Top Gun: Maverick - The Return of the "America, F*ck Yeah!" Movie

Top Gun: Maverick at the time of this writing has only been out for a few weeks, and has already written a plus of $900 million dollars in business at the box office (and is rapidly closing in on one billion) - and for good reason. One thing that all of us across all points of the political spectrum seem to be able to agree on right now is that Top Gun: Maverick absolutely kicks ass.

This is exactly the sort of movie our country needs right now - a movie that's gonna bring us all together and chant "Fuck yeah, America!!!" And that's exactly what this movie does - but it does it in a way that isn't cheesy or annoying or cringy - it does it in a way that's relatable, fun and exciting, and dare I say... actually pretty fuckin' cool.

I actually really didn't know quite what to expect when I walked into the theater to see this film. I'm obviously not the biggest supporter of the American military industrial complex, to say the least. I was probably the youngest single-adult attendee in the theater; it seemed like the vast majority of the people walking into the theater were 65+ years old. I didn't necessarily take that as a bad omen though, because I had a similar experience seeing The Lost City earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised with what a good film it was (not to mention Sandra Bullock seems to have aged like a very fine wine). What I was really hoping though was that I wasn't going to have to sit through two-and-a-half hours of post-modernism; and I have to admit, it did not start out very promising, as the pre-show trailers were trash, including one for an upcoming movie in which there is a female-version of Thor, to which most of the audience members under the age of 40 seemed to unanimously "boo" at. I guess Disney-Marvel didn't do too much market research on that one before shooting it.

Anyway, the film actually does start with a promising message from Mr. Cruise himself, thanking the audience for coming back to the cinema, and assuring them this movie was made for the fans. I have to admit, the way he stated it, it was actually a pretty reassuring message - and the film begins quite nicely from there, with beautiful cinematography and music, and then an amazing sequence where Cpt. Pete Mitchell is testing a newly-created state-of-the-art government-funded fighter plane and sequentially hits a speed of mach-10 in a very cinematographically-exhilerating scene.

The movie then picks up with the primary storyline, in which Cpt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is given a mission to train 12 elite fighter pilots from the Top Gun pilot training academy to execute a near-suicide-mission in an unnamed country that's breaking NATO treatise law by building a large nuclear armament facility. To execute the flight path at very low-altitude in the short time needed to accomplish the mission would be impossible for any standard naval pilots, so the mission requires best-of-the-best. The story is very straight-forward and simple, which allows the film ample time to follow the characters and their interactions with each other, their rivalries, and how they all have to pull together as a team to accomplish the impossible. This is what makes the movie so amazing, and why it's so inspiring as a pro-America film. It's seeing a group of people with completely different personalities who may not even necessarily like each other at first overcome their differences and work together as a team to accomplish something supposedly impossible that makes this movie worth watching for all Americans in a time when our country seems so divided and polarized... and that's why Top Gun: Maverick marks the return of the "America, Fuck Yeah!" movie. This is the sort of movie that gets all Americans together waving American flags and rooting for their country as a whole.

By the way, on a side note, this movie has an awesome 80s soundtrack, and a movie with a good soundtrack always deserves credit on that front.

Even though I went in not knowing what to expect, I'm so glad I chose to see this movie. I suggest you put all your preconceived notions about the military industrial complex aside for a couple hours to go see this film too. I think you'll be glad you did.

Top Gun: Maverick is how you make a modern movie. Hollywood needs to take note of this. A simple, compelling story, with relatable characters, good cinematography and special effects, and a little creativity sprinkled on top is a winning formula. There's no need to change it up. There's no reason to not give the fans what they want. Giving the fans what they want all but guarantees a major box office success, and this movie is proof of that. There's no need anymore to shove the woke message down the audience's throat. They've already gotten the message, and they're ready to get back to watching some real, action-packed, ass-kicking, heart-pounding, tear-jerking, no-holds-barred Hollywood films again. And if Hollywood's taken the message the audience set them for Top Gun: Maverick, then the 20s may not end up being so bad after all!