Top Gun: Maverick has had a long journey to cinema screens, 36 years since
the iconic original hit cinema screens the sequel finally flies into
cinemas after a delay of three years due to the COVID pandemic.
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise), after more than thirty years of
service as one of the Navy's top aviators, is now a test pilot. When
someone or some country, the exact identity is never made clear, unlike the
original where the Russians were enemy. This time Top Gun: Maverick plays
safe and just has the adversary as some nameless and faceless country.
After the bad guys have built an underground nuclear plant Maverick finds
himself back in the same Top Gun training school we all remember from all
these years ago. Here he’s tasked with training a new generation of the
navy’s top pilots. Their mission to fly at low level in the mountains and
destroy the said nuclear plant.
Just to add some tension one of the pilots is Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles
Teller), call sign "Rooster", the son of Maverick's late friend and Radar
Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka "Goose".
You could never describe Top Gun (1986) as having a great story but
thankfully the same can’t be said of Top Gun: Maverick. Its plot, which has
more than a striking similarity to a plot from a certain Star Wars film, is
more substantial than the original and thanks in no small part to better
characters, Jennifer Connelly shines as Mavericks love interest whilst Jon
Hamm plays the bad tempered base commander and Val Kilmer reprises his role
as “Iceman”, Top Gun: Maverick is just about better in every way than its
predecessor.
With terrific flying sequences and nostalgia by the bucket load Top Gun:
Maverick has set a high bench mark for other blockbuster films due over the
summer.
Highly recommended and not to be missed.
