Top Gun: Maverick

• Directed by Joseph Kosinski
• April 28, 2022 (CinemaCon) / May 27, 2022 (US)
• Based on characters created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.

While training a group of graduates picked for a dangerous mission, Maverick confronts his past including Goose’s son.

This may be hearsay to some but I can’t say I was thrilled with the original Top Gun. For me it’s a very 80s film in just about every aspect when it comes to what you get on screen. It’s a very good technical achievement and a film with an iconic soundtrack but ultimately it’s very much a product of its time. I get why people are attached to it. I am just not one of them. I was not very excited to go into Top Gun: Maverick because of that but gave it a shot after repeated raves from many I knew.

In a word: Wow! While not perfect, Top Gun: Maverick was an amazing film and a vast improvement upon the original. From story to acting to visuals it mostly knocks it out of the park. It is a long-awaited sequel that was actually worth the wait.

There is more than enough action and excitement with some of the best adrenaline pumping footage in years, but it is more than that. It also has some meat to it. Maverick (Tom Cruise) must deal with his past and how he has lived his life. And running through the film is also the question does the machine make the man or does the man make the machine as Maverick must push those he is training to their limits to pull off a difficult mission in order to make it back home.

The story starts with Maverick not all that far in life from where Top Gun left him. He has loved them and left them and now finds himself largely alone. His inclination to buck authority with the belief he knows better has left his military career stagnant. He has the loyalty of those close to him but seems to lack strong personal ties. This loyalty has given him an implied (in the opening scene) guardian angel somewhere higher up.

Maverick, after his latest foul up is saved in the nick of time from serious consequences by being transferred to train a group of young recruits to complete a dangerous mission. He keeps pushing them harder than those above him think is possible. Maverick is interested in learning their limits rather than tailoring the mission around the limits of the machine which they will be flying.

This movie also deals with finding your place in the world. Where you belong as well as coming to terms with your past guilt. Maverick during the course of Maverick realizes that time is catching up with him. He’s no longer the young hotshot but rather bordering on the old has been. He still has something to offer, but he has it to offer to the next generation. In this story he goes from the loner who’s always right to the father that has to help the children grow up and step into the real world. He turns them from youthful individuals to adults.

Aside from issues with his superiors and his own shortcomings, Maverick must deal with Goose’s son Rooster (Miles Teller). Rooster has a long list of reasons to be angry with Maverick beyond the death of his father. Their personalities clash with Rooster being much more cautious and irritated over the more cavalier risk-taking Maverick with it all complicated by their connected past. This is on top of an issue caused in part to a promise Maverick made to Rooster’s mother before she died. That makes it sound soapy but it is not.

A summer blockbuster with some substance? And one that is decidedly adrenaline pumping as well as not down on the organization or country in which it is set? Holy crap! Why can’t more movies be like this? This demonstrates that action films or the general blockbuster can have something to it and not just be dumbed down eye candy. 

Not only that, but there can be scenes of deep feeling in this summer blockbuster. When Maverick finally goes to see Iceman (Val Kilmer) there is a level of poignancy to it that I did not expect. Val Kilmer is not in the best of health and it’s my understanding his voice in this was accomplished through artificial means, but that does not take away from his performance. The man has some real talent. And his interactions with Cruise in his scene is moving and heartbreaking.

Both know it is the end of the road of this particular leg of the journey for them. Both Iceman and Maverick know that Iceman will not be around much longer. And it drives home the point that Maverick must let go of his guilt of the past as well as the past in general in order to move on and step out on his own completely. A great deal happens in Maverick’s life and it all forces him to change.

Kilmer demonstrated real talent by conveying and creating a character with no dialogue. It helps that the audience could associate with something before, but it would not have been strong if it was not for his talent.

This change includesMaverick learning not to flee from love. He reconnects with old flame Penny (Jennifer Connelly). Penny is no woman waiting to be won. She knows exactly what Maverick is and steps into this relationship nervously.

This is a character driven story with military elements. Each one involved in this film goes through a bit of a change. They start out one way and learn and grow along the way. This is much more of a drama interspersed with elements of excitement via great aerial footage than it is an action film. It’s substance over style even though there’s plenty of style in it.

What action there is in this is extremely well done. It’s my understanding there is very little CGI in Top Gun: Maverick and your mind just knows as you are brought to the edge of your seat in adrenaline pumping sequences. But more importantly the action that we get in this movie moves the story forward. It’s not just for cool shit.

And what is Top Gun without great music? This has it. It’s stuff that you’ll probably still listen to 10 or 20 or 30 years down the road. Plus they work in enough of the old original Top Gun music to connect but not beat you over the head that this is a sequel. Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, and Hans Zimmer gave us something very special here.

Legacy sequels often ride the coattails of the popular film that came before and really are not that good in comparison to the original. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t wildly enamored with the original, but I think this is an improvement over that. It’s much more of a drama with action elements than a movie firmly attached to the era in which it comes from. It’s a sequel that advances the story. Yet it also stands on its own to the point there is no need to have watched the original.

Things proceed logically and intelligently in this movie. At least up until the end. I’m not complaining about it and I enjoyed this movie from start to finish, but stealing an old fighter jet to make an escape feels very 80s. But again it was so well done I didn’t care.

This movie is over two hours but never feels like it. There are no dead moments. Nothing is boring. It hooks you from start to finish. And there’s nothing extraneous at all. Everything either develops the character or develops the story. It has style AND substance. It’s not one over the other.

I honestly didn’t think I would like Top Gun: Maverick as much as I did given that I wasn’t thrilled with the original. Yet I absolutely loved this movie. Top Gun: Maverick is an amazing bit of filmmaking and probably the best legacy sequel of all time. It’s a movie that you will watch again and again. I highly recommend this!