Top Gun: Maverick Reviews

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of ‘Top Gun’ but since this sequel had been a massive commercial and critical success, I was quite eager to check it out before the end of this year. Well, I have to admit that I actually ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing. Maybe it was due to the fact that my expectations were too high after hearing so many great things about this movie or it was because I saw it at home and maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had managed to see it in the movie theater. Still, there is no denying that it was a really satisfying sequel and even an improvement on its predecessor. Indeed, the damned thing was just so spectacular, you have to appreciate all the efforts they took to avoid green screens and to make it look as real as possible. As a result, the action scenes were just visceral and quite thrilling to behold. It was also pretty neat how they tried to emulate Tony Scott’s directing style, especially with the intro. However, what made this movie really stand out from its predecessor was the emotional baggage involved. Indeed, Maverick did grow older, by the time this 2^nd movie was taking place, the guy should have retired or at least been promoted but he basically spent his whole career burning bridges which was maybe cute when he was younger but not so much nowadays. On top of that, he was still struggling with what happened to Goose so many years ago and the scene with Val Kilmer, himself a cancer survivor, was quite heartbreaking. Basically, Maverick was this time much more vulnerable which made him a much more interesting character. And, yet, in my opinion, the whole thing was still too much over-the-top for my taste and half of the plot was still rather preposterous. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, I have to admit that it was still seriously entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.