Review: Tom Cruise Is At His Best In TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Few would have expected it, but Top Gun: Maverick is one of the best mainstream Hollywood action films in a long, long time. Forget your Marvel Cinematic Universe of your DC Extended Universe, Tom Cruise knows how to give audiences the tangible top tier entertainment they’ve been yearning for. Joseph Kosinski follows-up the great Tony Scott‘s iconic 1986 blockbuster with this exceptional sequel that took everyone by surprise by becoming the highest grossing (and possibly best) film of 2022. It came along and shot down the competition with expertly handled aerial action, great performances and the type of humanity which has been missing from mainstream movies for many a year. This belated sequel really shouldn’t have worked, but it does – in a big, big way.
After kicking around in the navy in multiple roles over the course of few decades, Tom Cruise’s Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell is finally about to be grounded for good. Pulling in a favour with an old friend, he gets one final chance to take to the skies – right back where it all started: at Top Gun. Maverick now finds himself teaching a new group of top young pilots to become the best of the best. The only problem is that one of Maverick’s students is Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller) – the son of Maverick’s dead best friend and wingman ‘Goose’ (Anthony Edwards, who bit the big one in Tony Scott original pic). Tension runs high between the two men – something which is even more exacerbated when they take to the skies. The pair needs need to find a way to set aside their differences because there’s a ticking clock and a faceless new enemy that has the world on a knife edge. Can Maverick put aside his… er… maverick ways and train the new recruits in order to save the world? But more importantly, can he mend bridges with Rooster and become the father figure and mentor he never had?
So, why did Top Gun: Maverick strike such a cord with audiences? It’s a film about feeling relevant. About a changing world. Parenthood. Friendship. It resonates. There’s also very little (or not very obvious) CGI. Maverick is giving people what they used to want from films – an escape from reality – but one which will connect with the viewer on an emotional level.
The action sequences are off the chart great and the performances are first-rate – something with is expected from a film produced by the mighty Jerry Bruckheimer (the late Don Simpson also gets a credit). This also features great turns from the likes of Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and the late Val Kilmer (returning for a very poignant and final acting turn as Iceman). Everyone rises to the challenge here, but this is Tom Cruise’s movie and boy, does he know it. Cruise hits every mark, delivering in true leading man style. He is, and will always be, one of Hollywood’s great leading men.
Top Gun: Maverick is an expertly handled piece of mainstream storytelling. The film is brilliantly structured, loaded with impressive character development and stakes which feel well earned (a rarity these days). At the heart of the film is Tom Cruise, our last great movie star. Cruise is more than an actor – he’s a cinematic icon and he shows-off all his skills in this film. Heroic action star, romantic lead and dramatic actor – this is Cruise putting his charisma all the way up to Mach 10.
Top Gun: Maverick is a good as this type of movie gets. It’s highly recommend – and it needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible!
