So, I finally got to see Top Gun: Maverick. I was prepared to go on my own, but in the end, my friend came with me as she wanted to see it again. I’d been keen to watch it for ages because I’d heard so many great things about it.
And you know what? It lived up to the hype! It was a great movie. A really great movie. It’s just what the world needs right now. It’s a movie where the lines between good and bad are clear, the action was engaging and fun, there was some light humor, and it was a simply engaging film that even brought a tear to my eye at the end. The flight scenes are totally amazing too.
It is the perfect movie for a world still reeling from the upheaval of 2020.
Tom Cruise is back as Maverick. He’s been a test pilot for the Navy for some time and he’s still ruffling feathers and pushing the limits of what he can and can’t do. He’s sent back to Top Gun school, at the orders of Val Kilmer’s Iceman, to teach the top pilots an impossible mission. One of those pilots is Rooster, the son of Goose, Maverick’s wingman from the first movie. And there is plenty of anger from Rooster towards Maverick, for several good reasons. And Maverick holds plenty of guilt himself. The two are forced to work together and overcome their differences as Maverick pushes all the pilots to their limits.
Jennifer Connoly features also in the film as an old girlfriend of Mavericks. Their scenes are funny and sweet. It feels like nostalgia without the disappointment that almost always follows when encountering these types of movies. You want to love them, and part of you does, the young you, the one that loved it as a kid, but seen through the eyes of an adult, it’s simply not that good. There is a reason that we can’t recapture our youth, it’s simply not possible. But Top Gun: Maverick gives us the nostalgia we crave but reminds us that we can’t capture our youth or our past. We can learn from it and do better.
Although I’m not sure Tom Cruise’s Maverick will ever really learn. His need for speed will always outrun his desire to stay inside the lines.