The movie going public has been absolutely starved for a theater worthy movie, and TG-M has been really the only one in recent memory. It's been a little oversold by many on this board.



For what it is, TG-M is really well done. It's a sequel to a movie that, even though it's loved and has aged well, had a cheesy plot, cheesy dialogue, and an unrealistic ending. TG-M manages to tone down the cheesiness and give us a slightly more realistic ending. In between are some amazing video captures of real fighters really in the air flying around doing really cool maneuvers, something the original didn't have a lot of given the technology of the time. Here's where the sequel actually didn't live up to the original in my book:


No memorable lines. "Son, your ego's writing checks your body can't cash." "I feel the need....the need for speed." "Slider, you stink." The iconic "She's lost that lovin' feelin'." Can you name any similar lines from TG-M? No.

No memorable music. The best parts about the TG-M soundtrack are the remixed original TG songs. No iconic love song, either. Crash and burn with the Gaga song.

No character development. They built it up well. Maverick wasn't a teacher. That was his weakness. Somehow, someway he needed to figure out how to teach these best of the best pilots the secrets that only Mav knew. It was there, they were building to it, and then nothing. Nah, we'll just have Mav do the fancy flying cause he was unable to teach the newbies. Mav came into the movie doing things his way, he ended the movie doing things his way, and in the middle he did things his way. At least in the original, as cheesy and unrealistic as the scenario was, Mav finally learned to let go of his ego and do things the right way. Not so much in TG-M.


Anybody other than Mav that you left the movie caring about? Not even Goose's kid, the one that it was set up to tug your heart strings for?


Anyway, good movie for what it is. I had a lot of fun watching it. It is not a cinematic masterpiece, though.