Bollywood’s version of Top Gun: Maverick, Fighter, has had some serious turbulence on Rotten Tomatoes. Led by Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, and Anil Kapoor, the movie follows a team of Indian fighter pilots as they come together to form an elite group of fighters in the hopes of defending India from any threats. The movie is in Hindi and was released on January 25.
The similarities between Top Gun: Maverick and Fighter are stark, but the Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer scores could not have been more different. Fighter is suffering from a score of only 31 percent at the time of writing, which landed it a “Rotten” designation. Top Gun: Maverick, on the other hand, has a Tomatometer score of 96, reflecting the love that critics have for its cast and characters.
Fighter Has Had Extremely Polarizing Reviews
Audiences Have Been High On Both Top Gun: Maverick And Fighter
While critics have looked down on Fighter, audiences have been more forgiving. It has a 95 percent audience score, which is impressive enough to compete with Top Gun: Maverick‘s 99 percent audience score. Unfortunately, it is far from a representative sample. After all, it has fewer than 50 verified rankings at the moment, leaving its final score somewhat uncertain.
Top Gun 3’s Ideal Storyline Was Already Set Up In Maverick
Top Gun 3 already has its ideal storyline, which was subtly teased at the beginning of Top Gun: Maverick, and won’t undo Maverick’s ending.
Yet these rankings are somewhat unfair. Fighter is an original movie, much like 1986’s Top Gun was. If compared to the original 1986 movie, Fighter‘s Rotten Tomatoes results are much more forgivable. After all, Top Gun has a Tomatometer score of only 57 percent, while audiences have given it a score of 83 percent. Even if the Hindi-language movie loses some audience respect throughout its run, it will likely still be competitive with Maverick‘s predecessor.
It remains to be seen if Fighter will be able to recover its budget at the box office. If it does, there is the possibility for profitability and a sequel. Fighter 2 could compete with Top Gun: Maverick more fairly, though it will likely not have to wait 36 years for its sequel as Tom Cruise did. It could also offer some insight into how the franchise can compete with the upcoming Top Gun 3.
