“Top Gun: Maverick” Review: The Need for Speed Continues!
Before I get started - an update / explanation. I haven’t posted on my blog since I shared my dad’s eulogy. That isn’t from a lack of trying - I have several different drafts and scattered notes on a variety of blog ideas. Writing has been very difficult for me; it isn’t easy to get through the fog. When I do write, I am finding it to be average. Frustrating as hell.
Most things have been very difficult in the time he’s been gone. But what is extra frustrating about struggling to write is that it is a pretty solid way to manage my emotions, to get them out. Typically, I can’t say them, but I can write them. Now, they all just exist, bursting to get out but I can’t let go. It is as if I am holding a deep breath in and no matter what, can’t let it out. Start to get light headed after a while. I know myself as a writer to know when not to push, but I really do hope to start sharing more soon. Until then, enjoy!
Pointed parallels and the continuing need for speed makes the Top Gun sequel one of the select few that outshine its predecessor.
Sequel Standards
Sequels, especially those released after its original, can be in a damned if you, damned if you don’t position. It isn’t easy to recapture the magic that enchanted audiences the first time around. And moviegoers can be fickle - they want something original, but not too far off from the predecessor. And why does it need a sequel, can’t anyone think of anything new?
Sequels that are generally considered better than the original include Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator II, The Godfather Part II, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, From Russia with Love, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. After years of anticipation, hype, and delays, Top Gun: Maverick may be the latest sequel on par with its classic predecessor.
Return of the Summer Blockbuster
On top of being a sequel success, Top Gun: Maverick may be what movie theaters have been hoping for since theaters reopened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ have offered films either released both on their service and in theaters, or only on their service. The notorious cost of movie tickets and theater snacks, the pandemic, and remaining in the comfort of one’s home made choosing to stay away from the big screen an easy one for some people. It was either Ghostbusters: Aftermath or Spider-Man: No Way Home when I first saw an advertisement on the big screen that movies were meant to be watched, well, on the big screen (Despite the fact that we were being told this while we were already doing so).
But the highly-anticipated sequel to the 1986 blockbuster may be the reminder people needed as to why movies are great on the big screen. This movie is absolutely beautiful to watch. The action scenes erupt with adrenaline and anticipation. Some shots are reminiscent of the original, like Maverick with his motorcycle, Goose Jr AKA Rooster playing “Great Balls of Fire” on the piano, or the team-building, mostly shirtless athletic beach scene. The story goes by in a blink of an eye, and there wasn’t any instance of scenes feeling forced.
Parallel Potion
Maverick succeeds where most sequels struggle - nostalgia. There is a very careful balance between relying on the nostalgia that people loved about the previous film, and the need for something new in the story. Ask anyone who has made Star Wars beyond the original three films. For many, The Force Awakens was too much of a copycat of A New Hope and fans wanted something “new.” When The Last Jedi came out, for some it was too different from the Star Wars formula.
The trailers already revealed that the past would be front and center throughout the sequel, but somehow it…works.
Spoilers ahead - you have been warned.
What Maverick does differently is that it carefully positions its parallels and has them front and center.
From Maverick’s introduction to his students, leaving a wingman during training, the foes become allies-if-not-friends handshake, it is almost a picture perfect match. Instead of feeling overdone, you (at least me) love how some things seemingly align with the original.
Question - when Hangman (Glen Powell) was cast, did they specifically look for someone who looks like both Iceman (Val Kilmer) and Slider (Rick Rossovich) in the original? Hangman as the Iceman to Goose’s Maverick was quite apparent, but there were also times I got Slider vibes from him and wondered if they were trying to create a character who was both. Whatever, Glen Powell was excellent in his role, as was Miles Teller’s Goose, the son of Maverick’s long-dead best friend Goose (Anthony Edwards), mustache, Hawaiian shirt, and all.
Maverick really embraces the original, beyond parallel moments. I thought the flashbacks from the original were done really well and helped capture the guilt Maverick still carries over Goose’s death. Showing photos from the event’s of the first movie acknowledges the past.
