Well, I just saw it.
I did enjoy it, but like most movies that get hyped all to hell beforehand, not nearly as much as I had hoped I would.
I guess I'll still spoiler my thoughts.
Spoiler!
The story was as predictable as Avatar. Utterly and completely predictable. I kept hoping they'd throw a wrench in somewhere. At least maybe kill off one or more of the young hotshots. They didn't. The whole Maverick ending his career as an ace was telegraphed in the first trailer. When they mentioned the "enemy" having old Tomcats, I thought, "no, are they really going to shoehorn a Tomcat in there?" Sure enough.... just like the Avatar giant red bird thing. And did anybody not think Maverick and Rooster wouldn't hug shit out, or that the cocky asshole would save them at the end? Ugh.
And they also straight up stole the whole base attack bit from the death star attack in Star Wars. The only things missing were talk of bullseyeing womprats back home and a ghost Goose telling Maverick to use the force. Lucas should have gotten a writing credit. Iceman dying of cancer was pretty much Greer dying of cancer in Clear and Present Danger. Clancy should have gotten a writing credit as well.
And in what reality do PEOPLE WHO WEAR GLASSES fly in fighters? I mean, I've been out for a long time, but back then you wouldn't even sniff military flight training without natural 20/20 vision, even if you were destined to fly a cargo route to Adak. Can't imagine that's changed.
And this unnamed enemy shit is both lame and offensive. Was it Russia? China? North Korea? Sweden? Canada? Rebel Eskimos? Who knows? Not ever seeing the enemies faces reduced them to video game bad guys. God forbid we offend anybody who might drop money on a movie ticket.
It was fun, though. I liked it. The flying sequences were amazing and in the end that saved it. But much like Avatar, it could and should have been so much more, though. Went in expecting five stars. This was three and a half. At best.
One thing I won't spoiler - we stayed until the end of the credits because one of my wife's FB friends to her there was a post credits scene. There wasn't.