Movie Review: Top Gun Maverick

 

It's interesting that despite having no prior history with the Top Gun franchise before watching Maverick, that I was able to get so engaged with this new film so easily. I think that is a testament to the quality of this film that has become common knowledge by this point. There's just an overall sense of enjoyment this action film provides that makes it worth the price of admission alone and why it ultimately surpassed 1 billion dollars at the global box office on word of mouth alone.

Directed by Joseph Koslinski and produced by Skydance Media and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Top Gun Maverick serves as a direct sequel to the original Top Gun film which released in 1986. Starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and many more notable names, the film follows the Cruise's Maverick three decades on from his time in the Top Gun program, now serving as a test pilot for a new scramjet project for the US Navy. After his project get's scrapped by the government, Maverick is called back to Top Gun with the intention of training up some of Top Gun's finest graduates for a high stakes mission. These graduates all have their own characteristics and egos Maverick has to keep in check if they have any hope of surviving this mission. One big problem Maverick wasn't expecting on this deployment is to face his past in a very direct way when he meet's Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of his deceased wingman Goose from the original film. After the tragic accident that caused his death, Maverick and Gooses relationship has been on rocky ice ever since and navigating that on top of training these pilots up for a nearly impossible flight run is a mission Maverick may not be able to succeed at this time.

As I noted initially, I have no prior history with this movie franchise, so I did have some concerns I might not get along with the narrative all that much with it following on from plot beats three decades ago. I think Maverick does a very nice job balancing the cues to the original with the new elements however. I imagine the writers Peter Craig and Justin Marks both considered how much of the film should pay respect to the original movie while also being a new landscape for a more modern day audience to appreciate and they nailed that really well. The nice thing about the movie is when it does make call backs it doesn't leave new audiences hanging, it will happily give enough context for you to make the correct observations and follow the scene easily. I think the movie taking place from Maverick's perspective helps ground the film in the history of the franchise too, but having him train new and fresh faces in the program helps show a development in the franchise and a potential to pass the mantle to a fresh younger face at some point. I love how well developed all these characters feel in the story too, there's some incredible weight layered in their interactions and dialogue through the movie. Miles Teller's Rooster is a big standout for me, his character serves as a personal challenge for Maverick to overcome and their relationship serves as a direct anchor for the story's concept of mixing new and old together.

The action is also an incredible standout here as well. Being a film primarily based around jet fighters, the cock pit perspective and high altitude action segments really stand out for me. I watched the film in an IMAX cinemas as well, so the scale and sound of those segments could really be felt when the motion and speed was on full display. There's an incredible mixture of action, comedy and drama layered all throughout the film's runtime with the former really taking centre stage near the end of the film. There's just a real uncompromised feel to this films intention to give it's audience a action film for any audience to connect with and just enjoy. There's arguments made that because this film doesn't tackle many political concepts and is "pro-american" which attributed to it's success, but I think that argument is mute and void. I think the reality is this film isn't interested in being anything but an incredible action movie which does it's very best to pay homage to what came before but also paving the way for a bright future in the franchise. It tackles characters at their core values and puts them in dramatic and action packed moments to really get a sense of what they're capable of. That drama and action is the crux of the film and it's layered and structure brilliantly. 

Top Gun Maverick is well worth the ticket admission. You're going to be seeing a film which will appeal to you despite your age or history with the franchise. It's a sublime action film which invokes a lot of emotional responses from you and it never let's up for a single minute. If you feel the need for speed, you may want to speed on down to your local cinema to watch this film.