What the doctor ordered
Look, up in the sky, it’s . . .
IF NOTHING else, “Top Gun: Maverick” and other summer blockbusters make us appreciate the movie theater experience.
We couldn’t be more grateful. In this age of streaming—covid having conditioned many of us to the couch—watching a movie on the big screen is less routine diversion, more special event. And films like the “Top Gun” sequel—predictable plot, cheesy dialogue aside—were made to be seen in theaters.
The flight scenes alone are worth the price of admission. Say what you will about star Tom Cruise, the man will do what it takes to nail a scene, whether that entails performing his own stunts on the sides of Dubai skyscrapers or shooting scenes in an actual F-18.
The latter of which Cruise required of himself and other actors in the movie. Each of whom underwent special flight training before filming began in 2018. (The film’s producers paid the U.S. Navy $11,374 an hour to train the actors, Bloomberg reports.)
“Maverick” is set to join the latest Spider-Man flick as the only two movies to hit the billion-dollar mark since covid hit. But aside from the aviation scenes, its anti-anti-military message and the lingering legacy of the original, “Top Gun: Maverick” seems to have filled another market gap, as Kyle Smith of National Review explains:
“America has endured a period of upheaval comparable to the late 1960s. The last couple of years in particular were a nightmare tableau of endless wailing and suffering: Guernica with Lester Holt. Somehow, the country’s biggest race crisis in half a century transpired in the midst of our biggest health crisis in a century.
“In 2022, America is exhausted, frustrated, and burned out. What people are longing for is a reset, a reversion to norms . . . any creator who can recapture the optimism of the last 15 years of the 20th century is going to get extremely rich.”
Not that producers Jerry Bruckheimer or Tom Cruise need the extra cash. But America sure needs an infusion of feelgood optimism after a brutal few years of self-reflection that left some questioning the legitimacy of its very foundation.
So, predictable endings and $6 Cokes aside, we salute the return of blockbusters to the movie theater. The popcorn always seems to taste better in front of the big screen.