After years and years of delays, Top Gun: Maverick has flown its way into theaters. This was a movie that was supposed to come out in July 2020 but kept on getting pushed back because of COVID, and Tom Cruise refused to drop this movie on streaming. So here we are in May 2022, finally watching this movie. So how is this movie? Let’s get started!
The Good:
For me the best thing about this movie is that it’s a great blockbuster and crowd pleasure. This is one of the best blockbusters that I’ve seen in a while, where it’s big, exciting, entertaining, and loud but it’s not done with a bunch of CGI and a big epic finale with aliens. Tom Cruise and his creative team just knows how to craft these exciting movies that are so fun to watch on the big screen. And this movie is a crowd pleaser, my audience was so excited while watching this movie. They were cheering multiple times in this movie, when the movie started. Many times in the finale of the movie, this is a fun movie to see with an audience. So if you get the chance, go see this movie in the theater with an audience. I promise you won’t regret it.
Somewhat tied to that, this is a movie that has a lot of easter eggs alluding to the original movie. It plays homage to the original all through-out. The opening 5-10 minutes of this movie feels like it’s paying tribute to that movie. They just knew what the audience wanted, and what they wanted to see. There are plenty of callbacks to that movie, and it’s done in a way that is celebrating that movie. Tom Cruise and his team know that the movie is an 80s classic, and this movie doesn’t copy what the original movie did but has easter eggs towards it. That’s when a legacy sequel is done right.
Also, with this movie you have to talk about the dog fights and aerial sequences. They are truly awesome, they are immersive and exciting, and you feel like you are in those jets with those characters. They are gorgeous to look at and this is really why I think this movie deserves to be watched on the biggest screen possible. In the behind the scenes videos for this movie, Tom Cruise has talked about how they trained for months in those planes to make them look as real as possible. And they are truly like nothing that you’ve seen before, they are great.
The cast here is just great, that is one thing that both of these movies nailed – the casting. Here you have Tom Cruise, giving easily one of the best movies of his career, where he has all of the Tom Cruise charm about him, you get that big Tom Cruise grin in this movie. But you also get a lot of dramatic weight, and a lot of Tom Cruise the actor coming out. That’s something that people easily forget about, is that Cruise is a great actor and is more than just a movie star. Then the secondary lead of the movie is Miles Teller as Rooster, Goose’s son and he plays off of Tom Cruise so well. Their chemistry is great, I wish that they did more movies together. And then another stand out is Glen Powell as the new Iceman, the cocky guy of the group who is a great pilot, but is kind of a jerk. And Powell is so good at playing him, and gets some great moments. But like I said, everybody here is great.
Also, the movie does have a lot of emotion, even more than the original movie did. Since Maverick is in a very different point in time and it’s 30 years after the original movie, he does get this arc that changes him as a person. And the arc was very effective and worked so well. Another part that brings out some big emotions is with Val Kilmer and his presence in the movie. Where Val Kilmer hasn’t really been acting in 20+ years, he’s done a lot of direct to video work. But as far as a big movie, that was a long time ago. He’s used in the movie just the right amount, and that scene does bring out a lot of emotions.
Finally, the movie has a great sense of humor. My theater was certainly laughing out loud through-out, everybody gets some jokes that land. And there are a nice steady stream of jokes that all worked for me. They came from the characters personalities coming in clash with one another.
The Bad:
And the only thing here: the movie dragged for like 5-10 minutes in the middle. They could have tightened up the middle just a little bit, not a whole lot. Make it move even more quickly, but that’s it. That is the only issue that I have with this movie.
Final Thoughts: Man… Tom Cruise knows how to entertain an audience. He knows how to make an incredibly entertaining blockbuster. Tom Cruise has been in the A-list since the 80s, almost 40 years. And with this movie he takes all of his bag of tricks, and delivers it in this movie in an almost perfect way. So I loved this movie, and you should check this one out. It’s a great time at the movies, and you won’t be disappointed.
