"Top Gun: Maverick" - Film Review
Top Gun: Maverick is a blast. It opens with big, noisy fighter jets taking off in front of a hazy orange sky and “Danger Zone” blasting. It’s impossible to not be swept up in the spectacle of it all, especially on a massive IMAX screen. In the purest, truest sense of the word, Top Gun: Maverick is a blockbuster, a high-energy summer flick that’s an easy-to-love crowd pleaser.
It’s been thirty-six years since the events of the original Top Gun, and Maverick (Tom Cruise) is still flying high. He has avoided promotion within the Navy because he prefers to remain a pilot and work as a test pilot. His hubris pushes the prototype he’s flying past its limit and the plane is destroyed. As much as Admiral Cain (Ed Harris) wants to discharge Maverick, Iceman (Val Kilmer) selects him to train a group of elite Top Gun graduates to perform a seemingly impossible mission.
An unnamed country is building a uranium enrichment facility that will be completed in three weeks. Rooster (Miles Teller), Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), Bob (Lewis Pullman), Payback (Jay Ellis), Hangman (Glen Powell), and Fanboy (Danny Ramirez) are the recruits who will be flying this mission. Rooster and Maverick share a tumultuous past: Rooster is the son of Maverick’s old partner, Goose (Anthony Edwards). Maverick still blames himself for Goose’s death, and so does Rooster. All these pilots are the best of the elite, but even they are struggling with their egos and the difficult maneuvers this mission calls for.
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The original Top Gun is silly, there’s no way around it, but Top Gun: Maverick manages to stay true to some beloved moments of the original without fully devolving into something laughable. The new recruits have their singing-at-the-bar moment, which is both joyful and heart-wrenching. For the new recruits gathered around Rooster at the piano, it’s a chance to blow off steam and enjoy each other’s company. Maverick, watching from afar, only sees Goose sitting at that same piano in the same bar singing the same song. It’s doubly heartbreaking for Maverick to see Rooster there, looking so much like his father.
Perhaps most surprising about Top Gun: Maverick is Cruise’s performance. In recent years, he’s exclusively done big, bold action films that don’t require much from him in terms of acting. Cruise is mainly praised for his ability to do most of his own stunts, but Top Gun: Maverick is a shockingly emotional turn for him. Perhaps it has something to do with the film’s focus on Maverick’s fears of becoming old and obsolete in the Navy. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for Cruise to be working through those fears as well. There will come a time when he won’t be able to leap from tall buildings or hang-glide on his own. Cruise’s performance is nuanced, tinged with a sad awareness that the inevitable finish line is moving ever closer to him.
It goes without saying, but the plane sequences in Top Gun: Maverick are jaw-dropping. The choreography of the flights, the deafening roar of the engines, and the beautiful, sweeping landscapes are impossible to look away from. Top Gun: Maverick is the rare sequel that elevates its source material and creates a new, worthwhile story. A high-octane thrill ride that celebrates where Maverick's been and where he’s going.
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