Top Gun was one of those 80s military movies that made me fall in love Naval Aviation and influenced me into enlisting and working in the aviation field. 36 years later, we have a sequel.
I was very excited to see a sequel was coming and watched the release date get pushed back numerous times for production and pandemic related delays. I still kept my hopes low. I didn’t read any articles about it, and I had only saw one of the initial teaser trailers. Then, at Doctor Strange, I saw the exclusive preview which was awesome and gave me goosebumps! Then again, Danger Zone does that for me.
This movie was fantastic in so many ways! It is one of those rare sequels that’s better than original. You HAVE to see it in a theater first. I saw it on the UltraScreen and it did not disappoint in any way. I am a huge MCU fanatic and loved Doctor Strange, but Top Gun: Maverick is easily the best movie I have seen this year, and I will be going to see it again.
There are a lot of similarities with original story, but the narrative is good, the action is great, and there is a lot of humor. This is another movie that is following that same blueprint I mentioned in my Ghostbusters review (also Scream, etc)… an old classic movie, getting a sequel many years later… all the nostalgia and original actors or throwbacks, but in a modernized movie, while also introducing a young cast that would open it up for future movies if they chose.
I think Miles Teller was a great choice for Rooster, and hope there is a sequel for him as leading man eventually, especially with Hangman and others. Mav’s love interest is Penny (not Charlie), and I am only mentioning this because Penny was actually mentioned in the early on in the original Top Gun.
If you liked the original, you will like this. If you hated the original, you will probably still like this.
Paramount has updated their projection for this weekend to $151 million after making $38 million on Saturday. This is the highest stateside opening for a Tom Cruise movie in his long and storied career. EntTelligence reports that 11.1M moviegoers will have seen Top Gun 2 to date through EOD Monday, blowing away the 2M opening weekend traffic of the 1986 original.
