Tom Cruise, as Navy pilot Maverick, stares at sun setting near his Super Hornet air craft.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Review

Why is this film in the billion-dollar club? Top Gun: Maverick is spectacular! When I watched this in the theater, I flinched and shouted from the tension onscreen, which only happens when I’m on a roller coaster or airplane. So, it was super effective. I have not seen Top Gun (1986). Yet, I managed to enjoy this without feeling lost or confused, a testament to how the filmmakers delivered a solid story. Not easy to make an old franchise relevant to a new audience.

Veteran pilot, Maverick executes extremely difficult aerial maneuver.

It has been 36 years since the original came out. Of course, the pandemic played a role in the delay, as well as the loss of the original director and the Tailhook Scandal. Like The Little Engine That Could, production persevered. Fast forward to 2022, a couple of years from its original release, the movie grossed $520,836,963 domestically and $486,100,000 internationally, according to Box Office Mojo.

Maverick zooms down the road on a tricked out motorcyle smiling.

Totally worth every cent. TGM is about the best aviator in the Navy, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise). He tests new aircraft technology which might one-day render pilots obsolete. The script is simple and fast-paced. I didn’t know a thing about fighter planes before. Afterwards, I learned a Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is superior to an F-14 Tomcat.

The best fighter pilots in the world do push-ups after losing a training session with Maverick.

Going in, I expected a propaganda film stuffed with patriotic messages. I couldn’t have been more wrong. TGM has more than enough action, clever dialogue, raw emotion and high stakes to keep the blood pumping. There’s a sense of nostalgia in how the narrative flowed. The music score played a huge role as well, a call back to when films provided escapism and taught subtle moral lessons. Top Gun: Maverick gets a 9 out of 10.

Maverick rides his motorcycle with a beautiful woman on the rear. Their hair flows in the wind as both of them smile.

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