Maverick Is A High-Octane Blast That Perfects The Balance Of New And Nostalgic

1986’s Top Gun was a phenom, a major box office hit that grew from an $8 million opening weekend to a $357 million global juggernaut. The story of US Navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a pilot that ‘doesn’t play by the rules’ but is ‘the best of the best’, it wasn’t flawless but it was fun. Tom Cruise was long resistant to a sequel, but it’s still rather inexplicable (in the subsequent decades of remakes of everything under the sun) that a movie that almost literally printed money failed to receive a sequel.

Well, we have one… and it’s really, genuinely good.

Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise return once more to play “Maverick,” now a test pilot hand-picked by Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky to board the Navy’s Top Gun program as an instructor, with the goal of helping to prep top recruits for a dangerous mission. Maverick is joined by Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’ deceased friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, and Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly), a long-time complicated love interest (along with a host of new characters among the military hierarchy and the Top Gun trainees). The team have to fly to take an impossible shot with the intent to shut down some nefarious uranium production.

Cruise is great once more as Maverick, bringing his characteristic charisma but really showcasing the emotional complexity of his character—here, a man at odds with Rooster, disconnected from the world, and at the point where his roguish uncontrollability isn’t quite cute anymore. Miles Teller evokes classic, broody star power here, with a willingness to do what it takes yet it’s a willingness buried under an avalanche of baggage. Connelly is an excellent Penny, Kilmer’s Iceman is a welcome sight, and the new blood are all a charismatic, well-balanced group. The performances really land here, capturing the 80’s actioneering of the original but balanced with some great emotional work.

It’s a film full of great and well-executed action set-pieces, and I have to tell you how thoroughly lovely it was to see a large-scale action blockbuster that wasn’t just two hours of CGI-fights—it’s a well-coordinated, talentedly-performed action-ride, with consistently inspired direction from Joseph Kosinski. Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie’s script did a wonderful job of balancing the escalating action, emotional events, nostalgia, and up-to-date elements, and while its runtime was a little long in the tooth not a minute was relevantly wasted.

Perhaps the main issue is that, while the film as a whole is adeptly scripted and the finale is action-packed, it resolves too quickly and too easily. There are many opportunities where tension could be amped up or complexity added, and they’re simply roads not taken. It left this reviewer largely satisfied with the journey but a little let down by the climax, at least until the film’s emotionally successful final scenes. It’s not disappointing enough to say Top Gun: Maverick didn’t land, the experience as a whole is one of the most simple-yet-satisfying outings all year so far, but it could have landed harder with more of an adrenaline-heavy denouement and higher stakes (would it have killed them to have a real, more involved dogfight?).

Nonetheless, Top Gun: Maverick was a successful, engaging blockbuster that throws back to a kind of film that isn’t often made these days (and should be). Cruise and Teller showcase raw star power (as does Glen Powell for his “Hangman” turn—his agent is about to field a half-million phone calls), the script works, and it’s a great balance of nostalgia and setting up for a new era. It’s a blast. Most importantly, it’s a lovely return to the high-octane, low-CGI filmmaking of yore, which (let’s face it) still feels more engaging, deeper, and magical than its CGI counterpart often does. In short, Top Gun: Maverick was a blast from first frame to last, and it’s about to launch a whole generation of new stars.

Top Gun: Maverick lands in theaters May 27, 2022.