Maverick dominates the skies in Top Gun sequel

It is so rare that a hyped movie lives up to expectations. As you probably have heard, Top Gun: Maverick is one of those rare breeds. Who knew that a sequel released 35 years after the original would actually be good? And not only good, but I think, in many ways, it surpasses the first film.

Despite all the time that has gone by between films, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is still just a captain in the navy. As one superior early on in the movie quips to him, if it weren’t for his attitude and lack of respect for his commanders, Maverick should be an admiral or at least a senator by now, but instead he is barely scraping by. The only reason he hasn’t been kicked out long ago is that his old friend Iceman (Val Kilmer) did play by the rules and rose in the ranks, and continues to use his sway to keep a job open for Maverick. It is in this setting that a job suited for Maverick’s special talents opens up.

An unnamed foreign adversary is enriching uranium for future weapons, and the USA needs to put a stop to that. Unfortunately the underground base where the work is being done is heavily guarded by both ground and air. It is going to take a suicide mission by some of Top Gun’s best of all time to even have a whisper of a chance to take out the base, much less make it back alive. Maverick is brought in to teach the best of the best and make them even better. Unfortunately for Mav, his old buddy Goose’s son, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, is in the class. Rooster has never forgiven Maverick for getting his dad killed, even though it is known that the event was not Maverick’s fault. It is up to Maverick to keep his personal feelings bottled up and teach this class how to complete the mission, even when his own superiors have their doubts.

This movie is the complete, total package. The action scenes are spectacular, and there are a lot of them. I think they spend more time in the cockpits than the first film, and all of it is edge-of-your-seat thrills. But there’s a lot of heart too, with Maverick needing to find personal redemption with Rooster. Lot’s of touching moments involving the two of them, a love interest for Maverick, and his longtime friendship with Iceman. It doesn’t get any better than this. And it deserves to be seen on the big screen. You will not regret it! ★★★★★