Top Gun

A few weeks ago I read a review of the new Top Gun, Maverick. Originally I wasn’t planning to go and watch it any time soon but from the review it became evident that would benefit visually from watching it on a large screen. And the reviewer didn’t write it was complete crap. So, with the summer school vacation coming up I thought it would be a nice excuse to go to the cinema with them. To prepare we watched the old Top Gun on tv so that they would recognise some of the references in the new movie.

Watching the original Top Gun movie took us back more than 30 years with a really very young Tom Cruise. The pace is slow compared to the average action movie of today. But it was well filmed so at least it is not because of flimsy visual effects that the movie cannot be enjoyed anymore. The main problem is that the tempo is too slow to build the story consistently. So we are watching sunsets that don’t add much or a romantic bedroom scene between Cruise and McGillis that has to take as long as the whole ‘Take my breath away’ song. The time spent on the drama/accidental death of Goose or on the final battle with the Russian Migs is probably shorter. The site that catalogued this movie in the romance genre was right after all. Seeing a lot of Kelly McGillis is not a punishment but the same cannot be said about the ridiculous machismo on display with the pilot escapades during nights out or while showing their tanned and muscular torsos during beach volley, the stupid grinning and dialogues that make the hair on your head stand upright. That part is actually well acted but the personality traits of the characters made it hard for me to feel involved. Visually well done but not a movie I will watch again soon. Instead I will go to the theatre and see if I can get visually overwhelmed by Maverick. No high hopes about the story though.