Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

“Your instructor is one of the finest pilots this program has ever produced. His exploits are legendary. What he has to teach you could mean the very difference between life and death.” – Coleman

Number of Times Seen – 1 (25 May 2022)

Brief Synopsis – Maverick is brought back to ‘Top Gun’ in order to help train some of the Navy’s best pilots for an extremely dangerous mission.

My Take on it – Thi si a film that I have been both anticipating and drwading for quite some time.

I am a HUGE fan of the poriginal film and as a movie fan, I’m well aware of the fcat that many seuqels end up ruining the characters and storyline that might have seemed so closed ended beforehand.

This film actually is able to create something that works really well and fits in with the timeline of these characters and still remains believable.

Tom Cruise easily falls right back into the shoes of Maverick and it’s easy to see from the start which of Maverick’s qualities have ‘grown up’ along with him over 36 years and which have still remained with him despite the passing of years.

The film would have been quite different if the late Tony Scott was still at the helm, yet the way that this story is built still works quite well.

The movie chooses to be more of a drama than a action film and that helps keep some of the story feel more powerful, but at the same time, slightly diminishes the impact of some of the action scenes even on the big screen.

The film has some nice twists and turns along the way despite being a bit too predictable in some of the movie tropes they instill here.

The cast of characters and actors are almost entirely new to this film, but that actually fits well into the way that this story is mostly about the ‘next’ generation of pilots and many of the choices here help enhance that fact.

They do a nice job showing how a nearly 60 year old active duty pilot might act especially when given the task of training younger recruits for a mission that must rely on older technology instead of more advanced ones.

This is a movie that I think I will need to watch again in order to enjoy it even more because they are some nice flashes of genius along the way that show even greater potential.

Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – At the insistence of Tom Cruise, there are no green screen or CGI aerial shots in the film, and even the close up cockpit shots are taken during real in-flight sequences. This meant that much of the cast had to undergo extensive G-force training sessions, to withstand the physical demands of the G-force pressures during flights. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)