THERE ARE TWO THINGS THAT THE Paramount blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick," which netted $151 million on its opening weekend, is not: It is neither a documentary nor a fictional account based on a true story. This seems obvious, but it is important. The actors and director of the "Top Gun" sequel are in no way required to produce a realistic account of a strike mission. Their scriptwriters are, likewise, not obligated to constrain their characters to conventional tactics or limit weapon systems to known specifications or even physics. For the sake of storytelling, it is best that they do not, as long as any fictional conceits make the story more entertaining. By the subjective standards of this column, the Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel to the 1986 action film succeeds in ways that few follow-ups ever have.
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