I feel the need, the need to watch great blockbuster filmmaking this Summer season, and Top Gun: Maverick is kicking us off and setting the bar incredibly high.
The long-awaited legacy sequel to Tony Scott’s ‘80s classic finally lands in movie cinemas next week and Joseph Kosinski, Tom Cruise, and the entire team have crafted something unique and truly special, the kind of experience that reminds you why we love the big screen experience, with the crispiest image & the loudest sound possible.
For more than 30 years serving as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) now pushes the envelope as a courageous test pilot, dodging the rank advancement that would ground him. But once the opportunity to train a detachment of graduates for a special assignment comes his way, Maverick must confront the ghosts of his past and his deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who choose to fly it.
For years now as audiences we have come to recognize Legacy Sequels for its stories that elevate the iconic classic they follow up on, reveling in the glory of what made them so beloved or even subverting our expectations, but Top Gun: Maverick is a creature of a different breed, one that is not aiming at recapturing the glory of the original, but rather to grow from its existence.
The maturity found in director Joseph Kosinski’s take on the legacy sequel will have you looking back on the 80s-style blockbuster no *JUST* with fondness, but it allows characters to grow with the experiences lived in that film, and on the 36 years in between movies. While we still follow a Maverick who is dangerous and loves what he does, this is also a weary man who is has stayed in active service as he has for the longest time not been able to cope with the loss of his best friend or handle the regret that comes with it.
Maverick has always blamed himself for Goose’s death, even though he was cleared of the blame. This is a man who has always been alone, apart from Goose and his family, who welcomed him as one of their own. This guilt means Maverick never could create a relationship with Bradley (Miles Teller), knowing he was there when his father passed and with that, Maverick lost the one connection that grounded him.
The reason why this movie worked so well is because of the emotional connection to Goose and his family.
This level of intimacy and introspective characterization that is found throughout the film allows Tom Cruise to deliver a classic movie star performance, but also one that displays real depth, one that elevates the material from standard blockbuster resulting in the actor’s best performance since Magnolia.
For all the love it so clearly holds for the original, Top Gun: Maverick merely uses its predecessor to fuel its characters, layering the story in a surprisingly complex and humanizing way, elevating not only jaw-dropping action set pieces but giving us people to actually care for and understand who they are, improving on what came before.
The film’s emotional crux is found in Goose’s death haunting Maverick and is portrayed with real maturity as Maverick is faced with Rooster (Miles Teller), Goose’s son all grown up and now part of the team of graduates Maverick must train in the film. You would expect this to be just a plain old “I blame you for my father’s death” and “I blame myself too” kind of relationship, but without diving into spoilers, it is so much more than that. We get this sense that Roosters has this carried resentment towards Maverick, but there is a mystery as to exactly what it is.
We can see both sides sharing a history of trying with to create a relationship with one another, and it’s how the film slowly but surely reveals what has been happening with the two characters in-between movies that makes it such a compelling journey, particularly because the film shows us, they do care for one another, there only is resentment and sorrow because there was love in the first place. What also helps is the added tension of as the audience knowing what has caused friction between the two but knowing none of the other recruits do.
There are several key moments that make this relationship so crucial and compelling throughout the film and it’s absolutely riveting to watch the layers being peeled slowly but surely. Teller is also the spitting image of Anthony Edwards, carrying a lot of his bravado, confidence and even a bit of his naivety.
Rooster carries this personal history with Maverick that causes friction with having Maverick has his teachers. This is viewed as a proverbial boiler that could overflow at any moment and keeps us engaged at every moment the two are on screen together. Cruise and Teller’s chemistry is electric, their energy absolutely unmatched and together they deliver some of the film’s emotional highlights, as well as the fist-pumping crowd-pleasing moments that audiences are sure to remember for years.
