Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Movie Review
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Movie Review
Now more than ever I’m feeling less readily excited at the idea of the neverending sequels that are being released. I’m far from someone who is inherently anti-sequel, and it feels like the most 2016 thing ever to be complaining about the lack of original blockbusters, but when the release date for Top Gun: Maverick started to approach, I knew people were gonna eat it up no matter what. It seemed to be part of the recent surge in “legacyquels” that have arrived within the past sixth months or so, including Jackass Forever, The Matrix Resurrections, and the new Scream movie. In this day and age, the original Top Gun is held in such high regard among so many people, even young people, that the idea that the new sequel might be a little disappointing seemed like utter blasphemy to even think. Maybe it’s all justified and I’m just way too skeptical, but it seems like the majority of big franchise/blockbuster films that have been coming out have been getting positive reviews in a way that keeps surprising me. Just in the past year or so, The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, Godzilla vs. Kong, Black Widow, Ambulance directed by Michael Bay, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 have all batted around 70% or even well above on Rotten Tomatoes! I’ll admit that I haven’t even seen a bunch of those movies, but I wouldn’t say that any of them seemed especially promising, at least not to me. All of this to say, I felt like the new Top Gun was gonna be raved about even if it was above average at best. The original isn’t one of my favorites movies ever or anything, but I do have a soft spot for it, and would have honestly felt annoyed if the sequel turned out to be a dud. And then, Top Gun: Maverick was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews, with people calling it basically as good as a blockbuster in its vein can get. Once I understood how much everyone else was applauding it, I was mostly confident that I would enjoy it as well, but I still had my doubts. One thing I’ve realized about myself is that, even though I love movies, I tend to think a lot of them are somewhere between halfway decent and pretty good. If you take a sample of ten movies I’ve watched, chances are maybe six or seven of those ten I’d give a 3 out of 5 or a 3.5 out of 5. The amount of movies I’ve watched hasn’t quite hit the 1,000 mark yet, but it’s somewhere around there. And the number of movies that I genuinely love or genuinely dislike is far outweighed by the number of movies that I just sort of…liked. I didn’t want this to be another movie I filed away as one that was fine and decent but not great, and then ultimately forgettable. But thankfully, I can safely say that this movie lived up to my expectations and then some. It’s possible I liked this even better than The Batman; I think I might have honestly enjoyed this movie more than any other film I’ve seen in theaters in recent memory.
Over thirty years after the events of the original film, Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is still flying for the US Navy and doesn’t want it any other way, despite advice and pressure from pretty much everyone else to move on. During a somewhat ill-advised test run for a prototype plane, Maverick demonstrates that his impeccable flying skills have not faded with age. Because of this, he is sent back to the TOPGUN program to instruct an elite group of their pilots for a new mission that involves bombing a foreign uranium plant. Among these pilots is Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Maverick’s old RIO. Maverick has to work around his shaky reputation to show the younger pilots that he still knows what he’s talking about. Meanwhile, he’s trying his hardest to patch things up with Rooster, who resents him for blocking his application to the Naval Academy years ago, which, unknown to him, was Maverick’s effort to keep Rooster’s mother’s dying wish that he would never become a pilot. Maverick becomes an even busier man once he is reunited with a former girlfriend, Penny (Jennifer Connelly), who he starts seeing again. As the mission seems to be having its setbacks, Maverick receives words of wisdom from Adm. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) before his death shortly after. Inspired to continue on, Maverick leads the team of pilots to victory, as you can probably imagine.
It is immediately clear that the filmmakers of Top Gun: Maverick went all out for this movie. Before the film started in the theater, there was a short intro of Tom Cruise thanking everybody for coming out and seeing it on the big screen, during which he also explains that all the planes flying in the movie are 100% real and that there is pretty much no CGI used at all. This is a movie that was in production for a long time, and not in a “development hell” kind of way; Top Gun: Maverick is the product of years of hard work, dedication, and love for the art of filmmaking. As far as I’m concerned, it all paid off. One of the first things I noticed was that this movie looks amazing visually. If the camerawork of this movie isn’t impressive, I’m not sure what is. Similar to the original film, the opening credits are a montage of planes taking off, this time set first to “Top Gun Anthem” and then quickly transitioning into “Danger Zone.” It is little callbacks to the first Top Gun movie like this that I feel are actually necessary. One thing Maverick does well is that it pretty perfectly combines nostalgic throwback elements from the first movie (the Val Kilmer appearance, a scene of the pilots playing football on the beach together, and one scene in particular I really liked where Maverick watches from outside the window of a bar where Rooster is playing “Great Balls of Fire” on the piano and has everyone singing along) with a fresh feel altogether. It’s never too in-your-face with references to the first film, but it also understands that chances are, if you’re there in the theater watching it, you’re most likely a fan of the original. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t just a reminder of how fun and cool its predecessor is; it’s its own complete story. Besides Cruise and briefly Kilmer, none of the original cast returns. This brings me to another thing I wanted to talk about, which is Jennifer Connelly’s character. She plays a woman who Maverick had a romantic connection with in the past, and this is treated like something we’re supposed to already have known. To me, this was the weakest link of the movie. I think including Jennifer Connelly was a nice, fun choice because she’s another household name who has been around since the 80s, and the relationship adds a romance aspect that the film would’ve otherwise lacked. However, I wish it didn’t feel like we had to be brought up to speed. I’m kind of just nitpicking here, and I’m not even really sure how they would have fit this in, but I wish a little more time was spent on the whole Maverick-Rooster thing. Overall I think it was handled well but to me it came off as just slightly underbaked. I’m gonna try not to give too much away here, but Maverick and Rooster have to work together at the end of the movie so that the mission can be a true success, and that’s nice because I feel like otherwise the Rooster character would have been underused. There’s not quite enough Miles Teller in this movie, and a bit too much Jon Hamm. Miles Teller is an actor that I’ve always kind of found myself rooting for, so to see him shine in this movie in the moments that he did was fun. All the actors perform well and are likeable in their roles; Cruise seems old compared to everyone else, but the spirit is still fully there. Maverick is a film full of energy, and I think I agree with the people who are saying that this is the type of blockbuster that audiences are truly searching for. It doesn’t take itself too seriously to the point where it becomes dull, but it doesn’t get caught up in trying to be comedic with a bunch of lame jokes either. It’s a very impressive movie, but it doesn’t even feel too impressed with itself to be fun. While relatively recent movies like Tenet and Dune have been technical spectacles as well, they just don’t have the deep-down fun factor like Maverick does, in my opinion at least. This movie is over two hours long but pretty much never gets boring or even too slowed down. There are a lot of plane-flying action scenes that are honestly best described as “awesome,” a word I usually don’t really use. This is a movie that isn’t “dumb” but doesn’t force you to have to think too hard while watching it, so pretty much exactly how it should be.
Top Gun: Maverick is the kind of blockbuster we’ve all been waiting for. It’s not a rehash of the original, but fans of the first movie will definitely love it. I don’t think it’s like a perfect movie or anything, but for what it is, there’s barely anything to criticize. If you think you’ll like this movie, you’ll probably love it. This movie is so Tom Cruise; there’s Tom Cruise running, Tom Cruise smiling, Tom Cruise laughing, all of it. The part where he’s running feels like a joke so that people can point at the screen and remark among themselves about how Tom Cruise is running in a movie again. The fact that they brought Val Kilmer back is pretty cool as well, even if his lines are AI-generated. I’m not sure what grade to give this movie, I guess an A? Anything else feels too low, honestly. If you’re looking for a fun, genuinely enjoyable movie, I really can’t recommend Top Gun: Maverick enough.
