Prior to its Memorial Day weekend release, Top Gun: Maverick was riding high on positive buzz—the same buzz that fuels the “surely, it can’t be that good” skepticism of past blockbuster masterpieces like Mad Max: Fury Road. Most film studios allow critics to publish reviews a handful of days before a film’s release to generate hype. When Paramount lifted their review embargo weeks before the Maverick‘s opening, that show of confidence only built up the movie’s expectations. Paramount was smart to flex: Top Gun: Maverick is fantastic, truly delivering the blockbuster highs that drive audiences en masse to the theater.
Who saw this coming? As someone with near indifference to the 1986 original, the nostalgia of seeing Tom Cruise return to this role would not be the nostalgia trip needed to carry a mediocre “greatest hits”. That first Top Gun plays more like a sports movie, manufactured conflicts crafted to showcase the hottest upcoming stars motoring around at perpetual dusk. Somehow Maverick uses a fun but shallow movie as a springboard into a sequel that is equal parts breathtaking action and genuine emotional drama. Maverick doesn’t coast on goodwill towards ‘86 Top Gun, and isn’t a a lazy exercise in callbacks to that we all remember. Top Gun: Maverick is, without asterisks, an amazing time at the movies.
Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Only the Brave), from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie. Obviously this entire venture is shepherded by Cruise himself, and the level of craft employed in the storytelling is impressive. It’s hard to pace out a story with well-communicated stakes and consistently-rising tension, and it’s even harder to make it look so effortless! Others have compared the central mission in the movie to the trench run in Star Wars, a comparison that highlights how clean and understandable the plot mechanics of Maverick are to the audience. In retrospect, every story set-up and pay-off should have seemed obvious, but the execution is so clean that it never becomes distracting or predictable, just an impressive economy of storytelling.
The set pieces are breathtaking, plentiful, and expertly packaged. Much like Cruise’s and McQuarrie’s recent Mission: Impossible installments, they are playing on the audience awareness that so much of what we’re seeing on-screen are practical stunts and effects, captured within the actual frame. It is forever the superior way of action filmmaking. That’s also Cruise’s thing; he’s increasingly seen as a steward of practical filmmaking that is sadly rarer and rarer for blockbusters in general, but a great news for Cruise as a brand. When he pioneers a project, we’re at least guaranteed stunts that will leave us on the edge of our seat. Maverick is no exception, ramping up tension and fireworks that culminates in a bonkers rollercoaster of a third act.
Something that gives this film a huge edge over the 1986 original is that the external military conflict is woven completely into the DNA of the main plot. The first Top Gun is mostly melodrama with spurts of tangential, unrelated sky action. For Maverick, the top secret mission is the thrust of the film, with all the energy and interpersonal drama feeding directly into and building tension from the ticking clock of this impending dangerous mission. As the pressure of the impending mission nears, the friction between the characters equally escalates. While I was ready for outstanding set pieces, I was caught off-guard by how well these dramatics worked. We’re still dealing with broadly-drawn caricatures, but they’re played by performers with such charisma and talent. Everyone is so effortlessly compelling to watch, especially Miles Teller and Glen Powell. It’s still Cruise’s show (he even joins in with shirtless beach games with co-stars 30 years his junior), but for someone synonymous with anti-aging, the film capitalizes on his age and the time passed between movies. These elements are central to his storyline and imbue actual weight and gravitas into the emotional scenes. Cruise and his co-stars play everything with such straight-faced earnestness, resulting in surprising amounts of dramatics and gut-punch, ‘Dad Movie’ catharsis.
Top Gun: Maverick is Exhibit A in the case for the theater-going experience. It’s the kind of joyous entertainment that makes you side-eye its blockbuster compatriots and ask, “We know the bar can go this high, so what’s your excuse?” See it on the biggest screen possible, and then immediately buy tickets for the next showing.
Top Gun: Maverick is currently playing in theaters. It runs 130 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action, and some strong language.
