Top Gun: Maverick

Released: May 2022

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Run Time: 131 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Genre: Action

Cast:
Tom Cruise: Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell
Jennifer Connelly: Penny Benjamin
Miles Teller: Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw
Val Kilmer: Adm. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky
Bashir Salahuddin: WO-1 Bernie “Hondo” Coleman
John Hamm: Adm. Beau “Cyclone” Simpson
Charles Parnell: Adm. Solomon “Warlock” Bates
Monica Barbaro: Lt. Natasha “Phoenix” Trace
Lewis Pullman: Lt. Robert “Bob” Floyd

When a studio makes a sequel to a very successful movie like say, Indiana Jones or Star Wars, they generally want a sequel made within 2-5 years of its release.  It makes sense, from a business perspective.  You need to strike while the iron’s hot.  What that means is that you want to start in on a sequel while people are still talking about the original film.  When people start hearing that a sequel’s coming, they’re going to be more excited about it.  That ups the potential windfall that the studio will make with it’s follow-up film/s.  There’s been a small trend of studios making a sequel to movie IPs that have been dormant for decades.  There are two examples of why this could’ve been a problem for Top Gun: Maverick.  Blade Runner and Independence Day.  The first Blade Runner was a classic science fiction movie that eventually people responded to, but it bombed at the box office.  Independence Day was a sci-fi action flick that did extremely well at the box office.  People loved it.  Blade Runner 2049 was a sequel that came out 32 years after the original film.  It bombed.  Nobody went to see it, because nobody was interested in it.  It could’ve been because of the bad marketing, but for whatever reason, 2049 tanked.  It’s a great movie, and it deserved better, but it just didn’t happen.  Independence Day: Resurgence came out literally 20 years after the original film.  Nobody was asking for it, and while there are a multitude of reasons why it wasn’t very good, a big reason was because it wasn’t relevant.  Nobody had talked about these movies for years, and all of a sudden a new movie shows up?  People get skeptical for a reason.  So, does Top Gun: Maverick suffer from these issues?  No.  In fact, a movie like this could’ve only been NOW instead of years ago or in the future.  I’ll explain why.

Tom Cruise reprises his iconic role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a naval aviator whose unorthodox methods made him a legend in the flight community.  As the movie starts, we find Maverick as a test pilot for the navy’s most advanced jets.  Before he can be run out of the navy, he’s brought back to the Top Gun school to train recent Top Gun graduates for an upcoming mission, and Maverick is the only aviator who has the experience to help them succeed.  One of the graduates, Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw is the son of Goose, Maverick’s co-pilot from the original movie.  Goose was killed in a freak accident and Rooster has never really forgiven Maverick for that and other reasons.  As an avowed fan of the original Top Gun, Maverick is a better film in every single way.  The original was absolutely a product of its time, and as a result, not all of it holds very well.  The “character development” wasn’t that great and the overall product was very…macho.  The story-telling in this film is so much better, because it focuses more on the characters and we get to see them evolve, especially Tom Cruise’s character.  This a movie about building a team and it just works on so many levels.  There’s an emotional core to this movie that I was not expecting.  There are some real emotional moments throughout the film that got me choking up a bit.  An emotional impact from a movie like Top Gun?  Are you crazy?  Yeah.  It’s fantastic.

Seeing Tom Cruise reprise the role that really put him on the map is fantastic.  Say what you will about the man himself, but he puts 110 percent into EVERYTHING that he does.  He is dedicated to his craft, and to see him evolve his character of Pete Mitchell the way he does is awesome.  The character’s still got some of that swagger and cockiness, but it’s been tempered by years of experience.  The real stand-out of the show, though, is Miles Teller as Rooster.  Miles Teller is an extraordinary actor in his own way, but the dynamic he brings to the relation between Maverick and Rooster is intense.  I’ll say it, Rooster is the spitting image of Goose from the original film.  The relationship between Maverick and Rooster is what gives the film its heart.  If there’s an issue with the movie, it’s that I didn’t really buy into the relationship between Maverick and Jennifer Connelly’s Penny.  It’s not awful, but it doesn’t bring the same energy that Kelly McGillis brought in the first movie.  That’s not to dig on Jennifer’s performance at all, I liked her as Penny, but there wasn’t enough there to really get invested in.  Everybody does a fantastic job.  Jon Hamm as admiral in charge brings real commanding presence to the film.  The one thing I really loved about this movie is how they handled Val Kilmer and his character.  It’s one of the most touching moments in the film and is incredibly respectful of the character and the actor, considering the struggles that Val Kilmer’s been going through.

Top Gun: Maverick is a movie that MUST be seen on the big screen.  It’s not just the action, but from a visual standpoint, it’s a gorgeous movie.  The SOUND is also what really makes this movie standout.  When the jets started taking off, the theater was rumbling, and I wasn’t in one of those special theaters that the moving seats.  They don’t make movies like this anymore.  They really don’t.  The logistics of what went into this picture is mind-boggling.  For the most part, what you see is what you actually get.  When you see the pilots making faces in the jest, that’s NOT green-screen.  They are up there doing that.  The reactions are real.  Tom Cruise made sure that the action sequences in this movie were authentic and they are.  It FEELS real, because it is.  Yeah, there are some CGI moments here and there, but most of it’s practical.  The original movie had really awesome flight sequences that nobody had seen or done before.  Maverick just took to a whole new level.  Tom Cruise even had the actors learn cinematography so they could have the best shots in those jets.  I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that before.

When I said that NOW was the perfect for this particular movie to come out, I wasn’t kidding.  There is a moment early on in the film where a character calls Maverick’s aviators a dying breed, with drones taking the place of actual pilots.  It IS the direction that we are headed, but as Maverick pointed out: Not today.  The need for fighter pilots is constant, and in this current political climate, a state of readiness needs to be maintained.  Drones don’t have the instincts or emotions of fighter pilots, both of which are incredibly necessary to fly these expensive machines.  So, unlike a lot of films of this type, Top Gun: Maverick is incredibly relevant.  One other thing I should mention is that the music from the original film was outstanding.  It was a great soundtrack with Harold Faltermeyer’s anthem blaring throughout the movie.  Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone is iconic.  There would be riots in the streets if the new movie didn’t include that song at the very least.  It’s a part of Top Gun’s DNA.  The music for the new movie is just as awesome, if updated a bit for modern audiences.  Hans Zimmer teams up with Faltermeyer and Lady Gaga to create a soundtrack that is both thrilling and emotion.  Lady Gaga’s Hold my Hand represents everything that Top Gun: Maverick is.  She did a bang-up job here.

Top Gun: Maverick is a hell of a start to the summer movie season.  Again, this is a movie that HAS to be seen in theaters with a crowd.  It’s an event movie.  While I’m not going to say that it’s perfect, it isn’t, but the nitpicks I have are just that: Nitpicks.  This is one of the best movies of its kind.  Honestly, I truly we’ll never see anything  quite like it again.  Tom Cruise, Joseph Kosinski, and writer Christopher McQuarrie have put together a sequel that not only bests the original in every way, but it also stands on its own two feet.  You don’t need to see the original to appreciate this one, but there Easter eggs in here that fans of the 1986 movie will absolutely appreciate.  Top Gun: Maverick may be 3 years late, but it was well worth it.  This is one of my favorite movies of the decade thus far.  Do I recommend it?  Hell, yes!  It’s fun, emotional, thrilling, and just plain great.  It’s one of Tom Cruise’s best movies to date.