Originally Posted by
Commando Cody
They didn't say there was no CGI in Top Gun 2. What they said was that there was no CGI used for any of the Super Hornets' flying (although there was some juxtaposition of shots for the shot of one flying under the tail of another one); everything you saw them do they really did and unlike the first one, the actors really were in the Super Bugs for teh close-ups (except for the shot of TC being in an E by himself, the acknowledged they digitally inserted his face), they were in the rear seats of Fs (you can see the cheater bars) . Now there was no way to get an SU-57 in there without CGI, and the Iranians wee rnot going to let them borrow an F-14, so those were CGI (and it was excellent). One thing, if you've ever watched an F-14 launch, wit the wings straight out it's angle of climb would have allowed it to avoid getting its gear knocked off.
I understand how the filming of the Super Hornets worked, thanks. For the most part it was, as you say, real flying with the actors in the aircraft (clearly in two seaters - I don't think anyone with any knowledge supposes they were flying single seaters), but yes there was still CGI for a few of the Super Hornet scenes.
Overall though, I'd agree that the CGI of the Tomcats and Su-57s was outstanding, to the extent that had I not known there was no way they could have used real aircraft, I would have believed them to be real aircraft!