Let me be clear: I don't like 1986's "Top Gun." I think it's macho-military propaganda with a schmaltzy script and a semi-good beach volleyball scene.
So when I tell you the sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," is worth seeing in a theater, you know I mean it. Yes, it's still a propagandistic fantasy — a dogfight simulator preloaded with an unnamed enemy somehow possessing better technology than the U.S. military — made from a script melting with cheesy one-liners.
But the beach scene (football, this time) is pretty good. And the flying scenes? I've never seen anything like them. While F-14s and MiGs in the first one floated in empty space in vague proximity to each other, the jet fighters here feel dangerously close to canyons, trees, bridges and each other, and you can follow each move like a deadly dance.
