Rent Top Gun: Maverick on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr (based on characters created by), Peter Craig and Justin Marks (story by), Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay by)
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Manny Jacinto
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.
Verdict
You'll enjoy this whether you've seen the original movie or not. There are plenty of references to the original, which are well done, but this stands on its own. The action scenes are thrilling, it has emotional characters moments, and you're always rooting for Maverick, the greatest pilot in the world. It manages to develop Maverick and the plot with such skill. Even when it's predictable this movie is still so much fun.
Watch It.
Review
Twenty six years later Top Gun has a sequel. I had heard this was good and even better than the original, but it is significantly better. Tom Cruise makes a certain type of movie these days where he's the clear hero and this certainly fits the bill, but it manages to be exciting, touching, and just plain fun. This forgoes the cheesiness of the original, and makes a compelling movie.
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| Tom Cruise plays Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell |
This opens with Highway to the Danger Zone playing over images of crew on an aircraft carrier. This has a ton of callbacks, but it also manages to work independently. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is a test pilot living in a hanger with an old plane and a bunch of motorcycles. Typical Maverick, he's always a renegade bucking authority. Always the benevolent hero, we watch Maverick try to achieve Mach 10 in an experimental plane to save peoples' jobs. It's a riveting sequence, well directed.
While recent Mission Impossible movies seem like Tom Cruise is trying to prove himself with ridiculous stunts, this movie makes reference to Maverick being part of the old guard that will be passed by the new generation, rendered obsolete. Of course Maverick not only holds on, but he proves them wrong.
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| Tom Cruise plays Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell |
Maverick is tasked with training Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission vital to the safety of the country. On day one, he manages to get into a cockpit and proves he's still the best pilot. It's his past, specifically the first movie, that compels Maverick to not only want to succeed in the mission but make sure everyone returns safely. Top Gun graduate Rooster (Miles Teller), is a big factor in Maverick's insistence that everyone returns from this mission safely. There's a lot of history packed into this movie and Maverick is developed effectively.
This manages to include Val Kilmer, and it's done so well. This also replaces the infamous beach volleyball scene of the first movie with a beach football scene.
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| Miles Teller plays Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw |
The in air scenes are intense. It's not much more than head shots of pilots and wide shots of planes, but it completely works. There's a sequence where Maverick of course goes rogue to make the point that he's right. It's an amazing sequence. This of course is the lead in to the main mission against an unnamed country with faceless pilots. The characters have been building the dangers of this mission since nearly the beginning, and the entire mission is thrilling. While the mission becomes a bit ridiculous at one point, I was having so much fun that it didn't matter.
This movie manages to do so much by linking two movies together without this one being dependent on the first. Maverick juggles the mission at hand, his place in the Navy as a 'relic,' and the prospect of a civilian life. The movie does all of this well, creating an adrenaline fueled thrill ride.
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