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Top Gun: Maverick: Sequel loses Chinese investor due to pro-U.S. messaging

I'm okay with the flag of Republic of China. Anyway, it's a fun flick with spectacular flight scenes. Don't judge it like it's going for an Oscar.
 
I will pass on this. Been 10 years since I watched any Hollywood movie. My favorite Western story would have to be The Hobbit (to me Lord of the Rings is so lame, the Hobbit much better). Get a movie adaptation of THAT right (not the abomination made by Peter Jackson) and I might give Hollywood another go...
 
I will pass on this. Been 10 years since I watched any Hollywood movie. My favorite Western story would have to be The Hobbit (to me Lord of the Rings is so lame, the Hobbit much better). Get a movie adaptation of THAT right (not the abomination made by Peter Jackson) and I might give Hollywood another go...
I almost read this as you liking the Hobbit movies over the LOTR masterpiece movies.
That would be horrible.
 
Taiwan cheers ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ for defying Chinese censors


Tom Cruise on the set of Top Gun.

Tom Cruise on the set of “Top Gun.”
Paramount Pictures | Sunset Boulevard | Corbis | Getty Images


After 36 years, the sequel to the Tom Cruise movie classic “Top Gun” is a critical and commercial success, earning $248 million at the global box office on its opening weekend. In Taiwan, it’s also being celebrated for another reason: not pandering to China.

In 2019, the trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick” showed Cruise’s character, U.S. Navy pilot Pete Mitchell, in the same bomber jacket he wore in the original film. But two of its flag patches — representing Japan and the Republic of China, the official name for Taiwan — appeared to have been replaced by other emblems.

The move was criticized at the time as an act of self-censorship to please China’s censors. Beijing sees Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy of 24 million people, as an inalienable part of its territory and lashes out at any reference to it as a sovereign nation.

Hollywood frequently abides by Beijing’s sensitivities to gain access to and reap profits from the lucrative Chinese market. Last year, “Fast & Furious” actor John Cena apologized profusely in Mandarin to his Chinese fans for calling Taiwan a country during a publicity tour for the latest film in the franchise.

Experts say the inclusion of the Taiwanese flag in “Top Gun: Maverick” may suggest a shift in Hollywood away from its culture of deference to China’s red lines.

“There have been several recent instances of big-budget U.S. films not getting into the Chinese market. Studios are aware of this and are making business decisions,” said Aynne Kokas, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of “Hollywood Made in China.”

Hollywood blockbusters including the Marvel films “Eternals” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” have been kept from Chinese screens after directors or actors involved in the films made comments critical of China.

The Chinese tech giant Tencent had said in 2019 that it was investing in the “Top Gun” sequel; it later pulled out over concerns that its support for a film with strong pro-U.S. military themes would anger officials in the ruling Communist Party, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the financing.

 
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I'm okay with the flag of Republic of China. Anyway, it's a fun flick with spectacular flight scenes. Don't judge it like it's going for an Oscar.
Top Gun : Maverick would most likely win an oscar on editing or sound. Probably not best actor or best movie or even best director...
 
I watch it last weekend, it was last showing so I got the whole theater for myself.
My review is that it's kinda...mixed. I guess I got too hyped and wish there were more action, don't get me wrong the stuff with Rooster (Goose's son) and Iceman cameo are very well done, but after a decade of watching Macross Plus, Macross Zero and playing Ace Combat, I expect something more grandiose.
The Dark Star supercraft shown in the beginning should be the final boss or something, and JenCon is really so old now, she looks like an old man.
Also, the music wasn't as iconic, yeah you hear Highway to the Danger Zone in the beginning and that was hype, but after that, no more memorable songs, not even Mighty Wings.
 
I will pass on this. Been 10 years since I watched any Hollywood movie. My favorite Western story would have to be The Hobbit (to me Lord of the Rings is so lame, the Hobbit much better). Get a movie adaptation of THAT right (not the abomination made by Peter Jackson) and I might give Hollywood another go...
Are you talking about the Hobbit book or the movies? The movies were an abomination.

The LOTR movies were epic,although TTT and ROTK had a lot of things that were not in the books and some annoying changes.
 

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