Released on May 27th of 2022 to absolute success, Top Gun: Maverick follows the story of a navy fighter pilot, Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, in what will be his toughest mission yet, both physically and emotionally. Personally, I thought this movie was better than the original movie, released in 1986. This movie, in my opinion, truly deserves its success, fame, and awards it may win in the future. The plot also deserves credit as well, as it is just as spectacular. 

     The plot of the movie begins with Maverick testing a new prototype plane developed with speed in mind. However, as he gets ready to test, he is told the program has been scrapped by the government, but Maverick, being the instigator that he is, goes ahead with the test anyway, and manages to successfully hit the speed that was requested by the program. In the process, however, he damages the plane and crashes it into a small town.  

    This turned out to be his last mission for the government, until he was called to return to Top Gun, a fighter pilot training program that he attended many years ago. This whole first part of the movie sets up the story for what will be one of Maverick’s toughest missions yet, not just for him, but for the other characters as well. 

     This movie also shows scenes from the original movie, which was just as good as the sequel. Keep in mind that the original movie was released in 1986, so the scenes haven’t aged the best compared to movies nowadays. Nonetheless, the original movie had a great plot for its time, but the sequel is considerably better than the original, considering the fact the new movie uses actual footage from live fighter jets. In an article published on the website for variety.com, the production designer confirmed that they even had to ship a whole fighter jet in pieces, and assemble it together, just for the last part of the movie. 

     However, not every movie is perfect, just like this movie. One thing you’ll notice throughout Top Gun: Maverick is the lack of a villain. You never really know who Maverick and the others are up against. They manage to make it work, but either way the lack of a villain can put people off at times, especially when you start to wonder what the point of the mission was. Besides that, though, there’s not much else I could think of that could have been improved. 

     In terms of good things about the movie, though, the fight scenes were spectacular, especially the last fight. Director Joseph Kosinski manages to keep some sort of realism throughout the fights but keeps them fun and exciting at the same time. The actors portray their characters almost perfectly all throughout the movie, and the scenes are all great in their own ways. Overall, this movie pulls off every part in immaculate fashion, which really proves why this movie was so successful in the box office. 

     According to www.boxofficemojo.com, this movie is currently the bestselling movie of this whole year, outperforming several movies, such as the new Minions movie, the Batman movie released back in March, and many others. Overall, the movie has made $709,570,457 in domestic box office sales, throughout 4,751 theaters. Internationally, the movie has made $1,463,770,457 in sales, and is currently 11th of all time international movie sales. 

     As an overall rating, I would give this movie a 9.5/10. The lack of a villain is the only thing setting the movie back from being a perfect movie, for me at least. This movie, once again, truly deserves all the success it has had throughout this past summer, and I ask that you give this movie a chance. You won’t regret it.