Chekhov's F-14
Aug. 5th, 2022 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lakeeffectgirlI went to see TG:M for the fourth time today and, just as I did the first three times, spent several minutes after it was over sighing to myself about how much I love it, while simultaneously being baffled that the freakin' TOP GUN sequel has somehow become one of my favorite movies. Ever.
So, to start, I very much dislike movies where a) anyone the movie has spent time making us like dies and/or a character is killed because no one working on the script could figure out what to do with them, b) movies where people are embarrassed as a plot point, c) movies where the het romance is just two characters jammed together and they fall in love in like four days, and d) women die to motivate men.
This... is a bar not a lot of movies clear, sadly.
I also mostly like things that I can read/write fic about. While I will occasionally see things for the experience, or because they're staffed by multiple actors I enjoy, mostly I want to spend time with things I can incorporate into my main hobby.
TG:M offers the following:
- an ensemble with MANY different ship/fanfic configurations
- the only character who dies is Ice, and anyone with two brain cells can figure out - given Val Kilmer's health problems and the trailer having a funeral scene - that this will happen (and while Mav is deeply affected by the deaths in both movies, Ice's death doesn't come as a surprise)
- Maverick and Penny have an on-and-off relationship that spans years, so she's not someone he's just met two minutes ago - they already know each other, have already slept together many times, etc
- there's no "cocky character is brought down to size by some embarrassing moment" - because everyone is cocky and the movie understands that's how you have to be to make it in this particular job (my dad and I were talking about the movie yesterday and he said someone he listens to on the radio was talking about how they didn't like it because the characters all had so much swagger, and my dad was like "but they have to be like that or they wouldn't be at TOPGUN!!")
It also offers:
- interesting parallels to the first movie that aren't 1:1 parallels, such as the "oh no this person from the bar last night is now teaching this class I'm in", where in TG it's Mav being "oh no" because it's the woman he just hit on/got shot down by the night before, and in TG:M it's the baby pilots being all "oh no" because their instructor is the guy they called an old man and carried out of the bar last night (Penny makes Mav buy a round for the bar and his credit card is declined, so she opts to have him tossed "overboard" when he can't pay)
- Rooster and Hangman have a rivalry similar to Ice and Mav's in the first movie, but it's also not a 1:1 comparison, since they're competing to go on the mission vs competing for top of the class (plus, Hangman wants to be team leader, and Mav ends up being team leader after proving the mission can be flown)
I do wish:
- there was more explanation as to how certain pilots knew each other before being ordered to TOPGUN: Hangman and Coyote clearly know each other, Phoenix arrives with Payback and Fanboy so they all know each other, Hangman and Phoenix have some enough knowledge of each other to trade insults, Hangman and Rooster do a whole "Bradshaw... as I live and breathe" "Hangman... you look good" "I am good" thing, Phoenix and Rooster also have some previous knowledge of each other in a way that makes me think hmmm, they banged? (She's all "This is how I find out you're stateside?" and then jabs him with a pool cue, so maybe they boned and then he got deployed but didn't tell her.) Most of them seem to be about the same age (minus Rooster who is a few years older), and some of them probably were in the same TOPGUN class.
- Ditto other four pilots who get no lines - Omaha, Yale, Halo, and Fritz. They're recognizable by sight to several of the main group, and "holy shit, it's Fritz" would imply he has some sort of reputation (besides, y'know, just being Manny Jacinto).
- someone would explain just how Mav's managed to stay in the Navy this long; they leave it implied that it's all Ice's doing, but if you look up how it would actually work, he really shouldn't still be there as a Captain unless there was a period where he went from active to reserve and back to active.
- someone would explain how Mav pulling Rooster's application to the Naval Academy was enough to set him back four years specifically in his quest to go jets, when he could have just gone to a college with NROTC... even if Mav did it at the last minute and Rooster didn't have a backup college plan, that route should have only set him back a year while he applied to other schools (my personal favorite headcanon is that Mav pulled his papers not long after Carole got diagnosed with whatever it was, so Rooster went to UVA for a few years while Carole was sick, then enlisted right after she died out of misplaced grief/trauma/anger, served his enlisted time while finishing his degree online, then applied to OCS [there are Naval programs with this pipeline] - because given his estimated high school graduation date [2002], he didn't enlist immediately after graduation, he didn't finish his degree until 2009, and he wasn't an Ensign until 2011)
- also seriously it's been close to twenty years and you're still THAT mad about it, Rooster?
