Has anyone seen this yet?
It has good reviews, and surprisingly there is no woke element to it. It's supposedly a patriotic film in the vein of the original. The only minor woke element is the fact that the heroes are supposed to be bombing Iran, but the country is simply referred to as "the enemy", and never named. That's dumb, but whatever. I can accept that, if it's the only example of changing something to be non-offensive in the entire film.
It has also garnered praise for making characters age-appropriate. Cruise's Maverick character is in his mid-50s, and is shown dealing with age-related issues. His new love interest, played by Jennifer Connelly, is also age appropriate for him. Obviously these two actors look great for their age, but they didn't try to pair Maverick up with some hot chick around 30, which people found to be refreshing.
Kelly McGillis, who played Cruise's love interest in the first film, was never contacted about reprising her role. That's because she left Hollywood and became a fat lesbian, and basically looks like a fat old woman at this point. In a recent interview,
she admits that her looks are the reason she wasn't asked to come back, but isn't particularly bitter about it, acknowledging that her present look doesn't fit with what a movie like that would want to present.
The movie was actually made in 2019, but shelved because of COVID. It was held back until it was assumed that people were returning to theaters, and summer 2022 was believed to be that time. It should be noted that this actually makes the actors a bit younger than they actually are now, as this was filmed around 3 years ago.
Reviews state that the action scenes are exciting, and the film has gotten praise for staying away from CGI. Cruise supposedly attended 3 months of flight school in order to deliver a more realistic performance.
While Tom Cruise himself is a freak and a weird dude, it looks like he may have hit a home run with this one. I was really wondering if they were going to woke-ify Top Gun when I heard about this remake, but I'm glad to hear that they didn't.
Opinions of the film from those who have seen it?