Some Trailers have hit the Net pre xmas. Here is what we think / know.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
This looks REALLY good. The effects are immersive and truly take you to the stresses of high level flight as much as the sheer exhilaration. There is a bit of aesthetic and musical nostalgia but no presumption of a connection to the film’s lore, either. Tom Cruise is front and centre of the action here and whilst being age appropriate, the younger cast are getting a parallel story rather than yet another soft reboot lazy torch passing.
Drawbacks? They go on a BIT about Maverick /Cruise being the ‘BEST’. Which he is in EVERY film. ‘TOP lawyer’. ‘TOP Doctor’. ‘TOP Gambler’. His whole CV is about being the best, even when a vampire or hit-man or criminal. Imagine Tom playing the ‘worst’ or the ‘just average’. Now THAT would be a stretch. I think this will hit big though need not make a billion to be deemed a success as this is not Mission:Impossible (remember; 30 year plus old IP; Belated sequel; mixed demographic target?). Looks good. Cannot wait to see it!
TENET
I have no idea what this is about. It has something to do with the afterlife and with espionage? Basically, Source Code, on a bigger budget and with twist given, upfront? And because that’s Christopher Nolan, everyone will think it’s amazing and high art rather than a James Bond film with some fancier exposition and longer running time. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE a good Nolan film. It’s just that I define ‘good’ in his catalogue as: Batman Begins, Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk. You all define it as: Dark Knight, Prestige, Inception etc. In my view, the simpler he is, the clearer his films become. When he tries to add on high philosophy, it blurs tone and purpose and elongates the pace.
The idea that Nolan is now a brand, akin to Spielberg? I still don’t ‘get’ that. I do not get how his ideas become event films. To me, he is ‘clever’ in an era whereby the bar for that term is exceedingly low. Whilst many compare him to Kubrick and he is undeniably intellectual and moral in his motifs, there is an equal and opposite argument whereby one can see, precisely, the straight to video Blockbuster video era tropes that he has simply up-scaled. Same here. I’m curious. I’ll see it. It is visually stunning, stimulating stuff with an A List cast. But it’s also, in its way, every bit as glossy and commercial as yet another Bond /Batman. Nolan also continues casting his own clones: Robert Pattinson (good) and Ken Branagh (please, keep your shirt on) are in this.
But hey; Nolan gave me ‘the café in Florence’ so I will watch anything he makes.
Why not see them on your own big screens for years to come? Rent big LED screens!
Happy Christmas, meantime 🙂
