One critic called Top Gun: Maverick a “Glorious Blockbuster,” and I can’t say it any better.

Decades after Top Gun, Cruise’s macho advertisement for US Naval Aviators came out, Tom Cruise is back – cute, ageless, endearing, courageous, rebellious.

In a sense, this is the Superhero Epidemic re-imagined and reinvented. There is no superhero, just a regular one. This is a movie the country needs at the moment, and it is a major super hit, $100 million the first weekend.

And for good reason.

The acting is terrific, the aerial acrobatics are breath-taking (Cruise doesn’t ever use stunt people, he does it all himself,) and the Navy Jets are actual Navy Jets.

The endless sky is real also, and quite beautiful.

But there is never a dark moment; not a drop of blood is!shown on screen, thousands of people are not blown up or eaten alive, cities are not destroyed, the superhero who sets out to save the world (and NATO) is human, emotional, thoughtful, and admirable.

Captain Maverick hasn’t aged at all, but he is wiser and softer if no less a thorn in the sides of his superiors.

The movie is gripping, moving, and nailbiting.  And a lot of fun. The music is awesome as well.

Although the Naval bureaucrats block him at almost every turn and accuse him of being  irrelevant and disobedient, Top Gun Captain Pete Maverick replies, “I’m not a teacher; I’m a fighter pilot.”

That he is, and that’s what he gets to do. And we have no doubt he will do it, obstructionist and clueless admirals have no luck standing up to him.

Cruise fought for and won his battle for the movie to be shown exclusively in theaters and not streamed. It was a brilliant stroke; if ever a film needed a big screen or was a good argument for one, this was it.

Cruise has upended conventional Hollywood wisdom. People want movies like this and will go to theaters to see them.

Director Joseph Kosinski made a classic American adventure and action movie without making it dark, dystopian, creepy,  headache-inducing, and endless. They no longer seem to like their work.

Top Gun Maverick LOVES to fly when the stakes are high.

The recent batch of superheroes all need anti-depressants.

Since the modern Superheroes all hate themselves so much, it’s almost impossible to like them. Maverick doesn’t brood, he just does. He doesn’t need Zantax to fight.

There is some loss and sadness in Top Gun: Maverick, but not much. The ending is a triumph for Maverick and the audience. People in my theater clapped and all left smiling and happy.

Me too. A good movie doesn’t have to depress.

Kosinski and Cruise are not looking to scare or upset anybody in this movie. It’s a thrilling adventure movie, but never a frightening one.

I would bring a nine-year-old to Top Gun Maverick without a worry.

The movie is diverse and has several brave, independent solid women, including a tough, smart jet fighter pilot and Maverick’s love interest, bar owner Jennifer Connelly, who challenges him to grow up and do the right thing.

The one sex scene is brief and discreet. You won’t leave the theater with a sore ass or headache either. It’s a mere two hours and 17 minutes long.

The mission Maverick and his students face (he has three weeks to teach them how to survive what appears to be almost a suicidal mission to destroy a nuclear facility that threatens the world.)

It sounds like something the Russians would do, but no country is named.

Maverick is still devastated by the loss of his wingman Goose in the first movie. Goose’s son Rooster is trying to join in the dangerous mission Maverick has been asked to oversee.

I could see the plot twists at the end a mile away, but so what? It didn’t matter.

Because Rooster is Maverick’s son (Maverick blames himself for his friend’s death), Maverick is paralyzed by the idea that he might be responsible for history repeating itself.

He is afraid Goose might never come back if he takes him on this mission. If he doesn’t take him, Goose, who also blames Maverick for his father’s death, will never forgive him.

Maverick’s dilemma is at the heart of the movie. The movie focuses on emotion as much as anything else, which gives it a rare and softening dimension.

This movie will remind everyone who sees it why seeing a movie in a theater is much better than seeing one on Netflix.

I have to say the flight aeronautics and dances practically hypnotized me. I love that stuff.

This is, in many ways, the perfect movie to see with your family or yourself (Maria didn’t want to go) over the holidays.  It is skilly (and with restraint), intense but warm; in these disturbing and conflicting times, this is medicine, an antidote.

It never goes over the top, except at the very end, which is rare in Hollywood movies.

This is Hollywood at its time-honored best, entertaining and engaging us without horrifying, offending, or beating our brains out with jarring, violent, and depressing mega stories.

It’s good fun, well done.

This hero is happy to be a hero without agonizing over his depression and disconnection from the world.

I recommend it highly. I suspect some of the aerial stuff will delight men more than women, but there are also thoughtful, emotional, and real-life characters who can make everyone happy.

The women in my theater loved it, perhaps because they love Cruise.

He hasn’t lost it.

He still has the best All-American smile in Hollywood.