misskarne
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Finally got to see Top Gun 2 tonight. It totally lived up to the hype, which I was a little reticent about since I'd heard it was more character-driven than solely focused on the flying, and no-one watches Top Gun for the character arcs. You watch it for the planes and the shirtless sporting sequence. 
One thing's for sure: the Academy better get over it's snobbery because if that movie doesn't get some kind of cinematography award it will be a goddamn crime. It makes the original Top Gun look like it was shot by amatuers.
More thoughts:
I can see why this is the blockbuster of the year so far. That, and this is really a big-screen movie. The boom of the jets is so powerful through those huge speakers, I could feel the floor vibrating.
One thing's for sure: the Academy better get over it's snobbery because if that movie doesn't get some kind of cinematography award it will be a goddamn crime. It makes the original Top Gun look like it was shot by amatuers.
More thoughts:
They really, really smacked us in the face with the Goose feels, ouch. Perfect casting for Rooster, he's the spitting image. I wasn't really feeling the Penny Benjamin storyline as much though (but I'm just here for some fighter jets).
I absolutely loved that Maverick and Iceman are complete besties, and the implication that Ice basically spends half his time personally ensuring that Maverick can't be kicked out of the Navy. But oof, I wasn't ready for the Val Kilmer feels or the sudden death of Iceman and the funeral.
I've been mulling over the tension between Rooster and Maverick and Maverick pulling Rooster's papers and I still don't quite know how I feel about it. On the one hand, it feels really out of character for the character who absolutely cannot move on from flying to prevent someone he loves flying, and part of Maverick's arc in the first film is that he resents that his rep is bad because of his father and he was rejected from the Academy himself. On the other, it's actually super in character for Maverick to take the fall for Carole, and also to want Rooster not to fly, in a callback to when Goose tells him he's afraid of the way Maverick flies sometimes like he's against a ghost. Maybe Maverick is afraid Rooster will be flying against Goose's ghost.
The idea that Rooster and Maverick aren't actually buddy-buddy father-son substitute was a good plot element though and I like that Maverick had to learn to have faith in Rooster and vice versa. The theatre positively shouted in joy when Rooster came back in and blew that helicopter up.
Hangman. I don't know what Hangman's deal was. I feel like they tried to start him off as the Iceman substitute and then sort of shifted him into a composite Iceman/Maverick character. Except if that was the intention, it showed they never understood those characters at all. Both Iceman and Maverick were arrogant and made remarks at one another, but they weren't mean about it. Hangman was downright nasty at times, and though they sort of gave him a mini-redemption at the end, it wasn't like Ice, who you knew all along was a decent person.
I absolutely loved that Maverick and Iceman are complete besties, and the implication that Ice basically spends half his time personally ensuring that Maverick can't be kicked out of the Navy. But oof, I wasn't ready for the Val Kilmer feels or the sudden death of Iceman and the funeral.
I've been mulling over the tension between Rooster and Maverick and Maverick pulling Rooster's papers and I still don't quite know how I feel about it. On the one hand, it feels really out of character for the character who absolutely cannot move on from flying to prevent someone he loves flying, and part of Maverick's arc in the first film is that he resents that his rep is bad because of his father and he was rejected from the Academy himself. On the other, it's actually super in character for Maverick to take the fall for Carole, and also to want Rooster not to fly, in a callback to when Goose tells him he's afraid of the way Maverick flies sometimes like he's against a ghost. Maybe Maverick is afraid Rooster will be flying against Goose's ghost.
The idea that Rooster and Maverick aren't actually buddy-buddy father-son substitute was a good plot element though and I like that Maverick had to learn to have faith in Rooster and vice versa. The theatre positively shouted in joy when Rooster came back in and blew that helicopter up.
Hangman. I don't know what Hangman's deal was. I feel like they tried to start him off as the Iceman substitute and then sort of shifted him into a composite Iceman/Maverick character. Except if that was the intention, it showed they never understood those characters at all. Both Iceman and Maverick were arrogant and made remarks at one another, but they weren't mean about it. Hangman was downright nasty at times, and though they sort of gave him a mini-redemption at the end, it wasn't like Ice, who you knew all along was a decent person.
I can see why this is the blockbuster of the year so far. That, and this is really a big-screen movie. The boom of the jets is so powerful through those huge speakers, I could feel the floor vibrating.
