Rating of
3.5/4
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Indyfreak - wrote on 06/08/22
Director Joseph Kosinski has had an interesting career in Hollywood. He made his debut with the long awaited sequel TRON: LEGACY. I found it visually stunning but a bit shallow. His next film was with Tom Cruise and it was a sci-fi movie called Oblivion and I liked it fine. His third movie was a firefighting drama called ONLY THE BRAVE and it was shockingly good. Made my top movie list for 2017. And now we have his latest film TOP GUN MAVERICK which is also a sequel that was long delayed for reasons including the pandemic.
And it is bloody brilliant filmmaking.
This is one of the best blockbuster sequels in years. And I would argue that it is even better than the original TOP GUN. The 1986 movie is a nice slice of 1980s cheese and it proudly flaunts its brash machismo no matter how campy it looks today. And the sequel TOP GUN: MAVERICK does contain a lot of that same robust filmmaking but also it lends some depth to its characters along the way.
Tom Cruise is in fine form as an older and wiser Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell who is beckoned once again to the elite academy known as Top Gun. His task is to train a rowdy group of younger pilots for a top secret mission. One of the recruits is his deceased friend's grown son (Miles Teller) who feels some resentment towards Maverick. The other students are either too cautious or too arrogant but Maverick has to whip them into shape to meet an impending deadline.
The supporting cast is uniformly good. Miles Teller is a natural fit for playing Goose's son Rooster. He even looks a bit like Anthony Edwards. Glen Powell is a riot as the cocky rival nicknamed Hangman. The other students are not quite as prominent but they're all likable people. Jennifer Connelly is basically the love interest for Tom Cruise to court but they have solid chemistry together. Jon Hamm plays Tom Cruise's snobbish superior officer but his shift to a more genial personality feels genuine enough.
As has been reported, the highlight of the movie is the flying sequences. I am not exaggerating when I state that these are probably the most exciting flying scenes put on film in years. And it is elevated by the film crew actually using real fighter jets in these scenes. The dogfights and training scenes are directed in masterful style by Joseph Kosinski.
One of the best elements of the movie that I did not expect is that it does not take easy shortcuts. You think something is being telegraphed or foreshadowed. But then the opposite happens and you feel rewarded for it instead of cheated. Well done to the cast and crew for making such a spectacular piece of popcorn entertainment.
