Rent Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

It can’t be this bad, can it? Oh yes it can - Top Gun: Maverick review by Alphaville

Tom goes fast on a motorbike and in a plane, has a quip for every occasion and causes Americans to flap their hands in the air and whoop. Okay, so you’re not meant to take it seriously, but must it be so overbearingly contrived and predictable? If you haven’t gagged by the end, wait till Lady Gagga (an in-joke?) warbles her end-credits ditty.

I thought of giving it an extra star for the technicalities of filming (see DVD Extras), but no, what’s on screen is just too eye-rollingly awful. Three scriptwriters had a go at it to no avail and director Joseph Kosinski drains it of any residual interest unless you thrill to close-ups of men in cockpits. Surely only forgiving fans of the Cruise-man can get anything out of this.

Great Entertaining Adventure - Top Gun: Maverick review by GI

This is the sort of blockbuster adventure that drives home the necessity to see films at the cinema and not rely on home turf channels. Big, brash, endlessly exciting Top Gun: Maverick is exactly what you'd expect it to be. Whilst it comes 36 years after the first film it manages to recapture the essence of what made that film so popular, with its rocking soundtrack, macho posturing and sheer spectacle. The various links back to the original story work well and for those who loved Top Gun it becomes a real treat. The homoeroticism, so evident in 1986, is toned down to almost nothing here although a beach football match mirrors the famous volleyball episode with the sweat shining and muscle ripped bodies all on display. Politically the film will appeal to American audiences who are tunnel visioned enough believe that they are out there protecting the world and comparisons with Team America: World Police (2004) can't be helped as here we have a story about attacking a uranium plant in some unnamed country, it's war without there actually being one officially. For the rest of the world this is a good old Hollywood adventure film, pure hokum but plenty of panache and all the better for it. Tom Cruise returns as Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, still a lowly Captain but a top fighter pilot. Not popular with his superiors who are trying to get him to retire quietly. But then this uranium plant needs destroying and it's a nigh impossible task so Maverick is called to train a set of young hotshots for the mission including the son of his former partner played by Miles Teller. Of course Maverick ends up on the mission himself because he's still the best and the film turns up the action in the flying sequences where we have a story very reminiscent of 633 Squadron (1964) and a pretty obvious Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) section even turning "Use the Force Luke' into "Don't think, just do". Jennifer Connolly is the new love interest (her character is linked to the first film) but is somewhat underused and Jon Hamm and Ed Harris are the disapproving bosses but the cherry on the top of the casting is Val Kilmer cameoing in a touching scene as Iceman, now an admiral and maverick's friend and protector. It's all great entertainment and absolutely best seen on the biggest cinema screen you can find where you can sit back and remember why you fell in love with cinema in the first place.

Entertaining but not great - Top Gun: Maverick review by Dax Williams

There's a staggering array of 1 and 5 star reviews on here for what I saw as solid 3 star movie. Some people are claiming this is a masterpiece and superior to the original - it isn't, come back in 5 years and say that. Top Gun Maverick lacks the charm of the first film and no way will these new characters live in the memory the same way as Maverick, Goose, Ice Man and..er.. Merlin. However, this movie is not the disaster that others are saying and TGM is nowhere near as bad as some of the other recently released sequels to beloved classics of the era (Bill & Ted and Coming to America being the worst offenders). This could be described as a high-budget, competently made piece of fan fiction. There are many references to the first film: the font used for the opening credits, shots of planes preparing for take-off viewed through the heat haze of a runway, people working out in silhouette against the sunset and Tom Cruise riding his motorcycle at gazillion miles per hour without wearing a helmet. Some of the original soundtrack is replayed here and there is even a scene featuring the young cadets in a bar singing 'Great Balls of Fire' around a piano (no, seriously) - this was actually jaw dropping.

There is certainly more diversity here in terms of race and gender among the younger characters, but the movie doesn't bash you over the head with it. For sure there's a film to made about the struggles faced by women and minorities in the US military, but this isn't that film - This is Top Gun Maverick. The story line is as you'd expect, some kind of high-risk mission for the best of the best and the flight scenes and visual effects are, again as you'd expect, top notch. The dialogue is mostly fine for what it is; a couple of lines here and there are a little on the nose ("Now you've learned something about Rooster"!) but on the whole the script is passable, albeit without many memorable lines or speeches that I can recall. One thing that did baffle me was Ice Man's appearance, or lack therefof. I had to check Wikipedia to see if Val Kilmer had died 3 days into filming or something - this aspect of the movie seemed utterly pointless and nonsensical.

But overall Top Gun Maverick is pretty good; its a decent, fun action movie. Not one I'll be coming back to in 10 years time, but good enough for a Friday evening.