So, to start, I very much dislike movies where a) anyone the movie has spent time making us like dies and/or a character is killed because no one working on the script could figure out what to do with them, b) movies where people are embarrassed as a plot point, c) movies where the het romance is just two characters jammed together and they fall in love in like four days, and d) women die to motivate men.
This... is a bar not a lot of movies clear, sadly.
I also mostly like things that I can read/write fic about. While I will occasionally see things for the experience, or because they're staffed by multiple actors I enjoy, mostly I want to spend time with things I can incorporate into my main hobby.
TG:M offers the following:
- an ensemble with MANY different ship/fanfic configurations
- the only character who dies is Ice, and anyone with two brain cells can figure out - given Val Kilmer's health problems and the trailer having a funeral scene - that this will happen (and while Mav is deeply affected by the deaths in both movies, Ice's death doesn't come as a surprise)
- Maverick and Penny have an on-and-off relationship that spans years, so she's not someone he's just met two minutes ago - they already know each other, have already slept together many times, etc
- there's no "cocky character is brought down to size by some embarrassing moment" - because everyone is cocky and the movie understands that's how you have to be to make it in this particular job (my dad and I were talking about the movie yesterday and he said someone he listens to on the radio was talking about how they didn't like it because the characters all had so much swagger, and my dad was like "but they have to be like that or they wouldn't be at TOPGUN!!")
It also offers:
- interesting parallels to the first movie that aren't 1:1 parallels, such as the "oh no this person from the bar last night is now teaching this class I'm in", where in TG it's Mav being "oh no" because it's the woman he just hit on/got shot down by the night before, and in TG:M it's the baby pilots being all "oh no" because their instructor is the guy they called an old man and carried out of the bar last night (Penny makes Mav buy a round for the bar and his credit card is declined, so she opts to have him tossed "overboard" when he can't pay)
- Rooster and Hangman have a rivalry similar to Ice and Mav's in the first movie, but it's also not a 1:1 comparison, since they're competing to go on the mission vs competing for top of the class (plus, Hangman wants to be team leader, and Mav ends up being team leader after proving the mission can be flown)
I do wish:
- there was more explanation as to how certain pilots knew each other before being ordered to TOPGUN: Hangman and Coyote clearly know each other, Phoenix arrives with Payback and Fanboy so they all know each other, Hangman and Phoenix have some enough knowledge of each other to trade insults, Hangman and Rooster do a whole "Bradshaw... as I live and breathe" "Hangman... you look good" "I am good" thing, Phoenix and Rooster also have some previous knowledge of each other in a way that makes me think hmmm, they banged? (She's all "This is how I find out you're stateside?" and then jabs him with a pool cue, so maybe they boned and then he got deployed but didn't tell her.) Most of them seem to be about the same age (minus Rooster who is a few years older), and some of them probably were in the same TOPGUN class.
- Ditto other four pilots who get no lines - Omaha, Yale, Halo, and Fritz. They're recognizable by sight to several of the main group, and "holy shit, it's Fritz" would imply he has some sort of reputation (besides, y'know, just being Manny Jacinto).
- someone would explain just how Mav's managed to stay in the Navy this long; they leave it implied that it's all Ice's doing, but if you look up how it would actually work, he really shouldn't still be there as a Captain unless there was a period where he went from active to reserve and back to active.
- someone would explain how Mav pulling Rooster's application to the Naval Academy was enough to set him back four years specifically in his quest to go jets, when he could have just gone to a college with NROTC... even if Mav did it at the last minute and Rooster didn't have a backup college plan, that route should have only set him back a year while he applied to other schools (my personal favorite headcanon is that Mav pulled his papers not long after Carole got diagnosed with whatever it was, so Rooster went to UVA for a few years while Carole was sick, then enlisted right after she died out of misplaced grief/trauma/anger, served his enlisted time while finishing his degree online, then applied to OCS [there are Naval programs with this pipeline] - because given his estimated high school graduation date [2002], he didn't enlist immediately after graduation, he didn't finish his degree until 2009, and he wasn't an Ensign until 2011)
- also seriously it's been close to twenty years and you're still THAT mad about it, Rooster?
