Movie Thoughts: Top Gun- Maverick

Too bad Tom Cruise is a cult leader. He’s great at what he does.

I never saw the first Top Gun. It was released two days before I was born. My parents had the VHS all through my childhood. It always looked lame to me. Like a love story with planes.

This one is lots of fun, the comments about it being a 2 hour Navy commercial are accurate but still, what a fucking thrill. Jets jets jets. Cheesy ass dialogue. I liked how they got Maverick into his original plane. The plot twists and turns just like the jets on the obstacle course they’re expected to complete. Characters explain what’s going on without being too obvious. Cinematography better than the dialogue deserves. There’s montages of fighter jets arcing through dusty yellow sky. A distant firework of a plane flaming out at lavender sunset. Pilots heaving breath against G-forces. I know next to nothing about flying and I was always enthralled. This is a darn good movie. The aerial stunts and real planes are worth watching — what military technology hath wrought. “See me now?” That is crazy.

Cruise earns his paycheck with a his usual million dollar grin. (How is this man sixty?) Jennifer Connelly’s character doesn’t need to be here and she knows it. Jon Hamm is the token disapproving higher-up. Miles Teller gives off nothing but d-bag vibes and he looks five years older with his fireman mustache but he serves his role just fine. The other pilots are soap-opera-level actors. Ed Harris has a near-cameo as a grizzled wise general who’s done with Maverick’s shit. Val Kilmer also reprises his Iceman role in another near-cameo and is given a respectful sendoff — it’s not often you know it’ll be the last time you see an actor on screen. I salute him. Gay Perry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is such an underrated performance.

I wasn’t blown away — the movie has its flaws, but it’s aware of them and does its best to steer clear, and ultimately the real-world weight of the practical stunts/special effects and the overall tightness of the script join forces to make this a summer flick worth watching, preferably on a big screen.