Sure those jets are cool toys, leather jackets are stylish, the Porsche is shiny, bikes are fast, aviators sunglasses are great, the ship is fast, cruise stayed infuriatingly young and maybe - if I remembered the first movie - 80's nostalgia would kick in.
However, the plot is mediocre at best. It's easily summarized in a few sentences. Plotholes are not to be questioned in such movies. Only the enemy and political background remains strangely unspecified. (I bet that's Iceland, Norway or Greenland planning to rob the riches of the Western Hemisphere. Vikings are not to be trusted - especially the Danish.) Most dialogues are from action movie hell. The young pilots (especially during the bar introduction scene) are the worst: adrenaline and testosterone has this effect on boys (and a girl it seems). The personal conflicts in this movie are standard Hollywood BS. The (superfluous?) romantic story is another trope. Charming Connelly and Cruise harmonize well though. I'm very annoyed by the patriotism, jingoism, pathos and the bombastic score. And of course the ending is way too happy to be interesting.
At first I got the impression that dialogues and 80s inspired pathos was supposed to be an ironic comment on the role models propagated by the first movie. But they take this serious, don't they? If you wanted to give this a positive twist, you could say that they honor the first iconic movie. They recapture its look and feel (even if that's contrary to the zeitgeist) and thus refrain from ridiculing the first movie. Maybe they have a point here. That's what makes many other sequels unwatchable: they become a parody of their prequel and the aged main characters become caricatures of their younger selfs - it helps that Cruise doesn't age.
I never expected an intellectual masterpiece. Surely this isn't a clever movie. This will never be a 7/10. There's simply no second layer that could warrant such an above average rating.
Now, let's talk about the positive things: the flying is breathtaking. Whether that's realistic or not - I don't care. Don't know how they did this, but this alone makes this a very entertaining action movie. The initial scram jet sequence is great. The action makes this movie a solid 6/10.
Review by Alexander von LimbergBlockedParent2024-04-23T21:38:08Z
Sure those jets are cool toys, leather jackets are stylish, the Porsche is shiny, bikes are fast, aviators sunglasses are great, the ship is fast, cruise stayed infuriatingly young and maybe - if I remembered the first movie - 80's nostalgia would kick in.
However, the plot is mediocre at best. It's easily summarized in a few sentences. Plotholes are not to be questioned in such movies. Only the enemy and political background remains strangely unspecified. (I bet that's Iceland, Norway or Greenland planning to rob the riches of the Western Hemisphere. Vikings are not to be trusted - especially the Danish.) Most dialogues are from action movie hell. The young pilots (especially during the bar introduction scene) are the worst: adrenaline and testosterone has this effect on boys (and a girl it seems). The personal conflicts in this movie are standard Hollywood BS. The (superfluous?) romantic story is another trope. Charming Connelly and Cruise harmonize well though. I'm very annoyed by the patriotism, jingoism, pathos and the bombastic score. And of course the ending is way too happy to be interesting.
At first I got the impression that dialogues and 80s inspired pathos was supposed to be an ironic comment on the role models propagated by the first movie. But they take this serious, don't they? If you wanted to give this a positive twist, you could say that they honor the first iconic movie. They recapture its look and feel (even if that's contrary to the zeitgeist) and thus refrain from ridiculing the first movie. Maybe they have a point here. That's what makes many other sequels unwatchable: they become a parody of their prequel and the aged main characters become caricatures of their younger selfs - it helps that Cruise doesn't age.
I never expected an intellectual masterpiece. Surely this isn't a clever movie. This will never be a 7/10. There's simply no second layer that could warrant such an above average rating.
Now, let's talk about the positive things: the flying is breathtaking. Whether that's realistic or not - I don't care. Don't know how they did this, but this alone makes this a very entertaining action movie. The initial scram jet sequence is great. The action makes this movie a solid 6/10.