Top Gun: Maverick

[Jared]

The reviews have been overwhelmingly, shockingly positive. I saw it at the early screenings Tuesday night.. And...it's true, all of it.

This is what every other legacy-sequel wishes it could be. (With all due respect to Mad Max Fury Road, which is more of a standalone sharing a premise with older flicks). It manages to improve on almost every aspect of the original without resorting to making fun the original. Dont get me wrong here's, i know there's plenty to make fun of about Top Gun, but cheap meta jokes would kill the atmosphere.

The aerial scenes are the best ever filmed. The final act of this movie, when we get to thr mission it's all been building toward, blows away every other fighter action sequence. I might even include spacecraft, too.

The emotional througline of the movie is a missle ruthlessly engineered intended for one purpose: to make grown men cry.

The whole cast is wonderful, and Cruise actually delivers a heartfelt, moving performance. If Magnolia and Born on the 4th of July are hso career best performances, this could move comfortably into the 3 slot, and it's a popcorn flick no less!

The romance with Jennifer Connely feels more believable it ever did with Kelly McGillis. However, it gets much less focus than thr love story did in the first one. Their scenes are good, but almost superfluous to the main story here, which could dissapoint some.

The music industry is changed a lot from '86, so we don't get a full soundtrackalbum with 9 or 10 orignal songs anymore. But there's an effective use of classics and a couple new ones. Lady Gaga's power ballad is tailor made for at least an Oscar nomination.

The movie should very well during awards season for editing, cinematography, sound, VFX, maybe directing and possibly even lead actor. (I think Cruise's cult baggage could be his biggest detriment there)

I suspect this would be quite enjoyable even to someone who has never seen the first, and likely to many people who saw it but never liked it.

I'm amazed the filmmakers actually pulled this off. I recommend seeing this in the biggest, loudest theater possible. You want your insides to vibrate with the afterburners.

[AnakinFlair]

I'm going to go see this tomorrow night. I thought about doing it in IMAX, but the closest to me is in a dead mall (literally. The only things left in the mall are the theater, a V-Stock, a Cheesecake Factory, Macys, some art galleries, some testing sites, and an arcade/vintage toy store) and I hate going there now.

Say what you want about Tom Cruise personally, but I admire the effort he puts into his roles. He gives everything he's got in every role he takes on.

[Jared]

I'm going to go see this tomorrow night. I thought about doing it in IMAX, but the closest to me is in a dead mall (literally. The only things left in the mall are the theater, a V-Stock, a Cheesecake Factory, Macys, some art galleries, some testing sites, and an arcade/vintage toy store) and I hate going there now.

Say what you want about Tom Cruise personally, but I admire the effort he puts into his roles. He gives everything he's got in every role he takes on.

If he could, it seems like he would want real bullets and missiles shooting at him. The man wants to die on film.

[Hiromi]

This might have been the best Summer movie I've seen since Infinity War, it certainly has the best footage and cinematography of any military fighter movie since... well probably the first Top Gun, albeit this time with over three decades of technological and technique improvement. Great acting by everyone involved, really moved by Val Kilmer's scene perfect balance of callbacks without it being overwhelming, just a fantastic movie and one I plan on seeing again, also one absolutely worth seeing in Imax or any other special kind of theater with enhanced screen and/or sound(I saw it in one of AMC's Dolby Cinema theaters, and I want to see it in traditionally Imax now too). This really is the kind of movie only Tom Cruise can make now and God bless him for it. Finally the Top Gun anthem and Danger Zone are now firmly stuck in my head again and I don't mind one bit.

this video shocases how crazy the making of the movie was

[Wildling]

I loved it and thought it might edge The Batman for my favorite blockbuster of the year so far (The Northman being more future cult classic, and not having watched yet Everything Everywhere All at Once, if it counts being A24's biggest movie).

The final act of this movie, when we get to thr mission it's all been building toward, blows away every other fighter action sequence. I might even include spacecraft, too.

The gist of the final mission did remind me of the first Star Wars.

[Somecrazyaussie]

It was an example of a belated sequel actually delivering the goods. It honours what came before, but also feels fresh at the same time. It wasn't entirely perfect, but it did enough to eclipse the original. Which every sequel aspires to, yet seldom pulls off.