When Top Gun was released in 1986, it made quite the impression upon audiences. People flocked to cinemas time and again to watch groundbreaking flying scenes interspersing a particularly juvenile version of the hero's journey. The hero in question was Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, and the original Top Gun was very much his film. It is therefore fitting that the sequel be in the same vein. Top Gun Maverick provides us with a lot more flying and a lot more Maverick. 36 years later, one can see how updated technology, of both the plane and camera variety, would make fresh flying scenes appealing, but surely, three-and-a-half decades later, Tom Cruise as Maverick can not be the same heroic figure that he once was. Well, no-one told Tom Cruise that and nor should they have. As a film star, he still has the presence and the bravura to remain front-and-centre of this hyper-charged vehicle.
Of course he is much older now, although, in fairness, he really doesn't look it. In fact, Tom Cruise has defied the aging process much more successfully than the original Top Gun film. Technologically, Top Gun Maverick soars miles above its predecessor. Gone are the miniature model plane shots and scenes filmed in aircraft simulators. This film sees its characters genuinely taken into the skies, and it's a marvel to witness such adrenaline and action captured on the screen. The poor pacing, uneven tone and unbridled machismo of the original film is also improved upon in the sequel. The pacing is helped by having a much more developed plot, which provides a narrative context for the copious flying scenes. Each of the scenes is needed to move the plot forward and shows how the crack team are progressing towards their final mission. Taking the lead from the 2nd half of the original film, the sequel is suffused with a sense of loss and a need for redemption. Rooster (played by Miles Teller) is the son of Maverick's late best friend, Goose, and his character provides this redemptive arc. Rooster is both a surrogate son and a potential best-friend-in-the-making to Maverick. It's their complicated relationship and their shared connection to the late "Goose" that forms the emotional core of the film.
As to the previous machismo, this time the film has a much more nuanced emotional palette. Maverick is much older in years and he has become wistful and reflective over time. The best scenes in the film, for my money, are at the beginning, when Maverick is surveying the generation of fighter pilots who have ostensibly replaced him. For a few brief moments, he's a good-looking older guy at the bar watching the young bucks cavorting and performing in the exact same way he once did. Maverick is a man who has seen all of his former colleagues either pass away or age out. He alone is clinging to the rigors and audacity of a youth that belies his actual years. But, of course, this is the world of Top Gun, and in this world Maverick is always the hero. The higher the stakes, the more heroic Maverick will become. Just as speed and space are no object, neither is time. It doesn't matter that Maverick is now twice the age of all the other hotshot Top Gun pilots, he'll outpace and outperform them because that is what Top Gun requires, the hero must prevail at all costs.
There are many flights of fancy and there is a general sense of unbelievability regarding significant portions of the plot but there is always just enough risk so that the film never quite lets go of its emotional pull. Thus, it does enough to immerse you in the fantasy and provide the emotional catharsis that comes from a sense of triumph earned amidst the genuine possibility of tragedy. In this sense, the film has an old-fashioned feel to it. It takes its audience back to a time before the rules of big budget actions films changed. It holds to sacred formulas of heroic triumph and ultimate redemption that are no longer fashionable in this genre. It taps into a pureness and simplicity that audiences still clearly yearn for but which is now extremely difficult to deliver in a manner that is convincing and satisfying.
More generally, both Tom Cruise and Top Gun Maverick represent a generation of Hollywood which is out-of-step with current trends. The film emphasises practical effects in an industry increasingly dominated by computer technology. It champions a white male hero in the face of 3rd-wave feminism, intersectionality and critical race and gender theory. It depicts ultimate triumph in a world which no longer believes in absolutes. And, yet, it finds a way to succeed.
This film demonstrates that old formulas can still work. If it's daring, it is so because it is so wedded to an artistic temperament that long preceded its release. To paraphrase the film, movies of this kind may one day be obsolete, but not today.
Of course he is much older now, although, in fairness, he really doesn't look it. In fact, Tom Cruise has defied the aging process much more successfully than the original Top Gun film. Technologically, Top Gun Maverick soars miles above its predecessor. Gone are the miniature model plane shots and scenes filmed in aircraft simulators. This film sees its characters genuinely taken into the skies, and it's a marvel to witness such adrenaline and action captured on the screen. The poor pacing, uneven tone and unbridled machismo of the original film is also improved upon in the sequel. The pacing is helped by having a much more developed plot, which provides a narrative context for the copious flying scenes. Each of the scenes is needed to move the plot forward and shows how the crack team are progressing towards their final mission. Taking the lead from the 2nd half of the original film, the sequel is suffused with a sense of loss and a need for redemption. Rooster (played by Miles Teller) is the son of Maverick's late best friend, Goose, and his character provides this redemptive arc. Rooster is both a surrogate son and a potential best-friend-in-the-making to Maverick. It's their complicated relationship and their shared connection to the late "Goose" that forms the emotional core of the film.
As to the previous machismo, this time the film has a much more nuanced emotional palette. Maverick is much older in years and he has become wistful and reflective over time. The best scenes in the film, for my money, are at the beginning, when Maverick is surveying the generation of fighter pilots who have ostensibly replaced him. For a few brief moments, he's a good-looking older guy at the bar watching the young bucks cavorting and performing in the exact same way he once did. Maverick is a man who has seen all of his former colleagues either pass away or age out. He alone is clinging to the rigors and audacity of a youth that belies his actual years. But, of course, this is the world of Top Gun, and in this world Maverick is always the hero. The higher the stakes, the more heroic Maverick will become. Just as speed and space are no object, neither is time. It doesn't matter that Maverick is now twice the age of all the other hotshot Top Gun pilots, he'll outpace and outperform them because that is what Top Gun requires, the hero must prevail at all costs.
There are many flights of fancy and there is a general sense of unbelievability regarding significant portions of the plot but there is always just enough risk so that the film never quite lets go of its emotional pull. Thus, it does enough to immerse you in the fantasy and provide the emotional catharsis that comes from a sense of triumph earned amidst the genuine possibility of tragedy. In this sense, the film has an old-fashioned feel to it. It takes its audience back to a time before the rules of big budget actions films changed. It holds to sacred formulas of heroic triumph and ultimate redemption that are no longer fashionable in this genre. It taps into a pureness and simplicity that audiences still clearly yearn for but which is now extremely difficult to deliver in a manner that is convincing and satisfying.
More generally, both Tom Cruise and Top Gun Maverick represent a generation of Hollywood which is out-of-step with current trends. The film emphasises practical effects in an industry increasingly dominated by computer technology. It champions a white male hero in the face of 3rd-wave feminism, intersectionality and critical race and gender theory. It depicts ultimate triumph in a world which no longer believes in absolutes. And, yet, it finds a way to succeed.
This film demonstrates that old formulas can still work. If it's daring, it is so because it is so wedded to an artistic temperament that long preceded its release. To paraphrase the film, movies of this kind may one day be obsolete, but not today.