Top Gun: Maverick – 2022 – PG13
Curbing my enthusiasm was not in the cards when I heard TG2 would be released on my June 2020 birthday! Girls night out! Top Gun hats for party favors! And then came Covid, pandemic, quarantine. Grounded! Instead I celebrated with a small group of intrepid, socially distanced friends for a backyard projection of the 1986 original. When the sequel was finally released this summer, two years later than expected and 36 years after cult favorites Maverick, Iceman and Goose roared overhead and buzzed the control tower, true confessions, it felt a tiny bit anticlimactic. Tiny. But once settled into the theater, everything was right with the sky and I even did my best to drum the sparse, docile crowd into a Super Hornet jet frenzy with cheers and applause. The film is a blast, full of ridiculous human drama and a military mission straight from Star Wars, but such loud fun!
Two gripes though: one, the whole Rooster-son-of-tragically-killed-TG1-Goose grudge storyline detracted from the ensemble of characters. Too much unnecessary tension. Two, ghosting Charlie (Kelly McGillis) with Penny (Jennifer Connelly) as Maverick’s TG2 new love interest might make sense from a casting point of view but I needed Charlie to minimally make a cameo! Boo! However, kudos to the producers for Iceman Val Kilmer’s inclusion. He is one of my all time favorite actors (Doc Holliday in Tombstone, epic!) who, surviving throat cancer, needed AI technology and archival audio for his voice to be recreated. The exchange between Cruise and Kilmer made me absolutely verklempt.
All in all, locked and loaded with superb action, defying stunts, booms and blasts, gasps and laughs….buckle up for an emotional and aerial big screen adventure. EXACTLY why I go to the movies! Now, if I could just figure out how to buzz the projection room! Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!
We saw it today too with a similarly enthusiastic response. I was trying to predict who of the 5 would die. Was happily wrong. The ending gave too much of a video game feel to it and my mind wandered. I loved that Tom Cruise’s veteran status was held against him but became an asset in a satisfying twist.