Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

 

This film had no right to be as good as it is, but goth darn it, it is friggin' insanely awesome. 

How's that for a legacy sequel thirty years after the original? 

Well played, sir Cruise. Well played.

Thirty years have passed since the events of the first 'Top Gun' and Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell is still a captain in the Naval Air Force, because he likes to do things his way and thus often pisses off superiors. But he's a test pilot and loving every minute of flying. After he crashes an experimental new aircraft, he is sent back to Top Gun Academy to train a bunch of young and excellent pilots for a highly dangerous mission. Things are made a little more tricky as one of those pilots is the son of Maverick's friend Goose. 

You know: the guy that tragically died in the first film. 

The plot thickens indeed.

Maverick also gets reacquainted with a former love called Penny and even visits Iceman, who is now an admiral and sadly suffering from terminal cancer. 

And all the while, Maverick pushes the kids to go beyond their limits in the hopes of getting them all safely home after the mission...

That is in fact the entire film. So you might think: how can this be that great if the story is relatively thin? Well, that's just it: there is no excess fat in this one. Everything is surgically precise and it all clicks together brilliantly. 

See, the first one was a Tony Scott special: great and exhilarating in all its cheesy glory, but maybe not as heavy on characterisation or intricate emotional plotlines. Oh, and next to being a great promotional tool for flight school also queer as all heck. You can find plenty of studies on this subject and the fun part is that a lot of the macho fans never even picked up on it at all. Does that take away from the film? Heck no. It is still entertaining and a great time capsule of the 80s.

This one is a lot more mature. On the one hand, you get a closer bond to the characters and they feel a lot more fleshed out and real. You can not only relate, but you'll quickly grow to like each and every one, as no one is as cartoony as the original sometimes made them. That's because everybody is giving it his/her all. Cruise is always solid, as is Jennifer Connelly, but Miles Teller is really doing a formidable job here. Oh, and bringing back Val Kilmer for a small part even with his poor health is truly emotional. No really, there will be tears. 

Darn it, film! How dare you let me experience feelings when it's about flying jets?

But what also is almost incomprehensibly well done, is the action. There is actually fairly little CG, as most of the stunts and in-flight shots were done for real. Let that sink in for a while, as you gaze at the amazing choreography and exhilarating shots of jets doing stuff that makes me queasy just looking at it.

I mean: it's awe inspiring, but for someone with a tendency to get dizzy, this is pretty intense. 

And it's beautiful.

Couple that with snappy editing (not that overly shaky, ADHD flashfest we often get) and a script that is tighter than most people's backsides if they were ever to fly an F-18 and you get a modern cinematic masterpiece of entertainment. 

Hot damn, this film is good. The sprinklings of nostalgia only make it better. 

No really: watch and be entertained beyond what you can imagine.