OnScreen Review: "Top Gun: Maverick"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
1986’s Top Gun is a movie right out of the heart of the 80s in every which way; a big, bold, brash action movie that is very much a product of its time from the male machismo on display to the soundtrack and everything in between. Tom Cruise was well on his way to becoming a A-list movie star in 1986, and now in 2022, on the verge of 60, he’s still going strong churning out blockbusters and revisits his iconic role in Top Gun: Maverick.
More than 30 years after the Top Gun, Cap. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is still in the Navy, but has never risen much in the ranks, because being a pilot is his passion. When a supersonic program he is working on is about to have the plug pulled by a superior intent on drones, Maverick’s actions get him booted from the program, but miraculously sent back to Top Gun school where he is ordered to train 12 former Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission that involves taking out a nuclear site in a nondescript foreign country that will go live in a matter of weeks. Unsure of his teaching capabilities, he is also conflicted by the fact that his old buddy Goose’s son, Rooster (Miles Teller), is part of the program, and he's reluctant to send him on this dangerous mission. On top of it all, Maverick also reconnects with Penny (Jennifer Connelly), an old flame who now owns and operates a bar nearby that is the watering hole for the nearby base.
Most sequels are pure money grabs, some are good-to-decent worth follow-ups, and some exceed the original. Making a sequel to a film that is more than 30 years old and making a quality product out of it is an even taller task. The success rate on those feels even worse. Top Gun: Maverick was in development for nearly a decade or more. It is clear from the final product that care and attention to detail were put into crafting this action blockbuster. It runs like a fine-tuned machine and coming in at right around two hours.
Cruise turns in one of his best performances, returning to one of his most iconic roles. He is still living up to his call sign as a maverick, but instead of being a dangerous hotshot, he is a relic fighting against the dying light. The military of the 21st century is much more technologically advanced than it was even in 1986, and he is trying to stave off extinction with drones breathing down his neck, all while rubbing his superiors the wrong way.
It's funny, one of the early films that Cruise made the same year as Top Gun was The Color of Money, a sequel to The Hustler and a return of Paul Newman’s iconic Fast Eddie Felson. Though they are totally different films, there are some parallels between Fast Eddie in The Hustler and Maverick in Top Gun, both with egos writing checks their bodies can’t cash. In The Color of Money, Newman’s Fast Eddie takes Tom Cruise’s Vincent under his wing. With Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick returns to take these mission candidates under his wing.
The film follows a similar format to the original film where a lot of the action is focused on the training and then the training is put into practice in the third act with a dangerous, high stakes mission. The training is intense and all of the pilots have their own distinct styles, all with plusses and minuses for the mission ahead. Teller’s Rooster is highly skilled, but he’s also too conservative. Glenn Powell’s Hangman is fast and confident, but, as his nickname indicates, he will leave his wingman hanging. Molding these pilots into a team in a short amount of time is the challenge, which leads to a recreation of the iconic beach volleyball scene from the first movie, but this time it’s a weird form of beach football where both sides are simultaneously playing offense and defense. The movie actually recreates a few shots from the original movie, and it’s surprisingly effective in pulling these off; it’s not so much that they’re formulaic or derivative, it’s more like they’re showing how this sequel shares the DNA of the original.
But nearly any action movie can pull off big, impressive action sequences, explosions, and thrilling moments. The hook is whether the personal stories between the characters in the action are compelling. The strained relationship between Maverick and Rooster is at the heart of the movie and Cruise and Teller nail it. Maverick is still clearly broken up about the death of Goose after all these years, they were best friends who put their lives in each other’s hands. It’s not just that Maverick might not want to send the son of his deceased best friend into combat where he could lose his life, the movie also gives us a powerful backstory of why Rooster resents Maverick. Also, Teller, along with the hair and makeup crew, have done a phenomenal job of making Teller look like he would be the son of Anthony Edwards.
The movie also boasts a great supporting cast, highlighted by the aforementioned Connelly and Powell, but also Jon Hamm as the Top Gun instructor who openly admits that Maverick was not his choice for this job. All three roles on paper and in the hands of lesser actors, are token supporting roles, but they elevate the characters. Connelly has great chemistry Cruise and she plays Penny with ease and warmth. It’s a reminder how criminally underutilized she has been over her career. Powell, in many ways, is the Maverick from the original movie in this sequel and he plays Hangman with a great amount of ego and charisma. Hamm, aside from looking like he was born to wear a military uniform with those chiseled facial features, plays the perfect by-the-book, authority figure to be Maverick’s foil. The movie also manages to effectively work Val Kilmer’s Ice Man into the story in an emotionally moving performance given his health condition.
Top Gun was an iconic 80s action movie from Tony Scott, who would go on to become one of the most prolific and accomplished action movie directors ever. Making a sequel more than 30 years later is no small task. And it is rare that a sequel is even better than the original, but that is what we have here. Top Gun: Maverick is an exciting, crowd-pleasing thrill ride of an action movie. It’s fast-paced and vintage Tom Cruise. The action in the film is exquisite. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the film rivals Dunkirk and Ford V. Ferrari in terms of making you feel like you are in the cockpit of this fast-paced vehicle. It is a blockbuster action flick that deserves to be seen on the big screen. You owe it to yourself to feel the need for speed in rushing out to see it.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars