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When Top Gun: Maverick was announced, there were a lot of questions about why the movie was being made in the first place. Much like the impending Avatar: The Way Of Water there was the general consensus that it has been a long time since the original movie and there really is not much more story to tell with these characters. In the case of Top Gun: Maverick, they found the story and managed to create a movie that blows the original out of the water.
It is worth noting out of the gate that the original Top Gun is not a great movie. While it may have aided in propelling Tom Cruise into being a household name, the movie is not exactly notable for its plot. It has a great soundtrack, however its hypermasculine military worship has not aged well and the majority of what amounts to a plot is largely an ego arms race between Iceman and Maverick. There is a certain amount of nostalgia to the movie however as people associate the time and feelings they had when the movie came out in 1986 with the quality of the movie itself.
Top Gun: Maverick builds on the original while still staying true to its roots. The movie picks up after decades and Maverick, though he could have been promoted multiple times, still is a Captain and is flying test flights. Iceman has since been promoted to Admiral and pulls Maverick back to Top Gun to teach the next generation of pilots how to fly one very specific and very dangerous mission. Tom Cruise does well in his role, as to be expected at this point, and the rest of the cast of mostly newcomers including Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Lewis Pullman, Jennifer Connelly, Monica Barbaro, and Glen Powell all do excellent jobs filling out the cast of the movie.
The interplay between the 12 members of the team and Maverick himself work very well. While the original Top Gun was more focused on conflict within the members of the class, this time the conflict is focused on the pilots own internal struggles regarding the mission at hand. It allows for a more nuanced look at what these pilots are dealing with rather than the black-and-white “who’s the better pilot” that plagued the first movie. This seems to be a direct contradiction of the masculinity portrayal of the original down to a scene towards the middle of the movie that takes Maverick and has him show an intense level of emotional vulnerability.
The biggest issue that one may bump into with the movie is the resolution of the third act. Similar to The Batman earlier this year, there is a fairly clear line where the movie should have logically ended and where the movie actually does end. The difference here is that the point where Top Gun: Maverick should have ended is also the most logical conclusion to Maverick’s story arc throughout the movie. Without getting too far into spoilers, the ending that Maverick has in this movie does not fit with his narrative arc across both this and the original film and the moment that does happen about 10 minutes prior would fit his character better. Other characters like Hangman may not have been serviced as well, however the movie does have “Maverick” in the title so his arc should be the most important.
At the end of the day, Top Gun: Maverick is a must-see movie for anyone who enjoys intense scenes of fighter jet action as that alone makes the price of admission worth it. The action sequences are so well done it is worth seeing on the biggest screen possible, either Dolby Cinema, IMAX, or even splurging and going to see the movie in MX4D which is now available at Island 16 in Holtsville.
Final Rating: 8.5/10
