Review: Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise returns to the role of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a Navy test pilot and captain who is transferred to the Navy’s fighter pilot training program (AKA ‘Top Gun’) to prepare a group of young best and brightest for a dangerous mission. He’s recommended for the gig by old sparring partner and now Admiral Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazinsky (Val Kilmer). A snag comes in the form of one of the young pilots, Lt. Bradshaw (Miles Teller) who just so happens to be the son of Maverick’s old pilot buddy ‘Goose’, who of course died in the first film. Bradshaw is bitterly opposed to being instructed by Maverick. Meanwhile, Maverick reignites an old flame in local bar owner Penny (Jennifer Connelly), whom he didn’t end on the best of terms with a long time ago. Jon Hamm and Ed Harris play disapproving senior officers, whilst Glen Powell and Monica Barbaro are a couple of cocky pilots. I suppose I understood the immediate superficial appeal of the first “Top Gun” , but I’ve never understood its e...