Tonight's Movie: Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

For an exhilarating, uplifting '80s-style "summer thrill ride" movie, look no further than TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022) starring Tom Cruise.

It's rather remarkable that 36 years have elapsed since the original TOP GUN (1986), but thanks to a good story -- and frankly also to Cruise's seeming agelessness -- it completely works.

And honestly, I think it's the kind of movie we can all use right now, about good people working hard at their jobs and their relationships. It leaves audience members feeling better at the end than when they came in, and you can't beat that, especially these days.

The movie experience today began in classy fashion with a short video of Cruise welcoming patrons to the theater. He thanked everyone for coming and spoke about how many people worked hard to make the movie, particularly emphasizing it was made for us, the viewers, to enjoy. It almost felt like he was giving us a present to unwrap -- which proved to be true.

I loved the movie from the very start -- it has an actual opening credits sequence! So many films these days wait till the end of the movie, and I really appreciated seeing all the credits up front, initially backed by great footage set on an aircraft carrier. As I saw names like Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, and Val Kilmer go by, I couldn't help thinking "Hey, this should be good!"

I'll also note here that the end credits are likewise excellent, featuring footage of each of the main cast members with their names.

As the story begins, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) is still a top Navy aviator and still a captain; he's not the desk job type, and he probably has also ruffled just enough feathers along the way to help prevent promotion, but he's also too good for the Navy to push out. And the longevity of his career has been aided by the fact that he has an old enemy-turned-friend, Admiral "Iceman" Kazansky (Kilmer), heading the Pacific Fleet.

Maverick's been working as a Navy test pilot in the California desert, but when he disobeys an order from Rear Admiral Cain (Harris), he's bounced off to Top Gun school, where he's assigned to train the Navy's best young pilots under Admiral Simpson (Hamm).

The pilots include Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), who's the spitting image of his late father, Maverick's old friend "Goose" (Anthony Edwards). Rooster has a big chip on his shoulder towards Maverick, whom he blames for his father's death.

It turns out Maverick isn't simply training pilots, there is an actual, very dangerous mission scheduled to take place in under three weeks, a stealth attack to take out a uranium facility. I idly wondered if this would lead to the start of WWIII, but we're not told where it is and we're also not told what the deeper long-term implications of the attack could be.

There are definite echoes of STAR WARS (1977), in that the plan involves a low-flying "trench run" followed by targeting a ventilation hatch. Late in the movie there's also a pilot who shows up out of nowhere; all that's missing is him yelling, Han Solo style, "Now let's blow this thing and go home!"

It may be derivative, but it also totally works...all the more so as this film is very "un-CGI." It's well known that Cruise is a pilot, and the film's young lead actors were put through intensive flight training and are actually piloting themselves, with IMAX cameras attached to the planes. In an age of computer-generated graphics, the fact a production would go to this effort, not to mention risk, is remarkable, and it pays off, as the audience isn't distracted by iffy computer graphics. This was a problem for me with this year's DEATH ON THE NILE (2022), a good movie with some of the phoniest backgrounds I've seen in a modern film; it had me longing for the relative honesty of blatantly fake old-fashioned back projections.

I view Cruise as rather an oddball from what little I know of his real life, but fortunately I can usually divorce my feelings about actors offscreen from watching them in movies. There is absolutely no denying he's a giant of a movie star who knows how to make top-quality movies. His hands-on approach to filmmaking is by now legendary -- and he knows what he's doing. On camera his charisma lights up the screen, whether he's putting his young charges through a rigorous training session or smiling with dazzling charm at the old girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly, THE ROCKETEER) with whom he's recently been reunited.

For those who wonder if it's necessary to have seen the original movie, it definitely adds depth to seeing this film; that said, my memories were hazy, not having seen it since I saw it theatrically in 1986, and I believe the new film should still be enjoyable for those unfamiliar with the original.

That said, the most moving sequence of the entire film is Maverick's conversation with his one-time nemesis Iceman, which incorporates the fact that Kilmer's real-life cancer battles have left him speaking with great difficulty. It's a profound scene, and it helps point Maverick to the fact that he's going to need to move on with his life in terms of both career and perhaps making room for other important things, like a family.

Hamm and Harris are also excellent, as expected. I particularly liked Hamm's performance in the later scenes, when he rolls the dice with his own career. There's not a great deal of depth and back story for Connelly's character, but I think her charm is sufficient to make the rekindling of her romance with Maverick believable, including the possibility this relationship might go the distance.

Spoiler Paragraph Alert: The final aviation sequences may be considered predictable by some, but I found it refreshing that the movie didn't feel the need to make one or two characters an obligatory sacrificial lamb. This left me feeling particularly appreciative of the movie, as it's so cliched by now to have someone die for dramatic effect. This choice also leads to one of my favorite scenes of the year, when Maverick and Rooster are trying to find their way out of a difficult situation and Maverick's eyes light up spotting the solution, leading to a fantastic escape sequence.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK is a well-paced 131 minutes. It was directed by Joseph Kosinski and filmed by Claudio Miranda. The supporting cast includes Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Charles Parnell, Jean Louisa Kelly, Lilyana Wray, and Jack Schumacher.

For those whose tastes tend to line up with Leonard Maltin, as mine often do, he calls the film "superior" and goes on to say "It has a freshness and vitality...I had a great time...and recommend seeing it as I did, on a giant IMAX screen."

I didn't see it at an IMAX theater, but I definitely recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible. If I have the opportunity to see it in the IMAX format I would definitely go again.

Parental Advisory: This movie is rated PG-13. It's a pretty mild PG-13; there is some language -- at least partly drowned out by aviation noise, I thought -- and one non-explicit love scene. These aspects are offset by several positive themes including teamwork, patriotism, and working through personal and relationship issues to end up in a better place.

For anyone looking for a very enjoyable "summer movie," this is the one to see!

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