Top Gun: Maverick

History. I’m preparing myself for the upcoming May 27th release of Top Gun: Maverick. To be blunt, I’m still disappointed by the first movie which was released in 1986, so I’m bracing to be disappointed again. Make no mistake, I am an aviation enthusiast and I did really enjoy the flying action scenes with the F-14’s in the first movie. The flying shots were well thought out and captured on film. So, what’s not to like? Well … the rest of the story. The content that is left over when you take out the aircraft and the flying. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it best, “”Movies like Top Gun are hard to review because the good parts are so good and the bad parts are so relentless.”

Current. On to the recent release, Top Gun: Maverick. As before the flying sequences were quite good. But again it was against the backdrop of, well, a dumb story. As before the story is written to feature studly macho bravado against the lone-wolf instinct on the part of Maverick. The strenuously independent behavior of Maverick flies in the face of military discipline and is where I part company with the story.

The old timer, Maverick, is finally brought in to lead a group of Top Gun fighter jocks to bomb a highly defended hard target in what looks like a deep crater with impossibly steep walls. Among the best of the best, Maverick is regarded by old timers to be the very best despite his undisciplined ways. Of course, the new generation of fighter pilots are skeptical.

A lot happens … yada, yada, … love interest … yada, yada … guilt trip …. etc, etc … steal a fighter from the enemy … resolve to overcome adversity one more time … zip, zing, zowie … triumph!!

A movie is entertainment that requires you to set aside disbelief. Very often I can do it. But this time I couldn’t.