"Top Gun: Maverick" Is Top Of The Year

★★★★

Tom Cruise is the last movie star. You don’t see many movie stars like him anymore. You have well known actors, and some people who approach the full package of movie star like qualities, like Matthew McConaughey, where they have the over the top good looks and charm, but that’s far and inbetween these days. 

“Top Gun: Maverick” is the sequel to “Top Gun”, which came out in 1986, so when I saw the poster for “Top Gun: Maverick”, I thought it was likely going to be another run of the mill reboot. There’s a lot of those these days, but “Top Gun: Maverick” is a surprise. It’s not so much a reboot as a continuation of a story of Tom Cruise’s Maverick character, as well as being its own thing. It can be seen though, without seeing the original, and you won’t be lost. However, the biggest thing about “Top Gun: Maverick” is it feels like a  love letter to pure blockbusters, a bygone era of movies.

Tom Cruise comes back as Maverick, older, but still able to fly those stunt daredevil planes. In the opening, he goes to fly a plane for a group in a control room, who are being told by a rear admiral (Ed Harris), he is planning on shutting down the aircraft flight. Maverick shows up and decides to fly the plane himself to defy the admiral and save the project. As he says to the crew, if he goes down, they all go down together, because the people’s jobs rely on the plane flying right. Even after he crashes, he is assigned by the army to return and command a group of young aviators.

While there, he meets up with an old flame (Jennifer Connelly), a bunch of new cadets, including one (Miles Teller) who he feels guilty over, because his father went down with the plane back in the original film. He also meets with a new captain, the ever strict Beau Simpson (Jon Hamm), who’s keeping an eye on Maverick and the group of young cadets. This leads to Maverick training them for a dangerous mission.

Cruise’s guilt over the young cadet, leads to a good dramatic performance by Cruise. You can see the pain in Maverick, as he tries to deal with his guilt throughout the film. However, this isn’t a depressing film. It’s an uncynical, and straightforwardly told film. No winks to the camera, no commentary on hidden themes, and movie heroism that is pure. The movie obviously loves its characters and the genre of film it is. 

The film even has moments that are touching, like when Maverick goes to visit Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer). Val Kilmer has throat cancer in real life, as he types out most of his dialogue on a computer, and Maverick gives him a big hug. It’s a heartwarming scene, and a stand out in the film.

This film is such a throwback, in such a good way, and it’s played straight. Hollywood right now is basically going for issue oriented movies, and things Hollywood used to celebrate, are now being replaced by cynicalism. I know I sound like an old conservative saying this, and I’m not. Films with issues attached to them are important, and I’m not dismissing that, but sometimes you just want to cheer for the hero of a film with no strings attached. 

Tom Cruise has made a point of this movie being seen in theaters, and has reportedly turned down millions in right away streaming deals to keep this movie on the big screen, and this is a movie you should definitely see on the big screen.

This also leads to the issue of the Oscars. A lot of critics are already calling for “Top Gun: Maverick” to be nominated for best actor for Cruise and best picture in general. The Oscars has had this habit of nominating nothing but issue oriented pictures recently. There’s nothing wrong with pictures which deal with real life topics, but there needs to be a better balance. People aren’t rushing to see movies like they used to, and it’s not just the pandemic. It’s also the lack of fun at the movies. The other biggest grossing movie of this year was “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, which was a straight family film, and was simply adorable. “Top Gun: Maverick” is also a film you can see with your family. While I don’t expect “Sonic” to be nominated for Oscars, and I liked that movie, I think it would be rotten to deny “Top Gun: Maverick” its rightful Oscar nods. It’s easily one of the year's best pictures.