I feel the need. The need for speed.
We certainly felt the need for a rush of adrenaline on Thursday when we were invited to an advanced screening of Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel of the 1986 beloved classic. Starring Tom Cruise as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell and Val Kilmer as Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky from the previous instalment, the cast had an array of new talented additions including the likes of Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro etc. This follows the same storyline 30 years later as Maverick (Tom Cruise) is back where he belongs at Top Gun.
You might feel like this movie might appeal to the older generation mostly with Top Gun, being the iconic film it is but, that was not the case as it was an exhilarating, entertaining, action-packed two hours with a surprisingly well-written storyline for such a blockbuster movie, filled with moments of nostalgia, heartfelt emotion and incredibly moving scenes and really did keep us on the edge of our seats for a majority of the movie.
The performances of all the actors were superb, especially that of Tom Cruise. The charisma and the passion he brings into this movie are incredible. We are now truly convinced that this man simply does not age. I mean, when was the last time you saw a 6o-year-old man doing fighter pilot stunts? Miles Teller also put on quite a good performance as a supporting character. The cinematography was also breathtaking and helped in bringing the nostalgia and vibes of the previous movie. The musical score of this movie was composed by Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Lorne Balfe and the great Hans Zimmer and as you can expect from Hans Zimmer, it was simply sensational.
While it is obviously better if you watch the previous instalment before watching this, it is not an absolute must as it is not that heavily reliant on the earlier movie. However, we would definitely advise you to watch this in a cinema hall with a great sound system, preferably the Dolby Atmos theatre of Scope Cinema, where we watched, or somewhere similar. For us, with the surround system and the enhanced effects of the Dolby Atmos, the adrenaline rush, the excitement and the tension, especially in those fighter plane scenes were as if we were there alongside them firing missiles and whatnot. They quite literally did fly us through the ‘dangerzone’. So I would definitely recommend a cinema with really good effects and sound system. It’ll definitely be worth the price and give you an awesome experience overall.
In short, this was simply a perfect example of how a sequel should be done, embracing the nostalgia and the fame of the previous instalment but not depending unnecessarily on it. This is sadly a rare occurrence in cinema nowadays as the majority of these long drawn out sequels mostly end up being a disappointment and end up tarnishing the name. This was also a textbook example of how a blockbuster action movie should be handled with an actual storyline with emotional weight as well as with really good action sequences.
There was another surprise waiting in line for us that day. That is the announcement that Scope Cinema will be opening up an Imax Studio in Sri Lanka! I for one truly cannot wait for this to be opened. We’ll let you know more about that later.
