By Laura BennettThursday 26 May 2022Hope AfternoonsMoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
Maybe it’s because we’ve been waiting three years to see what the hype is about, or maybe it’s because we’re genuinely excited to revisit the world of Top Gun, either way the release of Top Gun: Maverick has been much talked about.
Mostly, let’s be honest, it’s because Tom Cruise has been spruiking it around the world in over-the-top Hollywood ways for months now, and there’s huge hopes it’ll help the struggling cinema industry.
So, is the sequel worth it?
Set 25 years after the first, in Top Gun: Maverick Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is enlisted to train the next generation of elite fighter pilots for a mission that will test the limits of their capacity in the sky, and as a team. With 30 years of experience as a pilot, Maverick is the only man who can prove whether the mission is possible or not. But, he’s also potentially aging out of a system that increasingly relies on technology in combat over human ability.
Source: Official Top Gun Facebook
There will be a lot of people who palm off Maverick as a showy money-grab that further bolsters the imagine of Tom Cruise as an ageless dare-devilling phenomena, but it actually has some things going for it.
For one, being set so far after the original really works in its favour.
Cruise’s character is still a charmer and carries the air of a “Navy boy”, but he’s matured beyond the bro-ish ego that his confidence was initially found in – now, it’s based on years of tried-and-tested skill. The famous loss of his friend Goose isn’t a recent grief, it’s a defining trauma that you can see he’s carried for years and that’s both softened and made him more stoic.
Source: Official Top Gun Facebook
There’s much more feeling in the reconnected friendships and cameos we get to see on screen, because they’re not flippant. There are layers of history, which, while we haven’t seen transpire, you sense the weight of in a much more realistic way than if the sequel had come sooner.
Also, the flight sequences are phenomenal. To the point where, if not audibly, you’ll be making the sounds of the plane’s engines in your mind as the pilots soar and weave their way through harsh terrain and steep ascents, imagining yourself in their seat.
It’s no wonder the filmmakers held so rigidly to a traditional cinema release for this movie when you see what an effort they’ve gone to, to bring those scenes to life.
It’s no wonder the filmmakers held so rigidly to a traditional cinema release for this movie when you see what an effort they’ve gone to, to bring those scenes to life.
If you’re wanting to read a little deeply between the lines, Top Gun: Maverick also offers a subtle but potent commentary on how warfare has evolved. Who holds the power: the machine or the man? When our skills find their limit, what then do we trust in?
Sure, there’s cheesy nods to the original and great dollops of nostalgia, but Top Gun: Maverick brings back fun and scale to the cinema in a way we haven’t seen in far too long. And, a controversial bonus, there’s not a Marvel superhero in sight.
Top Gun: Maverick is in cinemas now.