Top Gun Maverick review thread with SPOILERS *DANGERZONE*

[anonymous-user]

vladcjelli said:

Is it an entertaining film? Absolutely.

Is it a good film? Certainly not.

Make of that what you will.

What i make of that is that its pretentious twaddle.
The film does exactly what it was designed to do pretty much perfectly.

[Skeptisk]

I think someone mentioned above that perhaps the film could be seen as a death dream ie Maverick’s last thoughts before he dies in the destruction of the aircraft at the start of the film. This article explains it better than I could

https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/theory-top-gun-mav...

This makes a lot more sense to me because everything that follows is basically wish fulfilment on Maverick’s part ie:

- become an accepted instructor after having been kicked out of Top Gun after two months
- get back his girlfriend
- reconcile with Rooster and make up for being in some way responsible for Goose death by saving Rooster’s life
- return to Top Gun and be the hero again (probably high point of his life).

For my daughter and I the interpretation makes it more satisfying as we can then overlook all the silliness and unrealistic plot (even though we enjoyed the film despite that).

[Bright Halo]

Watched this at my superb local cinema last night.
I accepted it for what it was and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Great flying/dogfight action and the characters are just as you would expect them.

9 tomcats out of 10 vintage Porsche’s

[shih tzu faced]

Skeptisk said:

I think someone mentioned above that perhaps the film could be seen as a death dream ie Maverick’s last thoughts before he dies in the destruction of the aircraft at the start of the film. This article explains it better than I could

https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/theory-top-gun-mav...

This makes a lot more sense to me because everything that follows is basically wish fulfilment on Maverick’s part ie:

- become an accepted instructor after having been kicked out of Top Gun after two months
- get back his girlfriend
- reconcile with Rooster and make up for being in some way responsible for Goose death by saving Rooster’s life
- return to Top Gun and be the hero again (probably high point of his life).

For my daughter and I the interpretation makes it more satisfying as we can then overlook all the silliness and unrealistic plot (even though we enjoyed the film despite that).

That’s actually a really interesting theory. Thinking about it the film does seem to have a slightly unreal, almost dreamy feel in the way it’s been filmed and the general lack of detail in a lot of the scenes. Some episodes of Black Mirror have the same sort of feel I think. Guess we’ll never really know but I have to say this theory really works for me!

[RizzoTheRat]

Not directly related to the film, but much as I think James Corden is an annoying tt, this piece from his chat show with Tom Cruise taking him up in in his Mustang and an Albatross to promote the film isn't bad

[LeadFarmer]

shih tzu faced said:

Skeptisk said:

I think someone mentioned above that perhaps the film could be seen as a death dream ie Maverick’s last thoughts before he dies in the destruction of the aircraft at the start of the film. This article explains it better than I could

https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/theory-top-gun-mav...

This makes a lot more sense to me because everything that follows is basically wish fulfilment on Maverick’s part ie:

- become an accepted instructor after having been kicked out of Top Gun after two months
- get back his girlfriend
- reconcile with Rooster and make up for being in some way responsible for Goose death by saving Rooster’s life
- return to Top Gun and be the hero again (probably high point of his life).

For my daughter and I the interpretation makes it more satisfying as we can then overlook all the silliness and unrealistic plot (even though we enjoyed the film despite that).

That’s actually a really interesting theory. Thinking about it the film does seem to have a slightly unreal, almost dreamy feel in the way it’s been filmed and the general lack of detail in a lot of the scenes. Some episodes of Black Mirror have the same sort of feel I think. Guess we’ll never really know but I have to say this theory really works for me!

I do hope this is not the case as that means the story never happened and Maverick didn’t do it in 2m 15secs.

[Scabutz]

LeadFarmer said:

shih tzu faced said:

Skeptisk said:

I think someone mentioned above that perhaps the film could be seen as a death dream ie Maverick’s last thoughts before he dies in the destruction of the aircraft at the start of the film. This article explains it better than I could

https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/theory-top-gun-mav...

This makes a lot more sense to me because everything that follows is basically wish fulfilment on Maverick’s part ie:

- become an accepted instructor after having been kicked out of Top Gun after two months
- get back his girlfriend
- reconcile with Rooster and make up for being in some way responsible for Goose death by saving Rooster’s life
- return to Top Gun and be the hero again (probably high point of his life).

For my daughter and I the interpretation makes it more satisfying as we can then overlook all the silliness and unrealistic plot (even though we enjoyed the film despite that).

That’s actually a really interesting theory. Thinking about it the film does seem to have a slightly unreal, almost dreamy feel in the way it’s been filmed and the general lack of detail in a lot of the scenes. Some episodes of Black Mirror have the same sort of feel I think. Guess we’ll never really know but I have to say this theory really works for me!

I do hope this is not the case as that means the story never happened and Maverick didn’t do it in 2m 15secs.

I dont buy it at all. Its just something someone has dreamed up with nothing to back it up. You could say similar about a lot of films. John Wick didnt wreck revenge, they killed him when they stole his puppy and he dreamed the rest.

