Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman
Intro:
... a heart-racing and heart-breaking ride ...
Directed by the late Tony Scott, the original Top Gun is a sweaty slice of classic American cheese. Thanks to charismatic performances from Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, its infamously queer-coded macho banter and posturing, and one of the most popular soundtracks of the decade, Top Gun‘s status as a beloved pop culture artifact is more than secure.
So secure, in fact, that the sheer idea of making a sequel to it thirty-odd years later could easily become just another notch on Tom Cruise’s vanity project belt, a la 2017’s The Mummy. Thankfully, Maverick not only manages to be quite entertaining, but also surpasses its predecessor.
Building on their past experience with cheeky non-toxic male bonding with firefighting themed Only The Brave, director Joseph Kosinski and co-writer Eric Warren Singer (along with Ehren Kruger) extrapolate the original’s heaviest moment (the fate of Edwards’ Goose) to push the all-time reigning wiseass Maverick into a more paternal role. One that sees him training the best of Top Gun’s best, pushing them into the danger zone, all so that he can stop that past from repeating itself.
Between Cruise’s more contemplative mood, his interactions with Miles Teller as Goose Jr. (aka Rooster), and even the return of the Iceman himself, the film hits a lot harder emotionally while still managing a healthy hit ratio with one-liners. It’s all about the pilot, not the plane, after all.
Don’t get twisted, though, this is far from a toned-down version of the original. If anything, the action scenes here are a testament to just how many advancements have been made in film craft and tech in the interim. Editor Eddie Hamilton and writer/producer Christopher McQuarrie recapture their invigorating work from Mission: Impossible – Fallout, ratcheting up the tension to make the flight scenes and dogfights into proper nail-biters. To say nothing of the entire third act, where anxiety after anxiety gets piled on top of each other to create some of the most breathless and intense pop cinema likely to be found in 2022.
By bulking up the dramatic stakes and the action sequences (the best parts of the original film), Top Gun: Maverick stays true to its roots while taking its predecessor’s iconic aesthetic to new heights, making for a heart-racing and heart-breaking ride in equal turn. Joseph Kosinski has come a long way since Tron: Legacy, and it’s clear that the creative partnership between Cruise and McQuarrie shows no sign of slowing down.
