Top Gun: Maverick

Boing!

Boing!

Kenny Loggins!

Not often does a sequel pay off.  And even less often does a legacy sequel work out. But boy, oh boy did this one work. 

My 4th favourite movie of 2022 was Top Gun: Maverick.  I think everyone liked it and, to be fair, you could blame them.

So a brief summary of the story.  Tom Cruise is back at Top Gun training the next generation to take on a mission against an unnamed and unfaced enemy.  The new kids aren't good enough so Maverick has to get it done.  It's nothing complex.  Like I said, the enemy are nameless and faceless, they are there basically for something to attack, and the mission is the trench run from Star Wars.  But it doesn't have to be complicated.  I want to see Tom Cruise do ridiculous things in jets and that's what I got.

This is a movie where the spectacle is important and they did it right.  All practical stunts, with the actors in the air, turning left and right at speed.  Planes with the actual cast doing rolls and pitches and going inverted.  At times it's clear they're not really acting but reacting to how real the situation is.  I mean how do you act the G-forces that are kicked up when a jet takes off an aircraft carrier?  Simple answer, you don't.  You just launch them at full speed towards the oceans.  Simple as that.

This movie was scheduled to be released before cinemas locked down and Tom Cruise fought to keep off streaming services and boy did it pay off.  The spectacle of real actors in real planes doing real stunts is excellent.  It is a non stop adrenaline thrill ride.  

Like I said it's a simple movie and that benefits it.  It never gets bogged down in politics, complex plot twists or pointless humour.  It is fan service done right.

Yes people, I've been to the Danger Zone.