spoiler

Everyone lives!

 

[Pelekophoros]

5 hours ago, womblingfree said:

Also the fact the baddies were

 

  Hide contents

non-existent, faceless foes from non-denominational baddy-land

 

Spoiler

It's Iran. They're faceless, de-humanised brown people that are getting blown up and murdered.

 

It's easy to miss because I think they're only referred to by name in a single info-dump when Maverick gets the brief.

 

I mean, it shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the movie, but it's handling of the antagonist nation is as clumsy, jingoistic and badly handled as the original.

[womblingfree]

58 minutes ago, Pelekophoros said:

  Reveal hidden contents

It's Iran. They're faceless, de-humanised brown people that are getting blown up and murdered.

 

It's easy to miss because I think they're only referred to by name in a single info-dump when Maverick gets the brief.

 

I mean, it shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the movie, but it's handling of the antagonist nation is as clumsy, jingoistic and badly handled as the original.

The antagonist nation (is it even a nation? ) in this are bizarrely high-tech crash-test dummies, no more real than Spectre or The Mysterons. So oddly bland I thought it might even all turn out to be a training exercise hoax The originals demonising of Russia to bolster hatred of a specific people was infinitely worse.

[Pelekophoros]

17 minutes ago, womblingfree said:

The antagonist nation (is it even a nation? ) in this are bizarrely high-tech crash-test dummies, no more real than Spectre or The Mysterons. So oddly bland I thought it might even all turn out to be a training exercise hoax The originals demonising of Russia to bolster hatred of a specific people was infinitely worse.

 

Spoiler

It's Iran. It's explicitly stated it's Iran. And it's Iran pursuing nuclear capabilities and having super incredible gen 5 fighters that "are boys" will struggle against.

 

 

Whether or not it matches their actual capabilities is irrelevant when they state outright who they are.

 

The original was actually a non-specified nation, but they had a red commie star insignia and flew Migs so they didn't really have to outright state it (though interestingly I read the original script had them as a Middle Eastern country but the Navy didn't want to annoy anyone. Times have changed I guess).

[Vespa Alex]

It doesn’t state the location of their target at all. There’s plenty of evidence that it’s the one you mention, with the F14s being a huge giveaway but it doesn’t get confirmed. 

[JohnC]

I thought they also outright said it just once in an early briefing.

[womblingfree]

3 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I thought they also outright said it just once in an early briefing.

Who are they?

 

Edit: I mean in the new one not the old one.

 

The original is archetypal Reagan era Cold War propaganda This one was a movie they could spin off like The Fast & Furious in planes.

[Pelekophoros]

Well, mind blown. I was 100% convinced they stated the country in that briefing between Maverick and Jon Hamm.

[Vespa Alex]

18 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I thought they also outright said it just once in an early briefing.

Nope. https://www.theringer.com/movies/2022/6/3/23151745/top-gun-maverick-enemy-country

[K]

I also thought that they were a bit more specific in an early briefing scene, but it could just be my memory playing tricks on me. Ultimately, the film takes care to present itself as a fun cowboys-in-planes adventure where the enemy may as well be the Decepticons or the Daleks. That's probably an issue in its own way, but I don't think there's any harm in just enjoying this film at face value. I think the entertainment value and the boost to my feelings of wellbeing (which lasted for days!) more than outweighs the risk of other viewers (or me) joining the Navy.

[probotector]

2 hours ago, Pelekophoros said:

Well, mind blown. I was 100% convinced they stated the country in that briefing between Maverick and Jon Hamm.

I assumed it was Iran based on the general circumstances but they obv then fudged it around to avoid out right saying it.

 

I assumed the original top gun was also Iran!

[Pete]

They mention centrifuges and enriching uranium which is why some of you heard Iran perhaps? Iran does have snowy mountains but not sure about Pine forests and ice lakes near a coast...

[womblingfree]

The fact the nameless baddies have the most advanced fighter planes on Earth which make the American ones look like relics puts it in the realms of sci-fi for me.
 

Or Firefox II: Firefoxes.

