Top Gun: Maverick

In June 2022, I watched Top Gun: Maverick for the first time at Movix Kameari. The action film was released in 2022. It is the sequel of Top Gun in 1986. Tom Cruise stars in both of them.

I had not watched the 1986 film for a long time because I did not like Tom Cruise in his twenties and thirties. In May 2022, I finally did it for the first time so that I could be more entertained by the 2022 one than I did not. It was released thirty-six years ago, so I felt some of the scenes to be kind of dated, however, it was worth watching more than expected, especially the friendship among the young excellent pilots, the death of a best friend, and the lovely Meg Ryan who I saw after a long time.

It follows Maverick performed by Tom Cruise, who used to be an instructor of a Navy school called TOPGUN after graduating it, returns to it to teach and train young brilliant pilots, and fights a rogue nation with the young aviators.

I had not had an emotional attachment to the film, unlike longtime fans who watched the previous one at theaters, so I remembered one of my most favorite ones The Right Stuff when Ed Harris appears and watches Maverick as a test pilot terribly trying to fly at over Much 10. If Sam Shepard had acted the role of Harris, the scene would have been perfect for me, though it could not have been helped because Mr. Shepard passed away in 2017.

Tom Cruise had a physical beauty as before and looked young as well as the young pilots when they play American football together at the beach in swimwear. The evergreen actor runs and run in Mission: Impossible - Fallout that I viewed at a theater just after the release. He would show his wonderful stunts in the next Mission: Impossible movie. I hope that he will do his best and keep from being killed.

The dogfight scenes of the older flick did not satisfy me so much because I had already gotten used to seeing action scenes of the latest ones, however, the ones of the newer one were so realistic and amazing that I regret that I did not see it at an IMAX theater.

Although the music of the last one made me just feel nostalgic despite of the enormous popularity of it, yet I felt comfortable hearing "Let's Dance" performed by David Bowie and "Get It On" by T. Rex in the latest one. Then I was really touched by the sound of a synthesizer in "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who when the fighter planes are flying. The three songs were released before Top Gun was. Lady Gaga was newly tapped for the score of Top Gun: Maverick in which such old songs were selected. Lady Gaga also gave a good act in House of Gucci for a professional musician. I feel pleased thinking that her musical taste might resemble mine.

It depicts well the feud between Maverick and Rooster who is a son of Maverick's best friend, Goose, in Top Gun, and the friendship between Rooster and his rival, Hangman with smirks, so the entertaining blockbuster is also a wonderful drama film.