Top Gun: Maverick - Mobile Edition

Movie Reviews
Top Gun: Maverick
By Hervé St-Louis
August 8, 2022 - 19:38

Studios: Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Writer(s): Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Peter Craig, Justin Marks, Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Bashir Salahuddin, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Jack Schumacher, Manny Jacinto, Kara Wang, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jake Picking, Raymond Lee, Jean Louisa Kelly
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, David Ellison, Christopher McQuarrie
Running Time: 130 minutes
Release Date: 25 May 2022
Rating: PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Distributors: Paramount Pictures

Pete Mitchell continues to be a test pilot decades later, always protected by his old friend and former opponent, Admiral Tom Kazansky. When he destroys a valuable prototype while breaking Mach 10 speed barriers, instead of retiring his career, he is enlisted to train a new generation of fighter pilots that will go into enemy territory and destroy nuclear targets. However, the instructor soon finds that he has become the squad leader and must fly one last time. Can he and his team make it alive?

It is amazing how this long awaited and delayed sequel is everything the original film was and much better at the same time. The themes are the same. The plot is eerily similar, but it’s all enhanced in ways the original blockbuster could only dream of. It is a worthy sequel that does what sequels should always do; take the best from the first movie and propel the story further.

There is a lot of pathos here, with the multi-generational story of the Goose’s son and how he grew up resenting his father’s copilot who tried to stop him in vain from continuing into his father’s steps. This film was entertaining, especially while highlighting the rivalry between the lieutenants who all want a shot at fame. The film also smartly added more diversity to the film, even though that was also a feature in the original. The love between Mitchell and Penny Benjamin was treated maturely as she was integrated in the plot from a thread mentioning her in the previous film.

Of course, the visual effects and actual stunts with the jets was the best part of the film and what most fans of the original wanted to see. These will not disappoint. I suggest as big a screen as possible to take in all the flight wonderment that you’ll stumble upon in this film. I am still amazed at how good this film was. It truly deserves all the accolades and makes the original worth watching again. It will not take your breathe away as that song was reserved for Mitchell other love, Charlie, but it will definitely please you.

Rating: 10/10