[SeanR]

10 minutes ago, womblingfree said:

The fact the nameless baddies have the most advanced fighter planes on Earth which make the American ones look like relics puts it in the realms of sci-fi for me.
 

Or Firefox II: Firefoxes.

SU-57s are readily available to buy because Russia needs the money

[womblingfree]

1 hour ago, SeanR said:

SU-57s are readily available to buy because Russia needs the money

Were those the super-special 5th gen planes? How come the US doesn’t have anything comparable, or am I mixing fantasy with reality here?

[drmick]

45 minutes ago, womblingfree said:

Were those the super-special 5th gen planes? How come the US doesn’t have anything comparable, or am I mixing fantasy with reality here?

 

They do.

 

The story contrived a need for F-18s so that they could use actual two-seater F-18s for filming cockpit scenes.

[SeanR]

1 hour ago, womblingfree said:

Were those the super-special 5th gen planes? How come the US doesn’t have anything comparable, or am I mixing fantasy with reality here?

 

[SeanR]

Ps.

 

[probotector]

4 hours ago, womblingfree said:

The fact the nameless baddies have the most advanced fighter planes on Earth which make the American ones look like relics puts it in the realms of sci-fi for me.
 

Or Firefox II: Firefoxes.

That was really unrealistic when they kept banging on about 5TH gen fighters like they were something deadly amazing but then Tom cruise takes out a squadron of them in an F14 Tomcat!

 

They had to use a plan without GPS guidance as the enemy had GPS jammers or something.

 

Thats why they had to use the force and manual target with a lazer at the end 

[womblingfree]

1 hour ago, probotector said:

That was really unrealistic when they kept banging on about 5TH gen fighters like they were something deadly amazing but then Tom cruise takes out a squadron of them in an F14 Tomcat!

 

They had to use a plan without GPS guidance as the enemy had GPS jammers or something.

 

Thats why they had to use the force and manual target with a lazer at the end 

Death Star vs X-Wing innit.

[Rayn]

Finally had the chance to see this today and it blew my mind. All I knee about it was that it was supposedly great and that Val Kilmer had a role. Other than that I went in blind. 
what a film.

What surprised me is how emotional it made me, I dunno what it was but as early as the opening credits I was welling up. I haven’t been this emotional during a movie since, well, ever. 
Possibly my favourite summer blockbuster since the 90s!

[glb]

On 28/07/2022 at 19:04, Rayn said:

Finally had the chance to see this today and it blew my mind. All I knee about it was that it was supposedly great and that Val Kilmer had a role. Other than that I went in blind. 
what a film.

What surprised me is how emotional it made me, I dunno what it was but as early as the opening credits I was welling up. I haven’t been this emotional during a movie since, well, ever. 
Possibly my favourite summer blockbuster since the 90s!

That’s a decent shout; in pure blockbuster terms it’s almost peerless in recent years. Endgame probably the closest for me for delivering in spades after such a massive build-up. Jurassic Park remains the most mindblowing; hopefully I’ll catch it on a big screen again… 30th anniversary next year so here’s hoping.
 

So glad Maverick turned out to be so good; will be a film I happily watch again and again. High hopes for the next Mission: Impossible next summer; Cruise’s sheer force of will should deliver another huge bucket of popcorn fun.

 

Edit: Mad Max: Fury Road and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse two others I’ll treasure fondly; felt dizzy with glee after watching both of those (and during to be fair)

[Commander Jameson]

 

[Darwock]

Finally got to see it tonight - I think the many weeks of being exposed to all the hyperbolic praise for the action probably took some of the shine off, as I unexpectedly found it to be dragging a little in places, especially the first bar scene introducing the young candidates - my kids were getting restless and bored and kept trying to talk to me, so I was really desperate for it to get to the fun stuff - mostly to vindicate my decision to selfishly bring the family along. That nuisance meant I couldn’t really just sit back and go with the flow, so I’m looking forward to a proper rewatch on my own terms.

 

The flying parts seemed a lot more Ace Combat than Top Gun (not a complaint) - everything from the briefing graphics to the actual mission. I’m sure there was some influence from those games there, the project aces people must be very proud.

 

Really incredible stuff when it did get going.