Top Gun Maverick

Well it had a reason to exist but did it succeed?

I'd say mostly, the story is fairly solid and answers my questions, turns out Maverick only lasted 2 months instructing and after a substantial amount of time is called in to teach a crew of pilots who are tasked with a highly lethal mission. It has your obligatory callbacks, the characters are mostly one dimensional albiet with decent casting who pull it off effortlessly, the action and cinematography of said action is still quite good...however. However it's hard to discern honestly what is real and what is effects, now on one hand that is some very strong compliments to the CG artists at work but at the same time it does take away from the spectacle of such fast flying, hard turning, and overall maneuverability of these pilots and these aircraft. This is so not a plot that delivers the who, when, how, and why when it comes to the mission briefing but honestly the first movie didn't much either. A good chunk of the movie deals with Maverick still getting over the death of Goose and is compounded when he has to instruct his son by the handle of Rooster, which delivers decent drama and strong performances from Cruise and Teller. Best scene in the movie, hands down no competition, we get Val. And motherf*** they got me, it was so damn wonderful seeing that handsome man again and when you see these two guys hug it out, I don't see Maverick and Iceman I see Tom and Val coming in hard for that long hug, they make it brief but with respect and love. Maybe a tear fell, maybe this movie tugged a heartstring, I don't care to admit it. It was goddamn lovely! The romance fell flat for me again though, again no dissing Jennifer Connelly but romance just ain't my thing. I have quality over quantity romance movies, thank you very much. But it was decent, the audience sure seemed to get their money's worth and to hear those jets fire up with a theater sound system was pretty rad, whether or not the wait was worth it must be determined by the fans. I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and I'm going to attempt to get some sleep before another day begins. No rest for the wicked.

Tron Legacy

Yeah, yeah I know. It took me 3 years to talk about Tron Legacy. But come on, it took them almost 30 years to make a sequel!

How did I get into Tron? I have no idea. I remember so much from around 2010 and yet shockingly nothing to do with the movie. I think it all started with the video game Tron Evolution, then I was kinda hooked man. I bought the soundtrack to this movie, bought the Identity Discs, the Light Cycles, I was a Tron fan before I even saw 10 seconds of film footage from either of the movies! I am one of the biggest fans of Tron you will ever know, so it should come as no shock that I love this movie. Tron Legacy is a very, very, very good movie. Where do I start with this movie? Well story is a great place to begin always, so we set the wayback machine to 1989, Kevin Flynn has been working in The Grid for 7 years, he has a son named Sam and life is going pretty good. Then he disappears for about 20 years. Good catch and intrigue already! We catch up with Sam, and he gets contacted by Alan and he tells Sam that he got a message from his dad's arcade so Sam investigates and gets sent to The Grid! After that, tons happens. We learn Flynn made a program Clu that went rogue and took over the system, a new lifeform is discovered in The Grid, and it's a mad rush for our heroes to get back to reality before Clu does. There's almost too much good in this movie. The effects are outstanding, we see such evolution in The Grid and all it's aspects, and there is such little details in every scene that is incredible to see! Characters have deep emotional connections to one another, relationships are explored, and it's interesting to delve into the character of Flynn. I could write an essay on it, but let's just say he's a damn fine character. But character is nothing without actors, and the cast is done really well! Jeff Bridges is full in The Dude mode and ugh I love it! Olivia Wilde really kinda steals the show for me, she is such an interesting character and her acting is amazing (plus I love the fact that her eyes are so ridiculously beautiful they didn't need to add contacts). Garrett Hedlund is a fine lead and and despite me not seeing him in much afterward, he should have more roles. The only "bad"? role is Michael Sheen as the owner of this bar. Oh my dear sweet brother Numsie! He is doing the exact same damn role as he did in the Twilight movies. Mugging, ridiculous, faye as hell. I just, I can't. You know who they should have got instead? David Bowie. It would have been perfect. But Bruce Boxleitner makes up for that and then some. Like, lightyears some mmkay? Ohh, and the music! Damn it Daft Punk! I am so geeking over this movie! When a movie can get goosebumps out of me in literally the first minute of film, and continually do so throughout is something special. This is one of the most, if not the most gorgeous film I have ever seen. Almost every frame is art, the designs and color are incredible, it just looks so impressive. And you know what the odd thing was? Well, not just the fact they had real sets and costumes along with the computer graphics but the real world segments kinda looked like it was a very high quality fan film. And I love that! It reminds me of this fan made trailer some person made, I believe it was called Tron The Next Day. Kinda this pseudo-prequel to the third film, and it was done so damn well! Just, oh God....I've never seen such a gorgeous film in my life. Yeah I'm biased, the guy who is a big enough nerd to have not one but two Tron stickers on his laptop may be a tiny little bit partial to the Tron movies. I just have such fond memories of all the stuff surrounding the movie. The Flynn Lives website, that badass video game identifier they had, getting all this rad stuff, playing Space Paranoids! I went to a Wal-Mart the day Tron Legacy hit video, midnight launch, it was a school day afterward but I did not care. I needed that movie. And I got it. The only ever so slightly bad thing I can say about this movie is the last shot is not as impressive and beautiful as the last movie. That is nitpicking, at best people. I'm probably the only critic who legitimately loves this movie, but I do not care. Tron Legacy is a sure fire 4 stars! Check it out! And please Disney make Tron 3 before I hit 40!!