Gutsy machoism may have fallen out of favour with the moviegoing public, but there’ll always be a nostalgia that makes it profitable, interesting even. Top Gun was more a study of a pastiche than it was a bonafide action thrill ride, despite the conventions of the genre. Top Gun: Maverick is a reflection of that period. An undertaking of studying the reaction audiences have to not just the machoism of the 1980s but the reinvention of it as only Tom Cruise can manage. He is the last of the action heroes. As generic and agreed on a statement that may be, there is some truth to it. Only he could launch a revival of Top Gun, and only he could steer this need for speed back to relevancy and a level of quality far greater than the Tony Scott original.
Director Joseph Kosinski appears up to the challenge of revitalising that need for American militarism dressed up as a back and forth between father and son. Top Gun and its sequel differ very little in what they hope to accomplish. A big budget advertisement for the scope and scale of how many flying objects can blow up objects that can also fly. It is rather beautiful, in a 1980s pastiche sort of way. Kosinski has understood that clearly and brilliantly. Ed Harris and Jon Hamm make for excellent inclusions here. After cutting through jargon built up as heroics, more thanks to Harris showing up to steal the show than anything else, Top Gun: Maverick soon finds itself in comfortable company with a father and son back and forth to rely on.
There is beauty not just in the landscape shots of fighter jets and the explosions that surround them but in the story at the heart of this. Kosinski and Cruise fail to move on from the 1980s soundtrack, setting and style. Rightly so. What is offered by Top Gun: Maverick is a new twist on old stories. Real scope and entertaining moments are offered up by Cruise and Miles Teller in a film that takes a bit of time to remove itself from the advertisement for fast planes. Top Gun: Maverick plays with life and death in an articulate and responsible way, its opening scene of trying to break new speeds and new records, gives Cruise’s character a mortality never felt in Top Gun that is now cemented as legacy. Teller’s performance is convincing, Val Kilmer’s appearance is as heart-warming as it is touching while Jennifer Connelly rounds out the cast with the emotional supporting punch necessary to fast planes and the need for speed.
Modernising Top Gun for a new audience means changing very little of the original material. Scott’s vision is maintained by a feature that hopes small pointers of iconography and an ageless Cruise can steer some success. They can. Top Gun: Maverick is a correct understanding of nostalgia bait, with developments made to the moments audiences think they want to see. Bikes, beaches and blowing stuff up with billion-dollar military-grade hardware. A triple for any audience member wanting to feast their eyes and stomachs on the popcorn variety of grand entertainment. Top Gun: Maverick is a fun piece that at its heart has a story of sincerity, one that hopes to square up the past and connect it to the future of characters who didn’t need to be revisited, but are thankful they were. Maverick says farewell to the work that has driven him for years, and Cruise quietly bows out of one of many still lingering franchises. Cocktail reboot, anyone?
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