I am late to the party, but I saw “Top Gun Maverick” the other day.
As it turns out, it was two hours that passed in a blink of an eye.
As a member of the generation that saw Top Gun in real time, I was simply impressed by how cool Tom Cruise was in the lead role.
Tom Cruise is an American actor who made his debut when I was in junior high school and went straight to stardom. It is said that his first film, Top Gun, was the catalyst for his rise to stardom.
As a junior high school student at the time, I simply watched American fighter pilots with my mouth open, thinking how cool they were. There had been many war movies before, but this was the first movie in which the fighter planes were beautiful and cool, and the pilots were too.
Then, Tom Cruise, the main character, appears on a motorcycle and rides a Tomcat (a passenger plane) in a brilliant manner. How could any idiot junior high school boy not admire that?
More than the details of the movie (love story, friendship, etc.), it was the fighter plane taking off and landing from the aircraft carrier that made all the boys want to ride in it.
So, until I saw Maverick, I was surprised that I could not remember the story, even though I had seen it replayed many times on TV.
As for me, I’m not a fan of Tom Cruise in particular, but I guess I like him more than I thought, given that I always see him in movie theaters, such as in the Mission Impossible series.
I guess what I find attractive about him is that he is handsome in a Western way, but also a bit hard to hate. A little coquettish. It is similar in some ways to Michael J. Fox, who ran through the same era.
And although there have been many tall and handsome actors after Tom Cruise, I think it is this handsome, yet coquettish part that keeps him in the forefront.
To be honest, there are very few funny scenes in “Top Gun Maverick.
The only comedic part is when they are flirting at his former girlfriend’s house and the kid who was supposed to be staying out comes home and Tom runs out the window. However, the kid finds him just as he’s getting off cool.
That moment, that fleeting glimpse of Tom’s face (his smile), is the source of his charm.
The first Top Gun movie was derided as a promotional video for Tom, but I think it is a typical movie that is much more enjoyable and makes you feel like you have seen a movie if you focus on the coolness of the lead actor, rather than on a boring storyline. That’s why it was such a big hit. And I was reminded of this when I saw “Top Gun Maverick” in theaters.
I heard that Tom Cruise, as expected, is over sixty years old. But as long as this coolness and coquettishness lasts, Tom Cruise will continue to be a star.
See you soon.
