Top Gun Maverick
I just saw Top Gun Maverick and felt the need – the need er… for a review. I haven’t written a film review for a while as I tend to write about things I just saw at the cinema. And that has been a few months.
Top Gun Maverick sees Tom Cruise reprise his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. He is now a test pilot that is trying to fly ridiculously fast. I won’t give spoilers, so let’s just say that events lead to him returning to the Top Gun school. This time, however, he is a teacher.
His class is obviously the best of the best. They are all also pretty attractive, which must be a requirement. The mission he is training them for is a top-secret strike on an unnamed country that is developing enriched uranium. I say unnamed, but it is blatantly Iran.
The mission seems almost impossible, but happily, Mr Cruise is no stranger to impossible er… challenges and gets training. Needless to say, things get damned exciting.
There are also sub-plots with Jennifer Connelly as an old flame, and Miles Teller as the son of Goose, who is a bit annoyed at Maverick for reasons that are justified on both sides. As a sign of respect to his dead dad, he has even grown the same moustache and learned to play the same songs.
Top Gun Maverick review
I will cut to the chase. I loved Top Gun Maverick. Like the first one, (if you’re fortunate enough to be old,) it is best seen in the cinema as the flying scenes are absolutely astounding.
The story, subplots, and character development are all pretty decent too. You will find yourself rooting and caring for the characters as they fly into peril. These elements are all necessary to make you genuinely concerned that the somewhat vague mission succeeds.
The character arcs are all pretty well done, and there are also some great nods to the first movie. It even features Iceman and has a sports scene on some sand – although this time it is less homoerotic.
The great thing about Top Gun Maverick is that it completely delivers on what it set out to do. The characters from the first film, Cruise and Kilmer, are exactly where I hoped they would be in their careers. Iceman was kind of full of himself in the original, but he was objectively the best pilot when you include being a team player. So his position now is ideal.
The same goes for Maverick, who remains an awesome pilot that doesn’t play by the rules. There is a scene where he objectively shows that he is the best of the best of the best.
I think Top Gun Maverick is superb and all I hoped it would be. The reviews are justified. In fact, they are so glowing that I think we are about to see a slew of the usual clickbait writers popping up to explain why it wasn’t so great after all, or what the problems were, and so on.
That is always the sign of a great film. Go and see it in the cinema if you can.
Here is a trailer, because why not?