Maverick basically hasn’t changed in thirty years, which fits because Tom Cruise really hasn’t either. I do wish we would’ve gotten more on what he has been up to, seeing as he apparently lasted two months as a Top Gun instructor (Anyone else think Mav and Jester butted heads too many times?), or, like we see, his badass test flying of a hypersonic Darkstar jet that, once again, shows Maverick pushing limits (almost to actual death) and bucking authority. Some callbacks, such as Maverick’s speech to his students in their first dogfight being reminiscent of Tom Skeritt’s Viper’s speech when Maverick was a Top Gun candidate to Rooster’s problem with the hard deck weren’t major, but made you grin.
While a few eyebrows were raised at Kelly McGillis’ Charlotte Blackwood, Maverick’s original love interest, not returning to the film, I thought it was interesting that some things do change. I also got a kick out of the fact that the-one-time-mentioned-in-the-original Penny Benjamin did become an actual character in the sequel, played by Jennifer Connelly. While this romance wasn’t as prevalent as Maverick’s and Charlie’s, I think the off-and-on again status of Maverick and Penny was a good representation of Maverick’s continuing turbulent ways and the constant and steadiness that Penny offered.
What wasn’t totally clear to me was Maverick’s and Rooster’s relationship before he pulled Rooster’s Naval Academy application, at the behest of Rooster’s mother and Goose’s widow, Carole (played by Meg Ryan in the 1986 film) - although no one tells Rooster that part of the story, with Maverick reasoning that there was no point in Rooster hating both of them.
Conveniently for the plot, Carole has since passed. None of these things surprised me. Maverick’s concern for Rooster is tangible from the get-go. When Rooster revealed what Maverick did, I had a suspicion that he didn’t make that decision on his own. Carole’s absence from the story allows for a clean storyline and makes the reconciliation less complicated with no third party reveal.. But I really wasn’t sure if there was animosity from Rooster before the application, and if his blaming Maverick for his father’s death stemmed from Maverick seemingly trying to keep Rooster out of the skies, like his father.
The film’s most poignant moments comes with Val Kilmer’s Iceman, Maverick’s one time foe turned friend and is also an admiral at this point; getting Maverick the instructor position and setting the story in motion.
When we see Iceman on screen, Maverick has just been told by Ice’s wife that his cancer has returned and there’s not a lot of time. Maverick is already an emotional mess with Rooster, and the strong emotions stemming from a friendship that endured but nearing its end shine (albeit in a depressing way) through. To Maverick’s chagrin, Ice wants to talk about work which really means Iceman emphasizing that he believes in Maverick, and that he has a chance to make things right with Rooster. This scene might be the most emotional I’ve ever seen Tom Cruise act. Maverick never stopped grieving for Goose, grieves the relationship he doesn’t have with Rooster, and knows soon he will be grieving the death of another close friend.
Two tracheostomies and chemotherapy to combat throat cancer took Kilmer’s voice. The movie addresses that with the return of his cancer, with his wife telling Maverick it is painful for Ice to talk. For the majority of the scene, he is using a type-to-speech program. But at the very end, he does speak to Maverick in a raspy voice; a voice that was digitally recreated by artificial intelligence and used old recordings of his voice.
Tom Cruise was insistent that he would not do a Top Gun sequel without Kilmer. It reminded me of The Last Jedi when Luke (Mark Hamill) telling his twin Leia (Carrie Fisher) that no one is ever really gone, with, back in reality, we know Carrie Fisher has passed and is gone, dying before the movie’s release. Top Gun: Maverick took care to make the dogfights and effects as realistic as possible. Knowing Kilmer’s illness as an audience member solidifies that emotional impact. I’m really glad Val Kilmer was able to be part of this. There’s plenty to say about Cruise, but I have to give him kudos here.
However, I am slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to see the Admiral and Captain dynamic between Ice and Maverick because you know Ice relished it in some ways, when he wasn’t bailing Maverick out of his latest escapade. The text message “I wasn’t asking” and his nonverbal insistence that they talk about work give a peek into that dynamic, and I loved it. Some things don’t change. Ice’s funeral occurs later in the film.
Jon Hamm’s Cypher is amazing at being a jackass who tries to get rid of Maverick before Ice’s body is, well, even cold. However, I’m not sure what he underestimates more - Maverick’s rebellious nature or stubbornness. Regardless, Maverick proves the impossible and that he has earned his team and the mission.
