Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick is not only that rare sequel that is leagues better than the original, it's also the kind of all-encompassing, immersive and stirring Summer Blockbuster that I thought Hollywood had forgotten how to make.  More spectacular and emotional than the 1986 film, this should be the blueprint all filmmakers follow when it comes to making a nostalgic follow up film.

And while it definitely helps to have knowledge of the original film, this is a popcorn entertainment that anyone can enjoy.  Until yesterday, I haven't seen the original since back in high school sometime in 1994 or so, but I was able to slip back easily enough into the film's world.  Revisiting the first after watching this to make sure my hunch of this being a better film was correct, I came to realize just how much more so.  Tom Cruise is a better actor now than he was when the first hit, the screenplay supplied by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie is stronger, and director Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion) stages both the aerial dogfights and the dramatic moments better than the late Tony Scott did in Top Gun.  There's plenty of homages and moments that recreate famous scenes from the first film here, but there's just as much new to get excited about, which gives this film the feeling that it's respecting its predecessor, rather than cowering in the shadow of it.

We are reunited with Cruise's iconic Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell as he is about to be a test pilot for an experimental aircraft.  He's living in a different world from last we saw him.  As one of his superiors (Ed Harris) tells him early in the film, pilots will soon be replaced by drones.  Maverick still has a bit of that cocky swagger, but it is now also filled with lots of experience, age, and personal regrets, and Cruise seems to be relishing the challenge of getting to recreate one of his more famous movie portrayals, and place him in a different time and light.  As the plot kicks in, he has been assigned to teach some of the best pilots in the Navy's fighter training Top Gun program, as they are about to embark on a potential suicide mission that will require "two miracles" in order to succeed, and Maverick's skill will be needed to train them.

It is Maverick's old rival-turned-friend, Iceman (Val Kilmer), who recommends him for the position.  In one of the film's better moves, it gives Kilmer a meaningful and memorable cameo, using elements of the actor's real life battle with lung cancer in the scene.  The fact that he is the only other actor aside from Cruise to return from the first movie (aside from some clips from the first featuring Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan placed in the film) does not harm things at all, as getting to see these two share the screen again as these characters is poignant and powerful, given where real life has taken these two stars.  We are introduced to Maverick's new superiors, which include Admiral Beau Simpson (John Hamm) and Admiral Solomon Bates (Charles Parnell), as well as the top pilots that he will be training for this mission.

There are a bit few too many pilots for the movie to successfully juggle, which is one of the film's few failings, as we learn little about them save for two, which would be the cocky and sure "Hangman" (Glen Powell), and "Rooster" (Miles Teller), who is the son of Maverick's deceased friend and partner "Goose" from the first.  It is the relationship between Maverick and Rooster that creates the key dramatic tension, as it should, as Rooster has not forgiven Maverick for the death of his father, and resents having to take orders from him.  The tense relationship between the two is handled beautifully, and never seems as contrived as it could have been in a lesser screenplay.  Slightly less successful is the romantic subplot Maverick engages in with an old flame named Penny (Jennifer Connelly).  It's not that there's anything wrong with it, but it does suffer from a somewhat overstuffed narrative, and she never quite comes into her own as a character, because Connelly is competing with everything else.

This matters little with how successful everything else is about this Top Gun.  The aerial sequences are breathtaking, beautifully shot, and some of the best action sequences to come out of Hollywood in quite a while.  Again, this should be a blueprint for future filmmakers on how to stage a fast-paced action sequence coherently.  Everything just has this immersive feel that puts you square in the middle of the action, and on the biggest screen, it is simply awe inspiring in a way that I thought blockbusters could never be again.  The sequences also simply feel real, using as little CG effects as possible, and if they do, they are incredibly well done or hidden so that they don't take us out of the action.  And even if some characters do get cast to the side a bit in the script, the ones that it does choose to focus on are well-written and given plenty of opportunity to stand out.

This is simply one of the best pure popcorn entertainment films to come in a while, and this is coming from someone who never really latched onto the first, even when I saw it in the theater when I was on the verge of turning 9 in 86.  My anticipation for this could fit on the head of a pin, even when the rave reviews started to come in.  I was fully impressed by the effort that went into this, and I hope it opens some eyes in the industry on how to follow up a nostalgic film in the best way possible so that it's better than its inspiration in nearly every conceivable way.

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