Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Story Overview:
After serving over 30 years as one the the U.S Navy's finest and most renowned aviators, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell manages to continue to dodge any further promotion knowing full well that it would be the ticket to grounding him and pulling him out of the pilot seat. After a run-in with an Admiral, Maverick is tasked with the difficult mission of training a detachment of the finest Top Gun graduates for a particularly dangerous assignment that only the best of the best might ever dare to try let alone survive. With ghosts of the past lurking at every corner and with every decision, Maverick not only has to find a way to bring these young, confident pilots to fully realize themselves - but he must also overcome the grief, guilt and burdens of a time since gone.


REVIEW:
I went into Top Gun: Maverick expecting to see Tom Cruise do his thing and do it well; from stunts to charismatic screen presence, quips and one liners.
You get all of it.

But you get a whole lot more.

I did not go into this expecting for it to be my favorite film released so far this year.
I came out knowing that it was.

This film is shot beautifully. The way that the aircrafts are framed and masterfully captured on film from the very first shot of the movie sets the scene for what is to come. There's an artistry in the way that the director makes the fighter jets in this look damn near sexy at times, terrifying at others and damn cool every other moment. These visuals along with an amazingly fitting soundtrack and an action-packed-yet-character-driven-story full of tension, emotion and a heartfelt message make Top Gun: Maverick a tour de force.

The close up shots of actors in their cockpits are exceptional. The fact that Cruise ensured that the actors were filmed whilst actually being inside the cockpits and sustaining the G-Force their characters are feeling only adds to the real-to-life feeling all the flying scenes have here, only adding to the authenticity of the film as well as character emotions, motivations and so on.

Of course, it is a Top Gun film, and as such, there a moments of endearing corniness, one-liners and bromances -- but I can sincerely say - these do not detract from this sequel, but rather enhance its unique charm.

Tom Cruise leads the cast here epically. He's as much Maverick as he was years ago and he is a stand-out. This man impresses more and more with everything he does and no matter how much I want to dislike the guy, he proves time and time again that when he's on screen -- no one can quite do what Tom Cruise does. His passion for the craft, for authenticity and for doing his own stunts at any given moment is inspiring. This film's solidified this man as one of Hollywood's most committed movie stars. All of the supporting cast are phenomenal as well and there are no weak links. Jennifer Connelly plays an endearing Penny Benjamin, injecting humor and heart into an at times very sombre film. Miles Teller is fantastic as Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw; Goose's son. He and Cruise have some exceptional chemistry and the two of them sharing the screen offers some of the most heart-wrenching and hilarious moments of the film. Val Kilmer makes a small - albeit - welcome appearance as Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky only adding emotional weight to the film and to Maverick's own development with the arc that takes place between the two of them.

Top Gun: Maverick is staggering. It made me weep like a baby three times, it made me want to clap and cheer (granted, I knew better than to do that in a theatre), it had me on the edge of my seat and had my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. Frankly, I haven't had a movie-going experience like this in over five years. There's something about Top Gun: Maverick that's unexplainable. It has a feeling or a aura that kind of hugs you in and holds you. As if you can feel the love that went into this thing from the moment the first shot flashes up and an iconic song blares to life. Nostalgia finds a way of seeping its way back and yet, Top Gun: Maverick feels fresh all at the same time.

I loved this film.

In fact, writing this review was so difficult because I can't articulate how much I enjoyed it. How much it made me feel and fall in love with the experience of going to the theatre again for some glorious action-packed flying sequences and moments that made me laugh, cry and feel in a way that film should.

Even with all of this, I had so much fun with it.

I was so invested.

And I know it's going to be a long while until a film makes me feel such a way again...

My rating for Top Gun: Maverick is a solid:

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Most Recent Review:
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Wow.
Well, this is surprising. You couldn't have paid me to see this film before but your review definitely has piqued my interest.

Really want to see this now!

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The Ringer article about the effort and commitment put into getting this bird off the ground

I haven’t seen a bad thing said about this movie. 99% Audience rating on RT too.

