About Top Gun: Not The Old One (Spoilers)

Post 1185:

Top Gun is the first movie I ever went to see with my family in theaters. I don’t really remember much because I was barely conscious, and we didn’t stay the whole time. And after all these years, I went back to the same theater to see the new one. I didn’t even realize it until I got there. Full circle.

I’ve run across positive reviews from pretty much anyone I follow online or in real life. Got to say, I left feeling a tad uneasy.

The flying is awesome. The cinematography is first rate. I admire the work that went into it. But I’ve worked really hard on some turds before. That shiz happens. This thing took so long to make, I can’t believe the story wasn’t better. There are parts in here that are downright cringe. I want to excuse it. But I’d be straight lying.

I did have big expectations. But here’s my main gripe. It’s not a serious movie. The mission is a video game. The characters don’t feel like real military people. The old Top Gun was no cinematic masterpiece, but it was a balls out unapologetic military ass-kicking fest.

I don’t know what this was. The greatest pilot living is getting yelled at half the time because he got yelled at when he was in his twenties and we have to repeat things. Some of the hotshot pilots are meek. I know pilots. They are the furthest thing from meek.

This sounds like I hated it. I didn’t. It’s just not Top Gun. It felt more like Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise running around on some “foreign” airfield. And the relationship with Goose’s son was forced and yet somehow felt like it needed to be expanded upon. Weird.

Remakes or sequels are always tricky. So I give them credit for even trying something that was last a success in 1986. Maybe that’s why it was off for me. It’s a unique set of circumstances.

So let me see it again sometime down the road. Maybe I’m being too hard. And I think the average person who didn’t love Top Gun will think it’s good. Right now, though, I wish they hadn’t made it. No—that’s not cool—I wish I hadn’t seen it.

Negative reviews aren’t my thing. So this feels weird. Like I’m dog-fighting with myself. Cheers. See you after.