Top Gun: Maverick

This summer's TOP GUN: MAVERICK begins with the familiar tones of Harold Faltermeyer's melancholy score, recalled fondly from the original movie some thirty-six years ago.  It was wise for director Joseph Kosinski and Paramount to open this long delayed sequel this way, to ease longtime fans into a perhaps uncertain new installment.   One which, had we not already heard how great this movie was from our buds, might've been one approached with a certain measure of trepidation.   Many late sequels either overdo the nostalgia or completely start anew and alienate the long-timers.   We then hear Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and feel even more encouraged.

We know this story will pick up with a new generation of hot shots.   There's even a female among them this time.   This group of Super Hornet flyers, all #1s of their respective "Top Gun" classes, are assembled for a mission that wouldn't be out of place in that other Tom Cruise franchise you may be familiar with.   Yes, Maverick, still demonstrating insubordination to rear admirals and happy to remain a test pilot for the past three decades, is ordered to teach these kids the lessons he learned the hard way, to never leave your wing man and such.  But meanwhile staying lower and faster as they zip through narrow canyons and bomb a uranium plant in another of those unnamed foreign countries.   A mission that is described as requiring at least two miracles, plus escape from surface to air missiles and enemy fighters.

Maverick, who recently proved that a scramjet can go Mach 10+, knows this mission is possible,  at one point having to prove it on a simulated course to satisfy/shut up his hardass superior, Vice Admiral Beau 'Cycle" Simpson (Jon Hamm), who like many of the brass feel that Maverick is a relic from a bygone era.  You know that old story.  Also that Maverick, originally only directed to teach, will eventually have to climb in the Super Hornet himself to lead his team.   Are they ready?

They're cocky, but how else does one reach "Top Gun"?  Hangman (Glen Powell) is the most arrogant, forever fighting with Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick's late colleague/best friend, Goose (there will be some drama between Rooster and Mav, too, of course).   Bob (Lewis Pullman) is the team nerd and weapons system officer.  Phoenix (Monica Barbaro) is said female, more than able to hold her own among the testosterone.   While everyone else removes their shirts for a football game on the beach (a nod to the famous volleyball scene in the original), I can sadly report that she does not.   Could you imagine the response on the Interwebs if she did? Would be a complicated debate.  Some crying "exploitation!", others championing her leveling of the playing field, as it were.   Having the right to be objectified just like the boys.

Cruise again demonstrates his megawatt charisma.  The screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie gives the actor a credible and poignant examination of perhaps his best known character.   Of a passing of the baton as he acknowledges his vulnerability.   The actor does nothing to try to de-age himself, though at times still looks mighty similar to that young buck who became a minted superstar when this story began all those years ago.  The only other returning character from the 1986 movie is Val Kilmer, reprising his role as Iceman, now a four star admiral and Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.   I won't give anything away here.

Need I say that the aerial footage of the Hornets is spectacular?  Each jet was rigged with special cameras, and the actors are really up there.  In fact, they operated the cameras themselves while in flight.  These adrenalized sequences best the original, and are just breathtaking, especially in IMAX, the only way to see this movie, really.  Amazing what you can do without CGI.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK is as good and satisfying as a major studio blockbuster can get these days.  It's also a nice reminder that one can still be made.  All the notes are familiar and shamelessly played (including the subplot with Jennifer Connelly as Maverick's on again/off again).   And are so right.  The nostalgia isn't just for the first movie, but also for the type of Hollywood crowd pleaser that was once plentiful at the multiplex.  Just solid entertainment, free of any hard sell agenda, though the argument can always be made that these movies are aggressive recruitment ads/propaganda for the U.S. Navy.   A film that values teamwork yet also encourages thinking for yourself.   Simplistic, and it works.