Top Gun: Maverick Review: Tom Cruise Goes Full Throttle In a Sequel That Does the Original Justice
The post Top Gun: Maverick Review: Tom Cruise Goes Full Throttle In a Sequel That Does the Original Justice appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: It may have taken 36 years, but even pandemic delays couldn’t keep Tom Cruise away from the danger zone. When viewers are reunited with Captain Pete Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, one of the military’s best-ever fighter pilots is still a Navy man, working on experimental aircraft after decades of avoiding promotions that would pull him out of the cockpit.
But the brass, personified here by a very cranky Jon Hamm, has a new assignment for the ace: Train up a team of hotshot youths for an incredibly difficult (dare we say… impossible) mission into enemy territory.
While a dozen officers are selected as candidates for the task, the most prominent are a very Maverick-esque pilot known as Hangman (Glen Powell) and Rooster (Miles Teller), the grown-up son of Maverick’s tragically deceased bestie Goose. Between the high-stakes assignment and Rooster’s resentment towards Maverick, things are intense, and that’s even before the mission gets underway…
A Need for Speed: In a lot of ways, Top Gun: Maverick is the platonic ideal of a film sequel, constantly in dialogue with the original project, and committed to growing and expanding upon that source material. Structurally, it’s a clean and straightforward story, with an especially strong third act that delivers nicely on all the set-up that comes before… all alongside some truly thrilling action set pieces.
Teller recently told Men’s Journal that all of the stuntwork was real: “There is no green screen in a Top Gun movie… Every shot, every stunt, was the result of the work, the real sweat, that we all put into it.” Watching the film, you believe this. While there have been, um, a few advances in special effects since 1986, every stunt in Maverick feels real on the same level of the original film — a rare treat these days, to be honest, one which makes the aerial acrobatics on display even more gripping and exciting.
Playing With the Boys (and Girls): While spiritually very in line with the original film, Maverick puts some effort into acknowledging that things have changed a bit since the 1980s. For one thing, an honest-to-God female pilot, call sign Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), holds her own both in pick-up games of beach football and in the skies, and Maverick’s low-key romance with local bar owner Penny (Jennifer Connelly) is refreshingly age-appropriate and well-handled, story-wise.
Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount)
Both Powell and Teller make the most of their time in the spotlight, though Teller never really transforms Rooster into much more of a character beyond his pretty serious daddy issues — Powell, meanwhile, finds more success in basically copying all of Cruise’s smuggest maneuvers from the first film.
This might be a shallow observation, but when rewatching the original Top Gun, one thing that really stands out is how (unlike a lot of other films in his filmography) Cruise can be seen in scenes with men who are noticeably taller than him. One of the most welcome touches of Maverick is that this tradition continues: Cruise films often dance around revealing his height in relationship to other actors, but there are shots here where both Powell and Teller literally tower over the star, and frankly the novelty of it is a trip.
While Hangman and Rooster are clearly designed to be Maverick and Iceman: The Next Generation, one of the most emotional aspects of the sequel is how it updates us on the relationship status of the O.G. Top Gun duo. Val Kilmer’s presence in Maverick incorporates his recent health issues while still letting the character play a significant role — a lovely tribute to both the actor and the importance of that friendship.
Alas, there’s one bit of sad news to report: Eagle-eyed viewers might spot glimpses of Manny Jacinto in certain shots of the film, but any real evidence of the Good Place and Nine Perfect Strangers star playing another candidate for the mission is likely on the cutting room floor. It’s understandable that things have to be lost, given the challenges of making a mega-blockbuster like this one (which already feels on the verge of being a bit too long at two hours and 17 minutes). But pour one out for Jacinto’s screen time, nonetheless.
Who’s The Enemy Here? Like the original Top Gun, Maverick goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure the bad guys being faced by our brave American forces are completely lacking in humanity and — more importantly — nationality. Rather than risk alienating potential theatrical territories, the forces which threaten The American Way are only referred to as “the enemy,” with any rival combatant only seen in completely concealing black helmets. Even the logos on the enemy fighters are deliberately obfuscated or fictionalized.
This is perhaps the most troubling aspect of Top Gun as a franchise: How it creates a world where the political implications of its military conflicts… simply don’t exist. The justification for the film’s central mission is that a world power might be creating nuclear materials the rest of the world doesn’t want it to have, but rather than concern us with the moral choices which lead to armed combat against another country, Maverick focuses on the “fun” stuff.
Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount)
This is totally understandable in the context of the film, but it’s what makes these films such effective military recruitment tools: The focus is all on the heroic achievements of these brave individuals, while “the enemy” is reduced to a nameless, faceless, subhuman threat. No airman in a Top Gun movie questions why they’ve been asked to do what they do. In the world of Top Gun, there’s no reason to do so.
The Verdict: Right from the opening credits, director Joseph Kosinski does a more-than-capable job of ensuring that Top Gun die-hards will laugh at the jokes, cry with the characters, and gasp at every skybound maneuver. But, like so many films, this is very much a Tom Cruise Picture, and don’t you forget it.
When future scholars analyze the evolution of Cruise’s stardom, Maverick will be a fascinating piece of the puzzle to include. Some franchises would use a film like this to establish a new generation to succeed Cruise, but so many of Maverick‘s choices seem geared towards establishing that there’s no need for a new generation at the moment: Tom Cruise will be an action movie star until he breathes his last breath.
So while Maverick showcases Cruise accepting his age to some degree, it does so without indicating that he has any interest in retirement. Why should he? He’s looking damn good for 59, and when he runs in this film (because of course he runs at one point) there’s no evidence of him getting any slower. He’s Tom fucking Cruise, and the star power that burns inside him is in no danger of dying out anytime soon.
Where to Watch: Top Gun: Maverick rockets into theaters on Friday, May 27th (just in time for Memorial Day).
Trailer:
Top Gun: Maverick Review: Tom Cruise Goes Full Throttle In a Sequel That Does the Original Justice
Liz Shannon Miller
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