Andrew Prescott

The titillating trailer lured me in. I thought there might be some thought-provoking exploration of bisexuality or polyamory. Instead, I got a nothing sandwich after a snoozer of a three-way make out scene. Director Luca Guadagnino apparently subcontracted out to a first year film school student. What else explains the awful sound effects (no one who has ever been to pro tennis thinks it sounds like that) and weird camera tricks. And the frequent flashback sequencing left me watching the movie like I would watch the ball go back and forth over the net in a a tennis match. I got a sore neck but not much more. Tashi Donaldson isn't a likeable character. She cheats on her husband and fixes the big grudge match which ends in a stupid accidental embrace after Art leaps into and over the net. Zendaya didn't help save a bad script. If anything, she made it worse. Her two primal screams were her most important contribution because that's what I did as I left the theater.

Top Gun provides plenty of thrilling moments and characters about which the audience can care. The flight scenes work well and provide an edge of the seat experience. Tom Cruise doesn’t miss a step as an older but still heroic Maverick. This Top Gun, like the original, builds to a conflict and a military action that so strains credulity that I struggled to suspend disbelief. In the original, Maverick prevails in a dog fight with Soviet aircraft. Amidst the cheering on the carrier deck, no one seems to care that the world has catapulted into a conflict likely to lead to nuclear holocaust. In this sequel, I cannot believe that the military strategists would have chosen a naval jet precision flying and bombing action with a high likelihood of failure. I have to imagine the best military on earth had several better options. They used tomahawk missiles to take out the enemy airstrip but chose to use jets flying at low altitude necessitating near impossible maneuvers followed by dogfights with superior aircraft. Thus, I choked on the plot line that was the apex of the movie. (And don’t get me started on the ludicrous escape Maverick and Rooster made in an old jet down a taxi way that happened to be untouched by the Tomahawks. Yikes.) Finally, I applaud the increased diversity of the Top Gun team. But why did the writers and director make the white, southern jerky guy be the hero who saved a life at the end? There were a couple of black and at least one Hispanic characters that could have been the hero with some minor script tweaks. The main black characters were second in command and supporting team members. The white guys were the leaders and heroes. Splash goes the diversity effort.