‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Review: Tom Cruise Pilots A Perfect, Exhilarating Sequel. Goodness, Gracious, Great Cinematic Experience!
In about 40 days, Tom Cruise will turn 60. And you’d think, okay is now the age when his ambition will write checks that his body can’t cash? Well, let me tell you, no time soon. Because holy moly, this actor disregards age like Captain Pete Mitchell disregards direct orders. Right before Top Gun: Maverick, the trailer for Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One plays, and you see Cruise spectacularly do what only he can do. And then Maverick is back on your screen, after 36 years, showing you that Tom Cruise can just as easily make your heart melt with that mischievous smile of his as he takes on drama and romance, the camera making love to his face in every frame he is in. As for nostalgia, there’s a cargo load full of it in this sequel, which has Maverick return to Top Gun as an instructor for an impossible mission. So ladies and gentlemen, pay close attention. This Joseph Kosinski film is a teachable moment about how to make a sequel.
The screenplay is by Ehren Kruger Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie, story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, and is based on the characters created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr. The cinematography is by Claudio Miranda and editing by Eddie Hamilton. The score is by Lorne Balfe, Lady Gaga, Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer. It is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison, and is resented by Paramount Pictures (distributed by Viacom18 Studios in India), Skydance, and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. It stars Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis with Ed Harris and Val Kilmer.
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Raise your hand if you like me have rewatched Top Gun to prepare for the flight into nostalgia that we knew this film was going to be. Not that you’d absolutely need it. Top Gun (1986) was the story of Lt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a naval aviator who with his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer; co-pilot) LTJG Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw, is chosen to get trained at the elite United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, popularly nicknamed TOPGUN. An excellent but reckless flyer, Maverick soon finds competition in LT Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, who is top of the class, for the TOPGUN trophy. However, during a dogfighting exercise, Goose dies in an accident. Even though Maverick is cleared after an inquiry that proves he wasn’t at fault, he carries the guilt, unable to fly the way he does for a while. Until he finally finds his way back to himself. He loses the TOPGUN trophy to Iceman, but the two become friends after Maverick saves his life as a wingman during a skirmish.
In Top Gun: Maverick, after 30 years of naval aviation service, Pete is a test pilot, still a breaker of rules and a pusher of limits. And oh, he is only a Captain, much to the surprise of some and disdain of others, but evidently by his own design. The world around him is changing, and it’s the end of an era where pilots are no longer necessary to fly planes or engage in dogfighting. The planes can fly themselves, and they even obey orders, unlike the Mavericks of the world. However, Pete is just the guy to train a bunch of the best naval aviators at TOPGUN as they prepare to go on a specialised but fatal mission unlike anything else that’s been done before. Amongst these pilots is Lt Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw, Goose’s son, with whom Maverick has a strained relationship. How Maverick manages to surpass his own fears and let go of the ghosts of his past, and while flying this mission impossible is what Top Gun: Maverick is all about.
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Let’s talk about the writing first, shall we? In an interview with Den Of Geek, director Joseph Kosinski talked about convincing Tom Cruise with the right kind of story for the sequel. “We think of Top Gun as an action film, but I think of it as a drama. It has some incredible action scenes in it, but there is a drama at the center of it,” he said. And the drama is written very well. You feel for the personal demons that Maverick is dealing with, helped oodles by Cruise’s performance as he reprises the character with all the maturities of a man who has consciously made a decision to live his life a certain way after losing a friend and co-pilot. Maverick feels like a coming-of-age film for both Cruise’s Pete and for Miles Teller’s Rooster, as they both reconcile with their own feelings and sort out their relationship.
With a runtime of 2 hours and 11 minutes, the film is paced well, without a dull moment. In fact, it is funny and sexy in so many places, recreating the vibe and attitude of its predecessor perfectly. In fact, it is plotted quite like the first film too. Top Gun: Maverick is simple, straightforward, smoothly shifts gears from drama to action to even romance, and yet can give you all the roller-coaster feels. The final mission sequence and Maverick’s daring ‘stunt’ right before that sequence had me at the edge of my seat, hands clapped and hoping for ‘miracles’. It’s anticipated exhilaration, but it is exhilarating nonetheless, and it feels great!
The flight sequences will genuinely blow your mind! The cinematography by longtime Kosinski collaborator Claudio Miranda (both worked on Oblivion, starring Cruise) is breathtaking and, coupled with Hamilton’s editing, really makes the dogfighting sequences thrilling. The Top Gun theme and memorable songs from the first film playing in the background just crank up the nostalgia a few notches higher, and Balfe’s score is the cherry on top.
The conversation about feels cannot happen without addressing the callbacks to the first film! Now, I personally love sequels that are self-explanatory without obvious exposition. If you’re someone who hasn’t watched or does not remember the first film, Top Gun: Maverick won’t exactly leave you hanging. You’ll still experience it as the wholesome, euphoric spectacle that it is. That being said, as someone who rewatched the original the very night before, having it all fresh in my memory just heightened the joy of Maverick even more. Right from the opening sequence, you know that this runway is paved with hat tips to Top Gun. From your favourite songs, Cruise racing an aircraft on a bike, your favourite dialogues, right up to the banter between Maverick and Iceman, it’s all there, including a dedication to late director Tony Scott. It’s like meeting an old friend from work after years and realising you’re both different, but still, the same where it matters, you know? Be ready to be emotional!
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Like, Tom Cruise smiles and blushes the same, but just with more lines, and that somehow makes him seem even hotter than the first time when he was 24?
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This cast is pretty perfect too. Forgive the drooling, they’re all incredibly hot, and there’s some major fan service for those who agree with me in this one particular scene (we all hooted). But Miles Teller’s casting as Rooster is so BANG ON, you guys, I can’t even! I see him walk into the bar with that cute moustache and aviators on, and it’s like I am watching Anthony Edwards! The resemblance is crazily uncanny.
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Glen Powell is another perfect casting; he gets the smugness of his character, callsign Hangman, on point. Has Jon Hamm become an ace at playing characters that you’re attracted to but you could be mad at? He’s done that in Mad Men, Bridesmaids, Good Omens and now in Maverick. He’s got the act down pat, and might I add, he looks incredible in uniform. And finally, the character played by Jennifer Connelly (once again, an apt choice because she is so comforting and just a soothing sight to look at) is a new one on the screen, yes, but it’s another reason why you should probably consider watching the first film because Penny is actually in the first movie too! *wink*
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And finally, what can I say about Tom Cruise except that he reprises this beloved character with all the conviction possible, bringing a much more mature Maverick to us, though evidently still struggling with baggage. As the camera fixates on that cute smile, and his superstar persona shines through, you see the formerly hot-shot naval aviator who knows he is the best but who is now held back by his fears. Maverick’s story comes full circle, rather poetically, in the end, Cruise sells it all with earnest sincerity, and you lap it up eagerly.
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Verdict
Top Gun: Maverick is just the good, old, fun-loving, larger-than-life, all heart, cinema experience. You’ll laugh, smile, cry (or at least, have wet eyes), and enjoy Maverick’s swansong, walking out of the theatre with a full smile and heart. And you’ll be reminded that even after 36 years, you haven’t lost that lovin’ feelin’ for Tom Cruise, his Maverick, and the joy of experiencing films like this on the big screen.
Top Gun: Maverick soars into theatres on May 27, 2022.
