I just left the house for the first time since March...
...And for the first time to watch a movie in theaters, since my birthday in 2019 (April 27th)... More than THREE FRIKKEN years... In the same IMAX theater, and half a row to the left of where we watched "Avengers Endgame"...
... To go watch "Top Gun: Maverick"...
And let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it was well worth the wait.
That was the best military aviation film ever made... Period.
Yes, it was better than the original.
It was prettier, it was more moving; it pushed more buttons harder, but in a good way; it had a better story...
Hell, the only real complaint I have with the movie, (not technical nitpicks I have as a pilot or aerospace engineer. It's good enough that those don't really matter), is that it's too short. It should have been 30 or 40 minutes longer... At 2hrs 10min, they could have even added 50 minutes, and punched it out to 3 hours flat; which just would have made it a better film, with more time for the character development of the team (I think a bunch more non-flying content was filmed, and then cut, to tighten the film up), and more room for the flying action scenes to breathe (something the original actually did VERY well).
As it was, Maverick was a super tight, densely packed, hardcore military aviation popcorn movie.
If there was a 3hr extended cut, I would go and watch it again, right now.
Yes, there were technical niggles... lots of them (including some very big ones for a pilot or engineer). Of course there were...SO WHAT... it's a movie not a flight simulator... They don't matter... at all. The movie is just that damn well done, and just that damn fun, and just that damn moving.
Oh, and if during or after watching the movie, your wife, girlfriend, or other female in your party says something like "why can't men just say 'I love you"... Tell her all three of them did... Like four times total... It's not their fault she doesn't speak dude... 😜
Go see it... See it in IMAX if you can... Feel the thunder in your chest...
It's what Goose would have wanted.
