This sounds like an extremely cerebral analysis. Personally, my wife and I saw the latest Top Gun, had a blast, left the theater and that was that. It was a very good movie, I would say at least as good as the original.

As for Tom Cruise being a movie star, well, honestly he's still a movie star, and like movie stars of past (and future), some movies do better than others. Beyond that, while I appreciate the analysis, it seems to me that it's somewhat missing the point of Top Gun. It's supposed to be fun.