REVIEW: 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022, John Kosinski)
Maverick, like the 1986 movie, is also awash in golden-hour light, and Cruise looks barely aged despite the 34-year gap between the two productions. Even the typeface in the credits is replicated.
What’s new is the highly realistic aerial action. Shot in IMAX format, Maverick is truly an impressive cinematic feat. The actors ride real fighter jets to capture the actual experience inside the cockpit, with gravitation forces contorting their faces — which CGI can never achieve.
Eliminating visual effects, it provides the movie with striking authenticity and makes the audience feel they’re in the shoes of a Navy fighter pilot. Of course, the air combat in Mach speed — maneuvering, dogfighting, spinning, and spiraling — is no longer the work of the actors, who were nevertheless trained in preliminary aerial aviation and flights.
Director John Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) works with virtuosos in movie magic: Cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi) and editor Eddie Hamilton (several Mission Impossible films). Together they add realism to the “flying” experience — incredibly neat, with no quick cuts and blurs. It is recommended that you watch it in an IMAX theater. But personally, I believe sound is more critical than a giant screen, therefore a regular-sized cinema can do, as long as it’s Dolby Atmos.
But Maverick’s plot is rather thin.
Cruise is back as Pete Mitchell (call sign “Maverick”), the cocky, rebellious naval aviator who pisses off and impresses his superiors — in this case, Ed Harris as Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain and Jon Hamm as Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson.
Grounded and assigned as an instructor to a fresh batch of elite Top Gun pilots, Maverick must learn to deal with his painful past — in the form of his student Rooster (Miles Teller), son of his best friend, Goose, who dies in the original movie. Worse, he has to teach the young batch to perform a “mission impossible” in less than three weeks, which can be dangerous.
Included in the batch is the sexy Glen Powell as Hangman (the reincarnation of Val Kilmer’s character in 1986), and the only female pilot, Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), and the obligatory “geek in the gang,” Bob (Lewis Pullman).
Jennifer Connelly plays Maverick’s new love interest Penny, who doesn’t serve anything much to the story other than provide him moral support and figure in blissful motorcycle rides and bar banter scenes.
Val Kilmer, suffering from throat cancer in real life, returns as Iceman — now an admiral protective of Maverick. With a predictable plot, the movie is devoid of emotional engagement and excitement. The impressive aviation action may feel natural and true-to-life, but with a flimsy story that almost resembles the original Top Gun, the experience is reduced to a virtual-reality simulation game.
Fans of aviation will be thrilled with this visually stunning Top Gun makeover. For the rest of us, this macho movie may still be worth watching for the ageless Cruise’s star-power vintage action hero, and because it respects the audience with its purist action sequences and superior technical craft.
But Maverick’s plot is rather thin.
Cruise is back as Pete Mitchell (call sign “Maverick”), the cocky, rebellious naval aviator who pisses off and impresses his superiors — in this case, Ed Harris as Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain and Jon Hamm as Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson.
Grounded and assigned as an instructor to a fresh batch of elite Top Gun pilots, Maverick must learn to deal with his painful past — in the form of his student Rooster (Miles Teller), son of his best friend, Goose, who dies in the original movie. Worse, he has to teach the young batch to perform a “mission impossible” in less than three weeks, which can be dangerous.
Included in the batch is the sexy Glen Powell as Hangman (the reincarnation of Val Kilmer’s character in 1986), and the only female pilot, Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), and the obligatory “geek in the gang,” Bob (Lewis Pullman).
Jennifer Connelly plays Maverick’s new love interest Penny, who doesn’t serve anything much to the story other than provide him moral support and figure in blissful motorcycle rides and bar banter scenes.
Val Kilmer, suffering from throat cancer in real life, returns as Iceman — now an admiral protective of Maverick. With a predictable plot, the movie is devoid of emotional engagement and excitement. The impressive aviation action may feel natural and true-to-life, but with a flimsy story that almost resembles the original Top Gun, the experience is reduced to a virtual-reality simulation game.
Fans of aviation will be thrilled with this visually stunning Top Gun makeover. For the rest of us, this macho movie may still be worth watching for the ageless Cruise’s star-power vintage action hero, and because it respects the audience with its purist action sequences and superior technical craft.
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