Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Here, I’ll make it easy for you:
https://www.fandango.com/top-gun-maverick-2022-219625/movie-overview?a=13036Far superior to the original, Top Gun: Maverick is not only the movie of the moment, but it also captures everything that people love about going to the movies: Action, spectacle, nostalgia, melodrama, astonishing sound and visual effects, and a global movie star having the time of his life.
This is a masterpiece in technical filmmaking. The fluidity of visual effects and practical effects is unparalleled, the sound design is next level, and director Joseph Kosinski absolutely understood the assignment in making this a movie that people are going to universally love.
NO
I understand we don’t watch Top Gun: Maverick for innovative storytelling, but these storylines are by-the-book and very simplistic. People won’t care.
Rather inconsistent when it comes to character development with people not named Maverick. At times, it feels like Cruise is almost ready to cede the spotlight to others, until he’s not. Flirts with vanity. People won’t care.
American exceptionalism is alive and well. Except, Top Gun: Maverick is living in a completely different America than the rest of us. People won’t care.
OUR REVIEW
Top Gun: Maverick is a technical masterpiece.
A stunning, thrilling, astonishing viewing experience, the aerial flying and action scenes are among the finest ever captured on film. The fluidity between visual effects and practical effects is seamless and the final 30-40 minutes is likely going to be the reason why so many people are going to see this multiple times in theaters and call it the best film of the year.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Only the Brave), he clearly understood the assignment. Mix the nostalgia of a beloved 1980s movie, improve upon the predecessor, guide an aging movie icon, Tom Cruise, into the next phase of his career, while delivering a movie that tries to unify a polarized America for 2 hours and 11 minutes.
The fact that Top Gun is heralded as one of the greatest films of the 1980s has always been a curious thing to me. The movie arrived in an era where American Exceptionalism was resurrected by the Reagan Administration and the media and our collective carefree arrogance as a nation was unmatched. The 1980s celebrated great excess in nearly all aspects of life and movie blockbusters, and specifically, the summer blockbuster reflected that; movie studios were printing money.
In May 1986, Top Gun was that blockbuster. Though reviews were deservedly mixed, audiences loved the film and it expanded into more and more theaters weeks after it opened. Pop group Berlin’s power ballad, “Take My Breath Away” won an Oscar and the film cemented Cruise as an A-list and bankable movie star.
Much has been written about Top Gun from how it changed the game from a cinematic and business standpoint. We also must acknowledge that similar articles have been written about the troubling and alarming jingoism and latent misogyny on display, the fact that it essentially served as de facto military propaganda, as well as exhibiting homoerotic undertones simply unavoidable when observing the film through a modern-day lens. Despite all that, perhaps outside of making 1970s soft-rock legend Kenny Loggins sound like a badass for 3 minutes with the film’s theme song, “Danger Zone,” Top Gun’s lasting legacy is the fact that no one has ever been truly able to tear it down and expose it as the truly mediocre film it happens to be.
What director Tony Scott almost achieved in 1986, Kosinski accomplishes here in 2022. He has recaptured what it means to escape into the hazy dreamworld and escapism of the movies. Top Gun: Maverick allows viewers to absorb into an America that is oddly apolitical, even if the government and military are involved and the main plot involves bombing an unnamed foreign power’s uranium stockpiles. It is an America which champions camaraderie between men (and one woman this time around!), and allows success to be defined as a (white) man saving the day, and then settling down with a woman and raising a family.
The 1980s Top Gun version of America thankfully (and regrettably for some) no longer exists - if it truly ever did. And yet recognizing the falsity of this cinematic world, Kosinski allows us to still be blanketed by the comforts of a thrilling, fantastical entertainment experience. Cruise, with three Oscar nominations in his career, has never had a movie he has starred in get this kind of reaction from critics and fans alike. In many ways, he has been waiting for this moment his entire life.
Here, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise), now in his mid-to-late 50s (age is unimportant, never discussed, and referenced only in broad strokes), is overseeing a top secret military program. At the risk of the program being shuttered, he defies his bosses by commandeering an aircraft and achieving Mach 10 in an effort to prove the program is viable and worthy of continuing. Despite promising to not push past Mach 10 with his team, Maverick lives up to his nickname and ultimately destroys the project because of his apparent and unquenchable need for speed.
Reassigned by Rear Admiral Cain (Ed Harris) to avoid dishonorable discharge from the Navy, Mitchell is sent to teach a new class of elite pilots at TOPGUN - the Naval training facility where Maverick, “Iceman” (Val Kilmer), “Goose,” and others learned their craft in the original film. Mitchell, wrestling with feeling like this is something of a demotion, pauses further when he learns Bradley Bradshaw - callsign “Rooster” (Miles Teller) and the son of Goose - is included in the class.
The death of Goose is the signature moment in Top Gun, and Mitchell carries the weight of that tragedy with him all these years later. There’s also love and admiration on display for a fallen colleague, which undoubtedly will resonate with many military veterans on this Memorial Day weekend release.
However, as depicted here, with a collage of pictures, items, and memories adorning Mitchell’s work spaces, there’s a certain Brokeback Mountain-style evocation present as Maverick has clearly been unable to quit Goose for over three decades.
Now other than a game of shirtless beach football occurring midway through the film, there isn’t really a hint of gay-baiting happening this time around. And so, to drive that point home, Mitchell almost instantly reconnects with an old flame (Jennifer Connelly), the kind-hearted barkeep raising her teenage daughter (Lyliana Wray) as a single mom. Their history rekindles and though Connelly’s character feels completely unnecessary, Mitchell now has something else to fight for, while trying to come to terms with the prospects of one day ending his service to a military he has sacrificed everything for.
From there, the movie writes itself. Cruise is naturally very good here, often at the expense of properly developing supporting characters and even with five credited screenwriters overseeing the project.
Overall though, this is a big, BIG event movie of the highest stature. And while I cannot encourage everyone to go to a theater when COVID cases are up 382% from this same week last year, this truly should be seen by folks on the biggest screen available and heard through the loudest sound system possible.
With a pulsing score co-constructed by Harold Faltermeyer, Hans Zimmer, and Lady Gaga, Top Gun: Maverick completes its mission as being that throwback blockbuster which, for 131 minutes, helps everyone pretend that America is exceptional in every way and not the truly troubled country awaiting us as we exit the theater and head back into reality.
And to that I say: “Mission: Accomplished.”
CAST & CREW
Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Bashir Salahuddin, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Ed Harris, Charles Parnell, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Val Kilmer, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jack Schumacher, Manny Jacinto, Kara Wang, Jake Picking, Raymond Lee, Lyliana Wray
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Written by: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay); Peter Craig, Justin Marks (story)
Based on characters created for the film “Top Gun” by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.
Release Date: May 27, 2022
Paramount Pictures