Disappointed

People have a way of really messing up my enjoyment of things, movies especially. Yesterday, I finally watched "Top Gun", which I had known for years to be a very popular movie, but had never gotten to. I had, of course, long been aware of different bits of it that had become parts of broader pop culture, but never saw it firsthand. As part of a group initiative some friends and I have embarked on, I resolved to get to that.

It was a little disappointing. I guess that was to be expected. It had been built up so much that I don't see how it could live up to expectations. All those different bits that I'd been exposed to suggested something so incredible, and it wasn't the greatest thing of all time. It wasn't as bad as the many parodies made it out to be, but those undermined its impact on me more than they created something with which I would compare it favorably.

You have this hot shot pilot in Tom Cruise. He's good at playing that. Anthony Edwards is less good at credibly portraying an elite Navy pilot who I don't buy the way I buy Cruise or foil Val Kilmer. Anyway, Cruise vies with Kilmer for first place in this training school, and therein lies a major problem with the movie. It's a peacetime war movie. They shoehorn two real fights in (against nondescript enemies in a basically context-free conflict), but mostly it's a lot of low-stakes no-shooting training exercises. Imagine if "Dirty Harry" was just Clint at the shooting range.

You do have the love story with Kelly McGillis, not that there's much value in that except that it provides us that kind of nice moment in the bar where they're all singing at her. That, the volleyball game, a few other quips and moments aside, this is just not a movie that does much for me. I liked "An Officer And A Gentleman" better for peacetime Navy pilot training movies. I liked "Iron Eagle" better for fighter pilot movies of any kind. I had some fun watching Top Gun, but it wasn't all I hoped for. I'm glad if other people liked it better, but I liked it less.