Have you ever been to Chilis, Applebees, or Pizza Hut and it was better than you thought it was going to be? You get dragged to these places because someone (not you) decided that it was the least risky place to meet another couple. The food comes, and you're dreading it...and then..blammo! The food tastes great.
That is what this movie is. I have to say that a 30+ year gap between the original and the sequel did not promise much to me. I think of the shows that I stopped watching because they were on hiatus during the pandemic and I just couldn't get back into them--I'm looking at you Killing Eve. So 30+ years? I didn't have high expectations. Suffice to say...they were all exceeded.
This sequel catches up to Captian Pete Mitchell (Cruise) who, in the intervening three decades, has accumulated a closet full of accommodations, achievements and feats that were distinguished...distinguished...distinguished (inside joke for those who've seen it). Now, "the enemy" (an enemy nation is never mentioned by name) has built a site to weaponize uranium that is in the bottom of this canyon rimmed with SAMs and only low-altitude fighter jets can fly in under the radar and blow it to smithereens.
The brass want Cruise to train the latest crop of Top Gun graduates to do the mission. So he is given twelve fighter jockeys to mold into a team--this attack has to be done by four aircraft. And the predictable, contrived, and all-too-familiar devices come into play. Cruise meets his team the night before he is introduced to them. In a bar. Where everyone is singing. They embarrass themselves. Even tossing him out of the bar onto the beach. The next morning...The 2nd in command announces him to the class from a podium in front of the twelve aviators. Cruise walks up right through the middle of them just like Kelly McGillis did in the original. The pained expressions of the fighter jocks take place next. There is competition, humiliation, insubordination, passion, a beach scene where they are playing two way football at the same time!!! The brass isn't happy with Maverick, the fighter jocks aren't happy with Maverick...the new Penny (played by Jennifer Connelley) isn't happy with Maverick...
So the mission comes up. The "graduation-cut-short" scene in this film is that the uranium enrichment plant is coming on-line early and the crews have to accelerate their training. The 12 jocks all try to fly a simulated run to knock out the enrichment site but can't get it done. Mav pushes them hard but they are not able to do it....tempers flare and Mav has it out with one of the fighter jocks. And because of this--Mav is grounded by the brass. Huh? Here is where the movie loses what little credibility it had to start with. Apparently the pilot who is distinguished...distinguished...distinguished enough but only got one grade promotion in the last 30 years didn't do anything egregious enough to get grounded. But somehow in this movie, he stepped over the line (where no lives were lost) and got grounded when "the enemy" is about to enrich uranium and destroy the world? Nope.
So, what does Mav do? He, of course, steals a plane and shows that the mission can be done. So what does the brass do? Of course, they name HIM mission lead...the guy they grounded 3 scenes earlier.
The logical fallacies in the move are too numerous to count. For example, the reason four planes have to fly this mission is because they are in pairs. One of the planes points a laser onto a target while the other plane fires the missile. The next pair do the same thing but actually blow up the facility. Somehow, high level bombers couldn't do this? The opening scene in the movie saw Maverick's program being shut down so unmanned drones could be funded. Perhaps they could have done this mission? The pathway they fly down to the uranium enrichment site are lined with SAMs (dozens of them) but "the enemy" didn't think to put SAMS right at the site itself? There are dozens more.
Back to the movie. The rest is predictable so I won't go too much into it. To the shock of no-one, I'm sure, the mission is a success. What happens after the success of the mission though is straight out of Monty Python. Its almost comedic.
The saving grace of this movie are the fighter scenes. They truly are spectacular. I'm sure there was plenty of CGI but, unlike a lot of films, you can't really tell the CGI part. Connelley and Cruise sizzle on the screen. I hope those two make another film together...there is some real chemistry between them.
So I give this movie a 7 out of 10. Much like Chilis, Applebees, and Pizza Hut....sometimes they hit the mark just right. But, in the back of your mind, you know that there is better food down the street.
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