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It seems strange that all that close-up turn-and-burn flying was up to date in World War I. As soon as the planes could do their thing from a distance with missiles, nobody wanted those guys to play video game stunts with a hundred million dollar aircraft. That's why they spent gillions of our tax dollars on fire and forget missiles. I guess it's all about that testosterone bonding, evoking medieval combat, Sopwith Camels and the Red Baron. I presume that will, however, be fun to watch. I'd like it more if it had Snoopy in an airplane.

I guess my comment will require me to turn in my Ray Bans.

They took guns off the F-4 Phantom in Vietnam and then had to hastily retrofit gun pods. I agree that the most intimate and visceral air-to-air combat would have been WWI. Now missiles are starting to feature off-bore sighting (i.e., you don't have to have the other plane in front of the nose of your plane) and I hear that missiles like the AIM-9X are pretty nasty. Planes don't carry infinite missiles and there are still guns-on solutions in air-to-air contexts.



One thing the movie gets wrong, again and again, is the assertion that it is not plane but the pilot. In the real world, it doesn't matter how good of a pilot you are if you can't even see the other guy on the radar when he has fired a missile at you from beyond visual range. Also, air combat has been made into a science of energy management. With enough training, the plane matters and matters greatly. If both pilots understand their plane and the plane of their opponent, then the odds are basically stacked. And the future is unmanned. A drone aircraft can pull more G's than the human body, take on riskier missions, loiter as long as they have fuel, and engage targets with precision.



The downside about WWI dramas is that they're so damned maudlin. All that depressing business about trench warfare and Mustard Gas and so on. This tends to suck the romance out of the "knights of the air" who emerged in that war. As much as I would like to see Snoopy fight the Red Baron, the proceedings tend to depressing given the context.

"The downside about WWI dramas is that they're so damned maudlin."

Massive death, poison gas and trench foot generally do incline one to being maudlin.

I really figured that all that macho, knights of the air thing would get an audience. So much of modern war is run by accountants these days (e.g., how many missile-struck Russian tanks will be needed to bankrupt the Kremlin), that, at least the trailer seems like it really wants to evoke some kind of nostalgic Regan era hooting and hollering, even though the accountants were running things back then too. I assume that those shots of what I'd assume to be Maverick, flying right into a 10 foot space between two other planes is a nice piece of digital FX. Hopefully the military didn't really let Tom do that.

Damned reality of war, spoiling all the fun! Robbing us of our glory!




Oh yeah, you've got it. This taps into the mythos of the 80s and even the 60's (there's some "The Right Stuff" type content in the film).




I am sure that that didn't happen. The reality of the actual distance between modern fighters wouldn't be nearly as exciting on the big screen either in training or actual combat.



There is the story of the naval aviator almost crashing an F-14 for the film The Final Countdown. There is a scene in the film where an F-14 almost hits the water (which, allegedly, it almost did). There are YouTube videos on this one. One former naval pilot comments

At least I know where we keep the wet blankets around here.

I can feel the G forces already

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Excellent flick. A Gen-X love letter to a bygone era.

Was a big fan of all the practical, in-camera stuff they pulled off. At this point, Cruise is putting out some of the the best action flicks in the business, with another one around the corner in 2023.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I thought this was an interesting theory about it.

(WARNING!!! SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE!!!)

'Top Gun' Fan Theory

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Came to this thread to say that this is PRIME BLOCKBUSTER ENTERTAINMENT.

Go watch it in cinemas y’all. It’s a big screen experience.

Thanks for the review. It seems I've been waiting for the continuation all these 36 years)) It's a crazy and incredible thing that Tom stil do a lot of stunts by himself.

I didn't love this, the whole macho military posturing and Tom Cruise and his unauthorised and improbable plane stunts aren't quite my cup of tea, but I respected it. It was about as good as a sequel to Top Gun could hope to be. I particularly liked the way the opening felt like an 80s movie - in fact the whole think had a straightforward, classic feel to it. I liked the music, with Hans Zimmer riffing off Highway to the Danger Zone. The whole mission section was appropriately tense.

True. What they need is a couple of song & dance segments to cheer things up.

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lookit you, gettin' all sassy pantsy!

(if you meant that seriously, then don't tell me. I prefer to read it the way I did, please and thank you)

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Claudio Miranda’s cinematography is thrilling. She knows how to capture the thrills and fear when the jet flies to its maximum limit.

Miranda is male not female.