Well, that was something.
I'd heard about this movie, of course; I'd seen clips online. But I never saw it in the theaters, which is one of the very few movies of the past few years I regret having missed. Thankfully, our son bought it for us as a post-Christmas gift, so the wife and I sat down to watch an overload of testosterone and manliness.
What a great movie.
The first criteria for that statement is that both my wife and I not only watched it, but enjoyed it. Movies that qualify for that are as rare as hen's teeth. But this was a lot of fun for both of us, so it's getting a full five stars on that alone.
But beyond that, this movie shows just how dedicated Tom Cruise is to entertaining the hell out of people. I've seen the videos where the actors trained to actually fly planes, did underwater training, and all sorts of crazy stuff to prep for this movie. And it shows; it's the most believable, realistic aerial scenes I can remember ever watching. Granted, I'm not a pilot. But after watching this, I wish I was.
***SPOILER ALERT BEGINS***
So, the story. It's thirty years after the original Top Gun movie; Iceman is an admiral, Goose is still dead, and Maverick is still a captain and a test pilot, flying a test mission to save a project that is about to be axed for budgetary reasons. He breaks Mach 10, then breaks the plane. The admiral in charge wants to can him into oblivion, but instead he is summoned back to Top Gun to train the best pilots in the Navy to accomplish a near-impossible mission.
I've seen some videos from actual fighter pilots who were watching this movie, and while there are some parts of it that they said flat-out don't work that way, overall they had a very favorable impression of the movie, and confirmed that what we were seeing on the screen was real, not CGI. That's good enough for me.
Maverick dogfights the elite pilots into submission, then tries to teach them how to fly the mission. When all else fails and he's about to be permanently grounded, he flies the mission test himself to prove that it can be done, and in so doing is named team leader. The mission is flown and the team all come back alive, although not before Maverick and Rooster (Goose's son, played by Miles Teller) are shot down and have to steal an old F-14 and dogfight SU-57 5th-gen fighters to get back to the carrier.
Yeah, I skimmed over a bunch of stuff, like the ever-beautiful Jennifer Connelly as Maverick's love interest. The woman is at least as old as I am and is still one of the most beautiful women on the planet. She's come a long way from Labyrinth, that's for sure.
***END SPOILER ALERTS***
This movie was phenomenal; it didn't insult the audience, it didn't preach a message other than 'flying fighters jets is insanely cool', and it was entertaining from start to finish. The music is on point, some of it cribbed directly from the original movie, some of it modifying themes from the original score. The cinematography is gorgeous, the landscapes are beautiful, the planes are sleek and deadly, and the actors were clearly having the time of their lives making this movie. What more could you ask?
If you haven't seen this movie yet, see it. It's awesome. You won't regret it in the slightest.
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