‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’: THE UNIVERSAL BEST MOVIE OF 2022

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Sequels continue to be the “it” trend at the box office. Only it’s not just “any” sequel trend. This is the decade plus later sequel trend. Well over ten years later, some of the original cast reunites in Top Gun: Maverick to share another story, and if the numbers are an indication, viewers loved it.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Film Review

Pushing boundaries and limits is still what Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) does. Some thirty years in service with the Navy, he dodges any advancement that would prevent him flying. His latest work with the military is about to be scrapped because the numbers aren’t good enough. He does what he does best when he breaks rules (again) to try and prove a point. The stunt gets him reprimanded and reassigned. The reassignment brings him back to Top Gun, a place he didn’t expect to see the inside of again.

Believing he’s being brought back to pilot a dangerous mission, his task is instead to teach the brightest and best of Top Gun aviators and prepare them for this possibly fatal mission. Never considering himself a teacher, this isn’t something he wants, but eventually, he feels responsible for these pilots. This includes Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the one man who won’t let Maverick forget his past.

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This is one of those hype movies that made social news everywhere. Sometimes that’s a dangerous thing because it can be an overcompensation of just how good something is or overhype it in our mind. I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say the hype for Top Gun: Maverick is legitimate. This for a variety of reasons, some of which are simple and easy, others are more overt.

Part of the appeal of this film is definitely nostalgic. The men, and women, though perhaps in smaller numbers, who watched the 1980s original will find enough good from the nostalgia angle to love this. That will be reason enough for some. Until a few months ago, I’d not seen the OG film so I didn’t have that same sway. For me, what makes ‘Maverick’ so very good is its ability to be a true cinematic experience. This can also be said of the cast.

They’re just fabulous. Of course, Tom Cruise leads as the same character, and we even have a cameo of Val Kilmer as his rival turned friend. Additionally, we have a host of newer talent that is equally as good. Everyone from Miles Teller to Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman to Monica Barbaro. Plus, there is Glen Powell (from Set it Up), Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm. I don’t think there’s a weak person in the cast. They’re all good, even the actors who don’t play quite as big of a role is still good. I don’t think I loved it at first, but in a nice throwback to the original, there’s a kind of Iceman and Maverick rift in this script too.

When the dust settles, Top Gun: Maverick is easily one of the best feature films to see the inside of a theater in the last several years. This isn’t all for the reasons one might expect either. It’s just a solid film that understands cinema. It understands the “art” of keeping viewers invested. It excites and breaks hearts, it draws us in and makes us gasp, all things any good feature needs to keep people curious. It’s equal parts heartwarming and humorous, exhilarating, bittersweet and sad.  

Produced again by Jerry Bruckheimer, once you see this, it’s not hard to understand why the cheering section is so big. The film captures and holds you, provides the ups and downs of a quality story, and in today’s culture, this kind of cinematic discovery is golden.

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Content: there is an implication that one couple spends the night together. We see them making out, some clothing removal before the scene cuts to them laying together in bed. There are lots of tense situations. There’s gunplay in the sky and planes are shot down. There’s any number of scenarios that end badly; some characters have injuries, though we don’t see anything graphic. There’ two deaths [one flashback] that have an emotional impact. The film is PG-13.

Photos: Paramount