Top Gun 2 Will Be Terrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAfbp3YX9F0

Word is out that Tom Cruise will reprise his role as the reckless combat-ace Maverick in a Top Gun redo.  This must end badly.

Cruise is long past the day when he could deliver a film performance worth watching. Recently, in Edge of Tomorrow  and Oblivion,  he delivered two back-to-back performances that were as lackluster and interchangeable as Legos.

And what exactly do we expect Maverick to do?  The US Navy won’t be taking on the Chinese. That would be politically incorrect and threaten ticket sales on the mainland.

And, what exactly will Maverick be flying?  The Navy’s F-18 Super Hornet is a fine aircraft,  but its been around since the 1980s. That’s old and boring.  The Navy’s new fighter the F-35 is still in trials.

They could always put Maverick in charge of a Navy unmanned fighter. Then he could fly combat missions from the ward room.  That would be an age appropriate activity for a 52 years old fighter pilot.

To make matters worse, modern air-to-air combat doesn’t look anything like old-fashioned dog-fighting. Planes engage at long range with missiles.  From a movie-watcher’s perspective, following a real air-to-air engagement would probably be pretty boring.

So with no enemy to fight, nothing to fly, and nothing to see it is hard to imagine how Hollywood is going to come up with much of a movie. Hopefully, the music will be good.