So I saw Top Gun: Maverick. MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW. I’ve read a few snarky reviews of it – it’s a recruiting poster for the military, an indication of the dying gasp of an empire, a throwback to the glory days that will never return, maybe even anti-Chinese. I thought it was a fun movie, though. Could we just not overthink it and let it be a fun movie? As a boy of the 1980s (when Top Gun came out) and 1990s (when it was on TV a lot), I do consider it a cultural icon that should not be messed with. So I was worried, but I heard the movie was good and decided to see it. And I thought it succeeded in not ruining the original for a couple reasons – first, Tom Cruise just doing his Tom Cruise thing in his Tom Cruise way. It wouldn’t have worked without him. Second, the eye-popping airplane action and the soundtrack, which were both in the spirit of the original. It just all worked.

Sure, it is a recruiting poster for the U.S. Navy. But this is a movie that is very clear and honest that it is a movie made by the U.S. Navy and glorifying the U.S. Navy. I am much more bothered by movies like the Transformers and Godzilla series that subtly target a younger audience with a pro-military message.

Sure, the plot makes no sense. The enemy is a “rogue regime” building a uranium enrichment plant in a coastal, cold, and mountainous location. So in the real world, it can’t be China, North Korea, or Pakistan because they have had nuclear weapons for decades. And yet they have cutting edge advanced aircraft and air defenses. So maybe a mountainous area of Iran with military hardware supplied by China? Or some fictional island dictator or sultan, except that these tend to be in warm locations. Maybe Iceland – I’m going to go with a mad Bond villain taking over Iceland and seizing some kind of secret NATO R&D facility. There apparently is a purely military solution to the problem, and there apparently are no geopolitical implications of any kind that the moviegoer has to worry about. (In the original, the suggestion is that it was sort of an accidental United States and Soviet Union confrontation that both decide it is in their best interests to cover up. If the U.S. actually launched an unprovoked attack on China, I’m pretty sure China would publicize it.

But Hollywood doesn’t even try to develop characters or make plots that make sense any more. That seems to be a job for TV series these days. So let’s just let it be fun.

Two things did bother me though. One was the absence of Kelly McGillis’s character Charlie. As a boy of the 1980s and 1990s, 1986 Kelly McGillis is important to me. I looked her up – she is a handsome 64-year-old woman. I guess she just wouldn’t have worked as Tom Cruise’s love interest – Cruise is 59 but whatever they do to him through surgery, makeup, and/or computer graphics he looks about 35 in the movie. They should have at least given Kelly McGillis a cameo though – well, maybe they offered and she said no thanks. I was mildly disturbed by the actual love interest in the movie – they never explain anything about her and pretend we are supposed to know her from the first movie. I had to look this up – apparently her character is mentioned in passing in the original movie. They should have at least mentioned Charlie in this new movie or explained what happened to her. I will always love you, Charlie! (Oops, wrong song – I was supposed to say you take my breath away. Well, at least they had the good sense not to mess with that song in the new movie because that song was all about Charlie. And I’m not much of a romantic by the way, but like I say it’s a culture icon. By the way, they avoid having to pay Meg Ryan for a cameo by just telling us her character is dead, which is kind of cheap.)

And finally, I just want to make a pitch for motorcycle helmets. I get that the brash young balls-forward Maverick didn’t wear a helmet. The grownup, more responsible Maverick should have put one on. I suppose his character is marginally suicidal so maybe he gets a pass. He certainly should have put one on his love interest if he actually cared about her life and safety. So shame on Hollywood for this and I hope nobody imitates the movie and gets hurt. Incidentally, I looked up one other thing: you can go online and find a motorcycle helmet in the style of Maverick’s flight helmet. And that is pretty cool. Although remember motorcycles are not safe to begin with. I see some Top Gun-inspired bike helmets for children.

And finally, there are just certain iconic songs associated with certain iconic movies. Top Gun: Maverick goes to the danger zone (a lot), but it has lost that loving feeling.