Here’s another film serving as a decades-belated followup to a fondly remembered eighties flick! No, not that one. No, not that one either. We’re taking to the air with the continuation to the most successful US Navy recruitment ad of all time, which solidified Tom Cruise as the hearthtrob of that decade, and made sure that Kenny Loggins will be quoted when it comes to anything aeronautical-related. Time to see if we’re going to be taken on mighty wings or zooming on the highway to the dumbass zone with Top Gun: Maverick.
How does the original hold up? Well, it’s sure entertaining—there’s no shortage of tense aerial fighter action, which always holds a thrill for the man-on-man, nerve-on-nerve scenarios it can muster. And, of course, it being Pride Day not too long ago, I’ve certainly met LGBT people who agree that yes, this qualifies as one of the most awesomely gay films of its time. “Oh, but Tom Cruise does it with a woman and everything”—yeah, whatever. It’s a film with a song just called ‘Playing with the Boys’, and oh yes, there’s also that one shot in the infamous volleyball scene angled to make it look like Anthony Edwards is giving Cruise a very vigorous slap on the ass. They knew what they were doing.
Now, with this followup…well, my first impressions was that all the money Cruise spent giving to the Church of Scientology to exorcise alien ghosts from his mental engrams has paid off, even if he now looks a mere ten years younger than he actually is as opposed to twenty as he once did. Either way, we quickly get reintroduced to his character, titular ace pilot Maverick—who, we also learn fast, still hasn’t gotten over the love of his life who died in the first movie, Goose. Despite his decades in the military, Maverick still remains of middling rank, thanks to his habit of pissing off his superior officers (including one played by Ed Harris, who doesn’t really end up playing as much of a role as the film indicates). Seemingly not having any real clear goals to his career or life, or indeed because of that, Maverick ends up being roped into one last job of training a group of younger pilots for a critical mission, and wouldn’t you know, one of them happens to be Goose’s son (Miles Teller). Who apparently genetically inherited his father’s mustache and love of ditties from the fifties.
Cruise’s performance here is what you can expect from him—crazy the dude might be, but when it comes to his insistence on authentic stunts, well, you can’t fault him there. The rest of the cast is adequate—I’m glad they didn’t go for a cliche of pitting the young millennial pilots in some sort of generational clash, but there’s a slight lack of the barely restrained homoerotic machismo that made the first one so memorable (we do have a romance of sorts with Jennifer Connelley, playing an offhandedly mentioned flame from the first one). But what you’re probably here is for the aerial action—and there’s no shortage of elegantly shot, extremely expensive flying hardware on display, which really gets that adrenaline going near the end. There’s much less of the physics-defying CG nonsense you get in certain other flicks, which makes every turn and impact feel all the more gratifying.
But there is that one emotional note that makes the film a little more worthwhile then just extravagant bathing in jet wash. That’s Van Kilmer returning as Maverick’s rival-turned-colleague from the first, Iceman—and the film did incorporate Kilmer’s unfortunate real-life struggles with throat cancer into the proceedings. When you see the two characters reunite, you can feel that the tears might not be just Cruise putting on a performance. That right there by itself gives things a sense of character development that makes what we see come ahead feel actually earned.
And yeah, the final act is essentially balls-to-the-wall sky knight action as you might expect, as our heroes take on the rather noticeably unnamed nation of…erm, North Iranirussiastan. Things do feel just a touch contrived to force them to use specific kind of fighters and also re-enact the Death Star run in the process, but if you’re coming to a Top Gun movie for a stone-cold realistic take on military operations and global geopolitics, well, I dunno what to say. Either way, everything’s well shot and directed, at no point did I lose track of geography as I might in other things, and really, the only thing missing was more gloriously cheesy Loggins chords.
So yeah, as far as yet another eighties revival goes? This one actually earns itself—not everything hits as well as it could’ve have, but there’s enough payoff and actual acknowledgement of character beyond just the nostalgia throwbacks to make it feel satisfying. I dunno why they chose Lady Gaga of all people to cover the end credits, but hey, there’s still also an air of finality to it also that I liked. For a dose of summer action, it’s certainly not a bad watch.
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