Maverick also puts another high ranking official questioning what the hell to do with Maverick and weighs the variety of risks. Not as iconic as, “I gotta do something here, I still can't believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot! I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters are going to Top Gun,” but Cypher’s comment that Maverick pretty much stole a military plane to prove said point was pretty funny.
Let's talk about this crazy mission for a moment. Did anyone else think it was basically the same as blowing up the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin during A New Hope? Because it was definitely like destroying the first Death Star.
Rooster’s simple “It’s what my dad would’ve done” after Maverick thanked him for saving him was poignant and appropriate because Rooster’s chaos with Maverick was very reminiscent of the days of Maverick and Goose. Teller is simply splendid in the film.
This movie is simply solid. It had lots of action, it didn’t have a convoluted plot. Unlike the first movie’s competition to finish first in their Top Gun class, we have pilots who are already Top Gun graduates and a seemingly impossible mission (no pun intended). Everything fits. Amazing to watch, good acting, a balance of nostalgia, humor, and emotions, and it doesn’t get lost in its complications. It would have been easy to be overwhelmed by the technology complications of the aircraft and how it fits in the plot.
A Couple Things…
There were a few things I wish we would’ve seen or could’ve been done differently. To start, if the first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club, then for Top Gun, it should be reiterating the need for perfect vision as a Top Gun pilot. No glasses, contacts, or correction surgery. Yet Bob (Lewis Pullman), the nerdy radar intercept officer to Monica Barbaro’s pilot Phoenix, wears glasses throughout the movie, as a way, I suspect, to emphasize his nerdiness. For whatever reason, this distracted me throughout, especially when he was wearing them flying. I can’t imagine how that would work. Before I got LASIK, I couldn’t wear my glasses when I had a facepiece on for firefighting for a range of reasons. I had goggles with corrected lenses that I could wear (I hated these things, and this was actually my motivation to get LASIK!). I cannot imagine that he could just wear regular glasses in that high-risk environment. They went to great pains to make the movie as realistic as possible, and this is where they go off-script?
I couldn’t believe Maverick never went off on Hangman about his smartass comments.
One time the nostalgia didn’t work - Maverick going to the bar to find Penny has left the bar and is on a boating trip with her daughter did not work. Obviously meant to mirror Charlie’s return at the end of the original, it didn’t make sense. There was nothing indicating that they weren’t coming back. She still had the bar. Amelia was very studious, I can’t imagine her just drifting away from school. They took a trip. It wasn’t a breakup. So when Maverick saw Amelia at the hanger, realizing Penny is there, it felt off. Also, its not like we don’t have cell phones and are basically accessible 24/7.
Ed Harris is criminally underused in the film. One stern scene with the admiral was underwhelming. His role seemingly could have been filled by Hamm’s Cypher. I don’t know why they got Ed Harris if they weren’t going to really use him.
I can’t believe all of the callbacks, no one said, “I have a need, a need for speed.”
I enjoyed Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” but it doesn’t have anywhere near the impact that the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” or even Otis Reddings’ “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” had. It’s a great song, but its placement sucks. I don’t think we had enough development of Maverick’s and Penny’s relationship - and that’s fine - to make the impression that those songs made for Maverick and Charlie. Playing it at the end sucked.
I need to know if naval aviators are still trying the “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” pick-up method.
Cypher could have given Maverick a teensy-tiny bit more acknowledgement at his success / evading death / stealing an enemy plane and escaping/surviving. He could’ve saluted back. Jon Hamm, amazing job on playing such a despicable character. It was fun.
Final Thoughts
Top Gun: Maverick makes its past and present fit together, and it's just great. The identical beginning of the explanation / introduction to Top Gun to “Danger Zone” playing puts you right back where we left off.
It is wild. It is fun. And the sequel is going to go down as classic as the original, which is no easy feat. Knowing the similarities to the original, I really wasn’t sure how people were going to react to the movie. But damn if this movie didn’t blow expectations out of the water.
If they don’t get at least award nominations for the various effects, that will be disappointing.
I can’t wait to hear how the movie influences (increases) naval recruitment this time around.
