“Top Gun: Maverick” Review

Tom Cruise reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the 1986 classic that made him an action icon.

As May ends, I get excited because of Summer Blockbuster season. While the fall and winter often show the more serious “Oscar-type” films, summer is when we get all of those blockbusters that are meant to give the audience a thrill. If the rest of the summer films are like “Top Gun: Maverick,” this is going to be a great season. The film is what true blockbusters should be: relentlessly fun while also having significant emotional weight and being a fantastic spectacle. 

30 years after the previous film, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is still flying planes for the Navy and still angering bald admirals with his rebellious nature. Despite being a wild card, Mitchell is called into Top Gun to train a batch of Navy pilots to undertake an incredibly dangerous mission. Matters are complicated when one of the pilots is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late RIO and best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, who has a grudge against Maverick. With limited time and massive stakes, Maverick, Rooster and other pilots must come together and become a powerful team.

I have a confession to make. I am not a massive fan of “Top Gun.” Don’t get me wrong, I like the film. It’s got great characters, stellar action and I always get the chills during the opening credits when I hear “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins. However, I think that the film never truly mastered balancing the serious moments with the moments of levity. I just wanted something a tad more serious while keeping the fun of “Top Gun” that fans love. That’s precisely what “Top Gun: Maverick” brings. 

At the heart of this film is Tom Cruise who reaffirms his status as one of today’s best actors. There are very few actors who can be both a great actor and a movie star. Famous examples include Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Brad Pitt. 

Tom Cruise is undoubtedly one of those actors because, like every role he takes on, he brings his entire self to playing Maverick. Cruise gives the performance that I wanted to see: someone who’s older but still has that rebellious charm. He still feels tremendous guilt over what happened to Goose but he still is a lively presence in the film. The film also knows to make these characters the focus. It’s a good sign when you care about Maverick’s relationship with Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) just as much as the mission.

Miles Teller gives a strong performance as Rooster and the conflict between him and Maverick is very compelling. It’s not a simple “you were with my dad when he died and I blame you” mentality. It’s more layered than that.

Miles Teller stars as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Goose, and his conflict with Maverick is the emotional weight of the film.

Val Kilmer also appears in the film, reprising his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, and I was interested to see what he would do. After watching the 2021 documentary “Val,” I became very invested in him as an actor. Kilmer is in only one scene of the film, but it’s an emotionally powerful scene with Tom Cruise where Kilmer completely dominates. 

While the main characters are incredibly compelling, the pilots are also a lot of fun. Their comradery is believable and there’s not one forgettable face. As all of them work together for this mission, you see the egos clash and, more importantly, you feel the weight of the impending combat.

The action sequences alone make “Top Gun: Maverick” worth seeing on the big screen. Unlike the first film, which spliced footage of planes being piloted by Navy pilots with greenscreen cockpit footage of the actors, everything is completely real. 

Because of the updates in technology, these planes were able to have cameras in the cockpit, on the sides and wherever else on the plane director Joseph Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda could think of. The actors were also really in the aircraft and had to undergo flight training which just creates an incredible aura of realism. The dogfights are some of the most visceral I’ve ever seen in a film. By the film’s end, I was actually tearing up because of how fantastic it was and how much these characters left an impact.

With the action, breathtaking shots and the amazing sound design, “Top Gun: Maverick” needs to be watched in the biggest theater, on the biggest screen, with the biggest audience. Don’t wait for this film to be released on Paramount+ 45 days after the film’s first weekend. Just buy a ticket. If you want to see this film and say to yourself “I can wait until it hits streaming,” seriously rethink your entire existence. 

“Top Gun: Maverick” is not only one of the strongest films I’ve seen this year, but it’s also superior to the first film. It’s a theatrical experience that I will return to soon.