Masterfully mixing nostalgia and action, “Top Gun: Maverick” fly higher than you are entitled to. It builds a fantastic sequel 36 years after the first film (including a release delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic). However, the result is a good but not great movie, which may not be enough to take the viewer’s breath away – but it comes close.
The original 1986 film featured Tom Cruise at the beginning of his movie stardom, but now he demonstrates that, even as an older guy, there’s still a lot to show for it.
Older, but not necessarily wiser, the story depicts Cruise’s Pete Mitchell, aka Maverick, the daredevil Navy pilot whose career hasn’t matched his flying skills — largely because he has a bad habit of not obeying orders. and disrespect authority.
“I’m where I belong,” says Maverick, when asked why he’s still a captain after all these years, following an intro to Kenny Loggins’ song “Danger Zone,” just to set the mood.
On the verge of paying the price for it, he gets his last chance, as he is called back to Top Gun to train pilots for a top-secret mission, among them Rooster (Miles Teller), son of the partner Maverick lost in the first film. .
There’s more to it than that, including an opportunity to reconnect with old friend Iceman (Val Kilmer, whose off-screen health issues are tightly woven into the story); clashing with the commander (Jon Hamm); and an old flame (Jennifer Connelly).
And yes, the film replicates the competitive contest between these demanding racers, although the story has been expanded to involve more diversity, including one woman (Monica Barbaro).
Cruise Meets With “Oblivion” Director Joseph Kosinski working from a script credited to a trio of writers, including the star’s frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie.
Somehow the film manages, over the following decades, to paint a portrait of a guy whose “need for speed” propelled him forward and held him back, especially in terms of commitment and uprooting.
Even the seemingly tired plot of Maverick carrying guilt for Goose all these years, and worrying about his son, works unexpectedly well. Part of this has to do with the film’s emotional moorings, which are sentimental without becoming touchy-feely. (A dedication to the late Tony Scott, who directed the original, adds a nice touch.)
Still, it’s called “Top Gun” for a reason, and the aerial sequences are visceral and effective, conveying the adrenaline and physical cost of being in the sky, as well as the mindset needed to eagerly face those risks.
Somehow, the movie “Maverick” manages to recycle those themes – with an exceptional cast of new pilots – and still feel contemporary, while also approaching the old-fashioned virtues of the kind of film that flourished in the 1980s but found a considerably less friendly universe in recent years.
Paramount waited a long time to release “Top Gun” in theaters, and that bet seems to have paid off. Because while you can watch Maverick’s heroics from the comfort of home, as the man said, the big screen is where he belongs.
The film opens in Brazilian cinemas on May 26.
Source: CNN Brasil
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