Went to see Top Gun: Maverick last night, is there a better film to go back to the cinema for?

I guess it depends on when you were born and how much of an impact the original Top Gun film made on you, but I spent two hours in the IMAX cinema in Plymouth last night with a great big grin across my face, but also close to the tears at the same time for the sheer joy and nostalgia and audacity of the film making. I’ve got a big TV here at home, together with a really good sound system, but damn that was THE film to go back to the cinema for…………..

I can’t remember the last time I went to the cinema with my wife, but it was a long time ago, and of course this recent thing called the pandemic put that sort of stuff on hold for far too long anyway. My youngest brother went to see Top Gun: Maverick at one of the big London IMAX cinemas the other day, and he told me to go and see it on the biggest screen I could find. I have never been to an IMAX cinema before, so I went online and booked a couple of tickets for my wife and I, and neither of us could believe the size of the screen when we walked into the IMAX theatre within the Cineworld Plymouth complex last night. My brother told me to make sure we got seats which were well back to take account of the size of the screen - we were in row J which was really good, but I wouldn’t want to be any closer.

You can obviously read reviews of Top Gun: Maverick all over the internet, but from my point of view it was just utterly glorious from start to finish. A film that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. On one level it works so simply as a fantastic action film with surely the most insane flying sequences ever, and on another level it works as just about the biggest gift of very cleverly thought out but not remotely cloying nostalgia I have ever seen. Nothing in the film felt over the top or unnecessary which might sound surprising when you consider the concepts and the producers, and I defy you not to laugh and cry all at the same time IF the original Top Gun holds a place in your heart from your youth. I can see my girls loving Top Gun: Maverick as an action film when they get to see it at some point, but I can also see a lot of the references in the film passing them by. They will do doubt look at their parents and wonder why on earth they keep laughing and sniffling the whole way through when we watch it together one day. That was the film to get my wife and I back to the cinema. I am still grinning this morning. Wow………..