It has been months since I have been to a movie – in the cinema. But the other day I went to see Top Gun Maverick. If you like the original Top Gun movie, then I think you will love this sequel. It is everything that you think of when you hear the words Top Gun – military uniforms, cocky pilots, fast motorcycles and even faster airplanes. 

Overall, I would say that Top Gun Maverick was better than I expected. But not as good as I would hope.

I liked the secondary focus on the relationships between Pete (Tom Cruise) and the other characters (fast planes will always be the primary focus). In many ways I liked that the ‘villain’ was a nondescript insulation in a nearly impossible to reach location that needed to be exploded with a high degree of precision. There was an elegance to the simplicity of the objective. 

But as a selfish viewer, I really wanted more. 

Tom Cruise was either smiling or emotional – where emotion equates to quick bursts of anger or sadness. These were really his only two modes of existence and fortunately for movie goers, smiling was the more prevalent of his expressions. He was a man in motion, running, motorcycle riding or flying. Which means there was little time left for deeper character exploration. 

And that is what I would like to have seen. Development of the other characters. There were a lot of them. And the important ones are all recognized by single attributes: 

• the girl pilot, 
• the nerdy navigator, 
• the black American pilot, 
• the Asian navigator, 
• the cocky-arrogant young pilot (to differentiate from the old Top Gun crew), 
• the black supporting guy – who must have been a personal aid to Tom Cruise cause he showed up everywhere, 
• the angry old admiral, 
• the angry younger admiral, 
• and the love interest woman. 

I know speeding fighter planes are going to feature dominantly in the movie, but they could have cut back on some of the cockpit moments of heavy breathing to build some characterization through conversation between the other pilots. I am pretty confident it would have improved the film. I certainly would have enjoyed a slightly more complex plot. 

Maverick does a great job of feeling nostalgic. The opening immediately harkens back to the classic scenes and images from the first Top Gun. Even the music is a link back to Top Gun. The new generation of pilots feel like modern analogues to the original cast – though this is more supposition than fact since I don’t really remember the original movie very well. The motorcycle is still there, the sunset shots of airplane landings and takeoffs still look good on the big screen. And some of the original cast have cameos in this sequel. 

Like I said at the start, if you are a fan of Top Gun, then I think you are going to love Maverick. It delivers on its promise of fast planes, Tom Cruises’ smile and a hurrah ending.