January 2023 - Writing from Neverland

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023

Fannish_Fifty: Top Gun Maverick (2022)

Top Gun Maverick 2022 – one of the more talked about movies in several friend groups I inhabit. AKA It’s COOL, Totally FINE, didn’t need THOSE EMOTIONS and also WHOO DOGFIGHTS movie.

I watched this one directly after watching the first one (for the first time) which was An Experience. I am un-endingly glad I did not see this one in theaters. It was intense enough on my living room TV, watching it in the theater would have been bad for my nerves and senses.

I came to the conclusion that much like with Star Trek (2009) and Zachary Quinto – Top Gun Maverick needed to wait until Miles Teller was old enough to star in it. The casting there placed against the casting of Anthony Edwards in the first one was absolutely stellar – especially visually. Like that scene with the piano? The nostalgia tipped spear of feels that gave me was really visceral. That was only the beginning too.

Val Kilmer broke my heart and I was in a glass case of emotions for all of that. OW. This is supposed to be an action movie, it’s not supposed to rip out my still beating heart and show it to me as well.

I will admit a lot of the impetus for me to see this movie originally (and also providing the push needed to finally sit down and watch the first one) came from having read a spectacular crossover fanfic that got me super curious about the source material.

I love the Mav and Hondo relationship – it’s the best. Overall, this was a good successor to the first one. Just enough callbacks to the first one and it was its own movie with its own plot. It wasn’t a copy-paste New Generation remake of the first one.

10/10 would rewatch (but not on a huge screen. I’m old and my heart can’t take the pressure).

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023

Fannish Fifty: Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun (1986) – the movie that broke box office records and became not only an iconic hit but also a culturally relevant one, landing itself in the National Film Registry.

It was also, up to Jan 2023, a movie I’d never seen before. Despite seeing every other single action and war flick known under the sun because of my father – somehow this movie missed the cut.

It wasn’t until people in my friend circle started sputtering when I told them that I hadn’t seen it that I realized I should probably rectify that. Also, the sequel had just hit streaming and that one looked fascinating.

Upon asking my parents about why I’d never seen it with them, the answer I got back was that there was some trauma around the movie and someone in their friend circle on base using a lot of Top Gun references with the guy they were cheating on their husband with around the time it was released.

My initial two reactions to this film were as follows:

Okay so Tom Cruise has just always been Like That.
Oh hey I know that song/actor!

All joking aside, I was entertained by the film and I can definitely see the nostalgia bits that everyone loves. I’m a sucker for a good action flick and this one delivered.

January 3, 2023January 3, 2023

Fannish_50: The Mummy (1999) : Jonathan Carnahan

This is one of my favorite movies, I won’t lie. I often put it on as background noise if I’m not watching or listening to something specific. It’s essentially my favorite kind of story – adventure, curses, found family, and hijinks. A kind of happy ending that gives me resolution while also leaving it open for future stories. However, one of my favorite parts of it is the characterization of the main protagonists. Specifically Jonathan Carnahan.

Jonathan occupies a really important role in the movie, serving as comic relief that is actually comic rather than stupid and who also serves as a valuable plot mover. He comes off as the incompetent buffoon except while the buffoon part could possibly be argued for, Jonathan is anything but incompetent.

So let’s review what we know to be true from the film itself. Jonathan can read Ancient Egyptian, even if it is not to the same degree his sister can. He’s clearly interested in archaeology to the point of being on digs himself – which would have required extensive schooling to qualify for those kinds of permits. The “dig down in Thebes” line alludes to that and Evie clearly believes him when he tells her where he found it.

Jonathan also doesn’t miss when he shoots and he clearly has some boxing experience. Given the timeperiod of the movie, he’s the right age to have fought in WWI (So’s Rick and the French Foreign Legion did fight in WWI but that’s a different post) and that makes everything about him make so much more sense.

Jonathan, much like Phryne Fisher in one of my favorite period mystery shows, hasn’t taken anything seriously since 1918 and for pretty much the same reasons. He’s exactly the sort of soldier who got disillusioned from seeing what he did and since it didn’t actually kill him, he’s jumped from that into something slightly less dangerous. Archaeology was dangerous, not necessarily from curses, but just from people with guns shooting at you. He’s living it up when he can and trying not to give in to those darker impulses.

Evie: Have you no respect for the dead?

Jonathan: Of course I do, but sometimes I’d rather like to join them.

John Hannah, who plays Jonathan, conveyed all this perfectly on screen. He didn’t have to spell it out for us, just the hints of it existing were perfect.