Top Gun: Maverick is a late arrival to the nostalgia-inducing game Hollywood has been playing for some years now. Deemed as “irresponsible” by Tom Cruise at some point of his life, the project was always clouded by the stance of making a new film about the characters, and not necessarily a sequel.
Which is exactly what we got. Even with carbon-copied scenes. In all irony, Top Gun: Maverick is the very definition of a pure Top Gun sequel.
However, it represents a concept development that feels complete above anything. It pushes for a character definition we didn’t know we needed, and its plot simply makes sense considering the first film was made almost 40 years ago. That jump in time is risky, but Tom Cruise likes risks and it shows. The man not only likes to do his own stunts. His business side can be considered one of Hollywood’s finest and this film is proof.
I’ll be vague on purpose. Decades have passed and Maverick still carries the burden of Goose’s loss. The pilot remains a captain because of his mischievous behavior and a middle-finger attitude to any imposition by superiors. After an extremely dangerous test has… good results, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell gets drafted to do something he never thought possible. He has to train Top Gun graduates for a very particular mission.
Needless to say, Goose’s son Rooster is part of the team. When Maverick returns to the place where everything began, the encounter won’t be as pretty as the film could actually depict it. The mission isn’t easy, neither is the team. And the demons from the past haunt him so badly, Maverick still can’t approach forgiveness or catharsis for what happened to his best friend.
The terrific Top Gun: Maverick is a refined Tom Cruise vehicle that hinges on nostalgia for being sustainable during its first act. Then it becomes another film altogether with mere winks at the original film. Few sequels are able to do this but a fine cast, a great lead, and fancy special effects make us actually forget about the first film. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but could Top Gun: Maverick be a lot better than Top Gun?
This is a better action film with less sweat, more clothes, and less awkward closeness between dudes. Its third act is finely crafted to be a long action sequence involving planes and an absurd escape that we believe in for the sake of Maverick’s success and a connection with a kid he loves like a son.
In Top Gun: Maverick, a baton is passed but a storyline is never corrected or modernized for the sake of new audiences. The film doesn’t need to make this clear as Maverick remains the center of the concept. Decades passed but Maverick’s persona is too powerful to discard for the building of a new franchise. There’s no need to do this. Top Gun: Maverick is a perfect closure to a circle we didn’t know remained open.
G-S-T RULING:
A blast that shadows the past. Top Gun: Maverick is what it needs to be in order to make young viewers know about the classic Cruise film that made people enlist in the Navy and put aviator sunglasses on the spotlight. No need to go back to the past now. Goose lives on Maverick’s memory and on Rooster’s attitude. This is the best tribute they could have accomplished.
