Top Gun: Maverick
100 words or less:
As someone born since the original Top Gun was released, I didn’t grow up with that being a movie that had shaped my viewing of cinema. I hadn’t seen the original Top Gun movie until I watched it about 3 weeks before the sequel released. That being said, I believe this is not only a worthy sequel to the first, but due to the advances in camera technology and special effect, I dare to say this is better than the original, which is of course, a classic.
Full Review:
Like I stated about, I didn’t watch the original Top Gun until I was 27 and the sequel was about to release. That being said, I was very impressed with how well the majority of the movie held up in terms of storyline, effects, and character development (the main thing that didn’t age well was the fact that Maverick would have been discharged for sexual harassment).
With that being said, through better cameras, including a rig that is able to fit inside the cockpit of the jets of the movie, better CGI, and general advances in filmmaking in general, the sequel takes a massive leap forward. The dogfights hit harder and feel more intense when you see the actors faces deforming and tensing as the do their best not to pass out because of the maneuvers they are experiencing. The Story tells a much more nuanced tale of a man whose past is coming back to haunt him in the form of his former wingman/best friend’s son becomes his student and is one of a handful of pilots who are being trained to go on what is best described as a suicide mission.
Anyone who has seen Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler knows that movie was just a wall to wall panic attack waiting to happen because of how tense it was. In my opinion that movie failed because I didn’t care for the character so I didn’t feel as concerned for him when things weren’t going his way and the tense atmosphere of the film fell flat in my opinion. Top Gun: Maverick is also a very tense movie as you are told from the beginning that there is a good chance someone won’t make it to the end credits. This makes every training lesson, and every time the characters take off in their planes just as tense as the Uncut Gems, but this time, you actually care about each character for one reason or another and are pulling for them to succeed and make it back to ground safely.
Yes, this movie is fantastic, and yes it is a feel good movie at the end of the day, but there are some cheesy clichés throughout but I wager that nobody minds them because of the excellent writing and the amazing characters that fill the movie and make the whole thing a pleasure to watch from beginning to end.
9.5/10 Great Balls of Fire.
