Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Review

 "I don't sail boats, Penny.  I land on them."
-Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell



Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is called back to TOPGUN to train several graduates for an extremely dangerous mission.  Not a a natural instructor, Maverick struggles to get through to his students, while keeping his superiors happy.  To make matters worse; one student, Rooster (Miles Teller), is the son of Maverick's late co-pilot, Goose (Anthony Edwards).


What Works:

So, I'll be honest...I don't like the original Top Gun.  I know a ton of people who love it and one of my best friends has it as his favorite movie of all time.  I'll never take that away from anyone, but the original simply isn't for me.  I think I liked Maverick so much because of all the way it improves over the original.  It's what I wanted the first movie to be.

First off, we have the character of Maverick.  Tom Cruise isn't the greatest actor of all time, but I thought he was straight up bad in Top Gun.  He's infinitely better here.  Plus Maverick is much more likable and sympathetic this time around.  In the original, he's kind of a douche-canoe.  There's a lot more to him and he's much more interesting now that he's older and slightly wiser.

The supporting cast is also much better in this movie.  In the original, only Goose and Iceman had any characteristics.  While the new pilots aren't developed too much, they are all likable, except for Hangman (Glen Powell) and he isn't supposed to be.  Maverick's love interest, Penny (Jennifer Connelly) also has way more chemistry with him than Charlie did in the original.  

Then we have the rival characters.  In the original, we had Iceman, who was the far more likable character than Maverick simply because he was 100% right.  Hangman is the rival this time, and he's a massive tool.  That makes him so much better as a rival in a movie like this.  We need to like our protagonist and dislike our rival.  Maverick gets this right so much more than the original.

The other major comparison I have are the stakes.  We know early on that the training at TOPGUN is for a specific and extremely dangerous mission.  The students have to figure it out or they will die on the mission.  Boom, we have a reason to care.  We also have emotional stakes as Maverick and Rooster sort out their conflict.  It's easy to get invested in this movie.  I was never invested in the original.

Finally, the 3rd act is outstanding.  It's got some fantastic direction.  It moves fast, but I completely understood everything that was happening and never got lost in the action.  It felt very dangerous and that none of these characters were safe.  Plus, just when it feels like the movie is over, the action keeps going, but it doesn't get stale.  If anything, it gets more exciting.  It's one of the best 3rd acts I've seen in a while.


What Sucks:

My only real complaint with this movie is some of the dialogue.  There is a good amount of exposition because it's been almost 40 years since we've seen Maverick.  The movie has a lot to catch us up on, but the dialogue comes off very clunky a few times.


Verdict:

Top Gun: Maverick is high on my list of sequels that most improve over the original film.  It's everything I wanted the original to be.  The main character, supporting characters, and stakes are far superior and the 3rd act is top notch.  Clunky dialogue aside, this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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