Yeah punching out of a plane going Mach10 isnt survivable so thats not realistic, but neither is a plane to can fly at Mach 10 right now (as far as we know)

Its not a documentary

[anonymous-user]

Late to the party, but went to see it this evening.

OH MY GOD. It is fking brilliant.

Over two hours long but so good that it felt like 5 minutes.

Loved it. Loads of epic action, some laughs, lots of very touching moments.

Great.

[DJFish]

Just seen it.
The average age of the cinema audience was about 50.
The film was a shameless play on our collective nostalgia, just like Bad Boys Forever and Coming 2 America.
I loved every minute.
We watched Top Gun last night as a prequel and this film really captured the physicality & brutality of flying fast jets in a way the first film never did, I’m glad they kept cgi to a minimum.
Some of it was cheese, the F14 bit especially, and I would’ve liked to have seen more old characters returning, still loved it.
The Ice scene was sad.
The only film I think I’ve ever wanted to go straight back and watch again.
It was never going to be a high brow, subtitled cinematic tour de force, it was classic Scott, Bruckheimer, Simpson sepia tinted, walking away from the explosion without looking back blockbuster.
Loved it.

[Skeptisk]

Scabutz said:

I dont buy it at all. Its just something someone has dreamed up with nothing to back it up. You could say similar about a lot of films. John Wick didnt wreck revenge, they killed him when they stole his puppy and he dreamed the rest.

Yeah punching out of a plane going Mach10 isnt survivable so thats not realistic, but neither is a plane to can fly at Mach 10 right now (as far as we know)

Its not a documentary

Although there isn’t a plane that can currently fly Mach 10 it is not completely unrealistic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-43

I suspect with enough funding such a plane could be developed now. But without a clear and important reason for developing one I doubt anyone is willing to spend the billions or trillions of dollars necessary to get it to work.

[Eric Mc]

Saw it yesterday - very enjoyable.

OK, technically, it takes plenty of liberties but setting those aside, the story isn't bad and the flying sequences, many of which are most definitely NOT CGI, are stunning.

And yes, that supposedly Mach 10 aircraft at the beginning looks nothing like what a Mach 10 aircraft would look like.

[RizzoTheRat]

Eric Mc said:

And yes, that supposedly Mach 10 aircraft at the beginning looks nothing like what a Mach 10 aircraft would look like.

Don't be too sure about that https://lockheedmartin.com/topgun
Admittedly it's thier conceptual people not thier aerodynamics department, but it was designed by people who knew what they were doing rather than the film studio's art department.

[Court_S]

Finally saw it yesterday and despite having been out a fair while, the screen we were in was packed.

I enjoyed (and so did my other half who dislikes Tom Cruise); it it was it is. It was always going to be a bit silly and there is nothing wrong with that. It was vert much an old school action movie with modern day cinematography. It was two hours of escapism. I liked the nods to the original including the music.

[anonymous-user]

Court_S said:

Finally saw it yesterday and despite having been out a fair while, the screen we were in was packed.

I enjoyed (and so did my other half who dislikes Tom Cruise); it it was it is. It was always going to be a bit silly and there is nothing wrong with that. It was vert much an old school action movie with modern day cinematography. It was two hours of escapism. I liked the nods to the original including the music.

I really liked the fact they used the original music at the start.

[juggsy]

Fabulous, everyone was telling me to see it in the cinema so made an effort and saw it yesterday at an iSense Odeon.

The cinematography really made it for me, and watching some of the posted YT links of the lengths the cast and crew went to film the majority of scenes in the jets for real, it absolutely paid off over acres of CGI.

The right amount of cheese, nostalgia etc without it feeling too forced, as an appropriate nod to the original. Yes as has been discussed, plenty of plot holes should you wish to analyse it, and I was convinced they’d kill Maverick off ala James Bond with the ‘I’ll see you when I get back’ lines, but I came out the cinema humming the theme tune and wishing I was in a fighter jet during the journey home.

[Ari]

Went back and saw it again - still awesome!

[skinnyman]

Christ there's some hard to please people on here!! If you consider this film to be 'crap' I must assume your library of 'good' films to be quite small. Reminds me of my Father in-law, he has no interesting in Topgun, says "it will be crap", but then his latest recommendation to me was "The Lovely Bones", which is almost 2.5hrs of my life I'll never get back.

Topgun did was exactly what it was supposedly to do. I've seen it twice now and will be watching it again as soon as its available on streaming services, it was brilliant.

Also, new man crush confirmed.

[xeny]

I was pondering the plot on Sunday after a rewatch and realised that shooting Maverick down worked out terribly for the rogue state. It ultimately cost them an attack helicopter, three 5th generation fighters and an F-14.

They'd have done far better to switch off all the SAMs after the bombs were dropped and left the attacking force free to leave, hoping they didn't make a mess on the way out.

[ajprice]

It's the 12th highest grossing film now, over $1.4bn, and it's still in cinemas. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_g...

[Scabutz]

It was 14th a couple of days ago when I looked. Still going strong.

It's out on streaming services now to rent but it's such an event film in needs to be watched at the cinema.