Believe the hype. "Top Gun: Maverick" rules.
The long-delayed sequel — it was filmed back in 2018, and has been in a holding pattern ever since — finally hit preview audiences last week, and it's a thrilling, pulse-pounding, old-school blockbuster experience, a more-than-worthy follow-up to the 1986 classic.
(That 36-year gap puts it high on the list of longest time elapsed between a movie and its follow-up, up there with the 35 years between "Blade Runner" and "Blade Runner 2049," but not as much as the 54 years between "Mary Poppins" and "Mary Poppins Returns." And that's not counting the 64 years between "Bambi" and the straight-to-video "Bambi II," because who remembers the straight-to-video "Bambi II?")
