Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis
Top Gun: Maverick is an emotionally involving and visually spectacular sequel; miles ahead of its iconic, but superficial predecessor from 1986. I wasn't crazy about Top Gun, but its second installment moves at a quicker pace with higher human stakes involved. Cruise's Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell remains a daring, resourceful pilot with a habit of pissing off his superiors, but we sense he has learned a few things since the first film and is allowed to be haunted and complex. The dogfighting scenes in the sky aren't bogged down by CGI, but are realistic and easy to follow. We know who is where and why.
Top Gun: Maverick gives us an early sequence as to why Mitchell has earned his handle of Maverick. Mitchell, who should've been promoted to admiral like his former rival turned best friend Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Kilmer), is heading up a test piloting of a new Navy plane which could hit mach-10 speed. Maverick's superior (Harris) will be putting Maverick's program on ice in favor of drones, but that won't stop Maverick from conducting his own test defying his admiral's orders, but giving us a breathtaking flight.
As we learn, Maverick's butt is saved yet again by Iceman, who calls in another favor and places Maverick back at Top Gun, where the Navy's best pilots are trained and seasoned, and calls for Maverick to train a group of the Navy's best pilots to undergo a secret, deadly bombing mission. Maverick's presence is none too welcomed by Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson (Hamm), who makes his disdain for Maverick well-known. Hamm has carved quite a niche for himself playing authoritarians who revel in just plain being a dick to the hero. We learn in a few sentences and one tearful meeting just how close Maverick's and Iceman's friendship has grown over the years.
Cruise, of course, maintains his movie star smile and swagger, but the Maverick of Top Gun: Maverick is more mature and insightful. The son of Maverick's late buddy Goose (who was killed in the first film) is one of the pilots Maverick must train. He is Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller), who resents Maverick for past issues. One thing that weighs heavily on Maverick's mind is the possibility of Rooster perishing like his father did, something that Maverick may not be able to live with. Maverick also romances local bar owner Penny (Connelly), a romance that isn't as empty as the one he pursued with Kelly McGillis in the first film.
Besides a few minor quibbles, such as the pilots Maverick must train, never really developing into individuals, Top Gun: Maverick is a deeper action film which flies by as fast as an F-18. It has a mind, a heart, and wasn't made to sell a soundtrack. Imagine that.
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