Top Gun: Maverick Review
It has been 36 years since the original Top Gun released in theatres, which went on to become the highest grossing film of 1986, somehow managing to escape franchise exploitation for the better half of three decades. However, nothing lasts forever and with the 80s renaissance now so prevalent in our pop culture, it was only a matter of time until Top Gun made its return – and what a glorious return it is.
Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) has been working as a test pilot for the United States Navy for thirty years, perfectly satisfied in his role, unwilling to take a promotion or even retire. However, things change when Maverick is called back to Top Gun to teach the world’s greatest of fighter pilots one last lesson in order to complete a near impossible mission. On returning to Top Gun, Pete is also faced with ghosts of his past, as Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Goose, Maverick’s former partner, is now part of Top Gun, the very man who personifies Pete’s greatest doubts and fears.
From a story perspective, Top Gun: Maverick is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor, using what was established before in order to create a story that is about facing the past and the fear of its repetition. Pete can see the writing on the wall, the past is being echoed, even Pete’s young and overly arrogant persona is being re-embodied in Lieutenant Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin (Glen Powell). Indeed, Top Gun: Maverick may act like a legacy sequel at times, paying homage to its original, even down to the use of Kenny Loggins, ‘Danger Zone’. However, Top Gun: Maverick utilises this status in order to explore the story of a man coming to terms with his past, his shortcomings and regrets. Pete may still be the rule breaking daredevil at heart, but he has become somewhat of a loner now, only putting himself at risk, unwilling to lose anyone else. Pete is far more nuanced and less cocky in Maverick, with Cruise bringing more vulnerability to the role, yet still harnessing that slight arrogance that made Pete Mitchell so iconic.
But of course, the big selling point of Top Gun: Maverick are the aerial sequences, with Tom Cruise refusing to do the film unless all aerial stunts were practical, having all the actors fly in the jets and utilising practically no CGI whatsoever. Cruise’s ambitions result in some of the most breath-taking action sequences ever made, even outdoing his own work in the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes the flight sequences so effective is the use of the cock pit cameras that puts the audience in the pilot’s chair along with the actors, so we too experience the high-octane ride of the F-18 jets. Not since Mad Max: Fury Road has there been an action film so ferociously kinetic. What Kosinski and co have achieved when it comes to filmmaking cannot be praised enough, especially in the film’s unparalleled, heart stopping final act that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
In its very DNA Top Gun: Maverick feels like an old school blockbuster, drenched in an American sun-soaked summer haze. The score is triumphant, the love story is overtly cutesy, Lady Gaga performs an 80s inspired power ballad and, of course, there is a topless American Football game with jean shorts galore! Top Gun: Maverick is bursting to the brim with charisma and so unapologetically cheesy at times that you cannot help but smile. They simply do not make them like this anymore and they may never make them like this again.
Top Gun: Maverick is an undeniably special film. This is a blockbuster from days passed, something long missed, yet simultaneously pioneering on a cinematic front. This not just the best blockbuster of the year, this is the best blockbuster in many years, one that demonstrates the power of the big screen. Is it cheesy? Yes. Predictable? Perhaps. But somehow, none of it seems to matter, this is a film in which the sum is greater than its parts. It works on a visceral and emotional level, with a tight, impactful story that reaches an astounding crescendo. Leave your cynicism at the door and embrace the cheese, for it cannot be denied that Top Gun: Maverick is an astonishing cinematic achievement.
Score: 10/10