This cross-generational dynamic fuels the entire movie and makes us care for the entire team, because we’re presented Maverick’s point of view, and despite his still ever-present dangerous attitude, we come to understand that his values and grown with his experiences, particularly in one key scene with Cyclone (Jon Hamm) where the two are discussing Maverick’s investment in the mission and his dangerous teachings of pushing the team to their absolute limits as he sees it as the only way not only to be successful in the mission, but also to give them the best chance of survival.
Another element that elevates the script and makes Maverick’s journey with the theme of growth and maturity work throughout is that we see him as the perfect soldier, but clearly not the perfect person, as another one of the demons that comes back to haunt him is Penny (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a former admiral and one of Maverick’s youthful escapades from his past.
Connelly is an unsung hero of the film in an understated role that is key to Maverick putting his life and decisions into perspective, she is the level-headedness he so desperately has needed without realizing, who much like the film itself, doesn’t see in him the glory of his feats as a pilot, but rather what makes him a flawed human being underneath the surface.
In many ways, Maverick’s demons in Goose and Penny are very much the heart and soul of the film and they work as a vehicle to deliver a great conclusion to Maverick’s arc that is emotionally complex but narratively straight forward.
These qualities are incredibly surprising to see in a movie such as this, but there are also very expected qualities, that ultimately make Top Gun: Maverick what it is, as Joseph Kosinski unleashes his blockbuster filmmaking self and lays it all on the screen for audiences to relish. An incredible team comprised of Kosinski himself at the directing helm, Tom Cruise, Jerry Bruckheimer and Chris McQuarrie producing, and Claudio Miranda’s keen eye as the cinematographer.
The group clearly work relentlessly to create a historic big-screen experience, with Cruise’s signature driver, passion, and boundary-pushing craft on full display it all results in one of the greatest blockbusters of this generation, a quintessential blockbuster in all facets of filmmaking.
Kosinski and Miranda deliver truly spectacular flight sequences that will take your breath away, authentic action sequences and dog fights that were constructed by way of Tom Cruise learning and paying for the rest of his class to learn alongside him, to fly fighter jet in pursuit of preserving the big screen entertainment he strives to deliver, and he most certainly exceeded in spade.
Whereas the characters and story display Kosinski’s sophistication as a storyteller, he truly showcases his versatility by way of gritty intensity when it comes to the awe-inspiring action set pieces, particularly the entire 3rd act’s way of continuously racketing up tension and raising the stakes by way of knowing the cast themselves are flying around.
Lest I forget to praise the sound mixing and editing teams that have put together earth-shattering sound that left a gigantic IMAX theatre shaking and rumbling with excitement, and should be in the conversation for best sound design of the year. It is the purest form of adrenaline and exactly what the big-screen experience was created for, capturing the immersive feeling of sitting in a cockpit of a jet, flying with all the odds against you.
Top Gun: Maverick exceeds all expectations, what was sure to be an action-packed thrill ride, turned out to carry more gravitas, intimacy, and emotion, creating a genre-defining Blockbuster.
Everything that made Top Gun iconic and unbridled, raw 80s bliss now becomes a mature introspection on legacy and ambition, an awe-inspiring film in the way it looks, feels and how it carries its own legacy. One that stands up on its own even if you’ve never seen the original, this may very well become YOUR Top Gun, and an absolute MUST WATCH in IMAX.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK flies into the skies, outdoing the original in every way. The thunderous, immersive sound mix blended with mesmerizing action & visuals results *THE* quintessential blockbuster that Kosinski crafts with both grit & sophistication, striking the perfect balance between exhilarating, ambitious action & intimate characterization.
This is Tom Cruise’s best performance since Magnolia. A big movie with big emotions, big stunts. It is what the big screen is made for!
Final Grade: A
NEXT: Operation Mincemeat Movie Review
About Top Gun: Maverick
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters on May 27th!
Renato Vieira. 28.
Film Critic/Screenwriter from London UK
Masters Degree in Film Directing.
EIC of YouTube Channel “Ren Geekness”.