Last time, i reviewed Top Gun, a film that while it had a mixed result, but at least it made a huge amounts of money for it's success, as well as having a best album, and some nomination awards, including Berlin's "Take my breath away" got a winning Oscar from Academy Award. Even though its a mixed bag, it became a classic 80's film for familiar characters, action scenes with the use of Tomcats and memorable actors like Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer. But of course, at first, we may not as sure if we want to having a sequel, aside from a NES game "Top Gun: The second mission", but we have one very unexpected.
"Top Gun: Maverick" is a 2022 action drama film that was directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise (yup, not only he acts, but he also work as a producer, i guess its no wonder why he likes to do stunts since Mission Impossible, Christopher McQuarrie, and David Ellison, and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie (three of them for screenplay), Peter Craig, and Justin Marks (two of them for story).
Like i said before, this one has an unexpected announcement before we got hit by the virus in 2020, which at first, i wasn't as sure for it, the first one may or may not as classic, but im rather concerned for it, despite when we saw the teaser that it maybe looked promising. In fact in the 90's Paramount wanted to make a sequel, but Tom Cruise isn't as sure to be in the sequel for "irresponsible", but one 2010 came in, they offered Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott and Tom Cruise for a sequel, and they eventually accepted to do the sequel, however, while they planning for the new story and the new jets, Tony Scott was sadly took his own life by jumping off the bridge in 2012 with the age of 68, leaving the project to be rather complicated without the director, thankfully, a new director was brought in is Joseph Krosinski after he met Tom Cruise for showing the plan, as well as titled "Top Gun Maverick", which im fine if they don't put numbers as a first sequel (unlike some with questionable sequel titles, but i digress).
Of course, since this movie came out on May 27th, its a worldwide well-received, saying that its better than the first one what i heard and as im writing this, this movie's box-office has received more than 1 BILLION DOLLARS!! Holy Hell man, with an impressive box-office like this, i had to purchase the film digitally to see if its worth it.
So, with all that said, is it worth of return for the flight with our old friend Maverick, or is this film makes Maverick still look unsafe and dangerous?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
While the story feels like the same as the first movie, but this is more about saving our main character's career to stay with Navy and working as a flight teacher for the new kids.
Taking place 30 years after the first event, we re-introduced the Navy Captain Pete Mitchell, better known as "Maverick", who received a call that not only he was grounded, but also planned to shut down Maverick's scramjet program called "Darkstar" to focusing on drones, but Maverick refuses to give up and instead of focus of Mach 9, he takes the mission immediately for Mach 10. While its successful at first, but it didn't last long it got too fast, his scramjet is ripped apart and destroyed, and yet, Maverick is ok from the a crash (Damn...!), he was received a message from his old friend Tom Kazansky, aka "Iceman" that he'll be saved to stay, but to assign to North Island's air station, only downside is that era of crewed fighter has coming to an end, meaning he has 3 weeks for not only work as a flight instructor, but also focusing the mission of bombing unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant without getting caught by SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) and the enemies 5th gen fighters called "Sukhoi Su-57". As Maverick arrived as flight instructor to teaching new kids in TOPGUN, one of them who joined is Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Maverick's late pal Goose, which cause Maverick struggling from the past from what happened. Its up to Maverick to train the students for the mission without putting at risk of shut down the mission and the program.
Like i said before, the story is similar from before where the students are picked up to the training for the mission, but this time, its about our main captain tries to teach his students to cadetting the mission in a risky situation with his near reckless piloting to teach them, which is quite of "Risky Business" (Sorry, just want to called it.) to help the students for the mission, along with Rooster.
Speaking of which, the movie has a subplot where Maverick wants to connect with Rooster, since he's the son of the late Goose from 30 years ago, which is a risky sacrifice to following a footstep to become a pilot when his father died, even its a difficulty task Rooster for being ill-prepared that he's nearly slow and feeling disconnected with some students, including his douchebag rival Jake Seresin, aka "Hangman", even when Maverick tries to connect with Rooster to clear the truth, its still not easy to have a chemistry relation as mentor and a main student. Not only for a uneasy connection, but so does Maverick's career, but im not gonna give you a spoiler whether not he's giving up or not, but still its a thought provoking story telling about our main captain trying his effort for keep his mission open and being a teacher of TOPGUN.
Even though it may not has a sense of cheesy humor like the first one, it treats this as a thought provoking story, which makes this story and the writing very well-done from the get-go.
The Presentation
For a movie costs $170 million on their budget, it looks pretty damn impressive for the cinematography, the designs and the actions.
For the filming, its obviously filmed in various locations in California like San Diego, Lemoore, Chico, and some others. Though sure its not just California to filming, they also filmed in Seattle, Washington, and Patuxent River, Maryland, they're pretty good pick for the filming location, it looks beautifully and well done for the filming, the visual quality looks amazing as well. Plus, they also filmed on the aircraft carriers like USS Abraham Lincoln (along with a sighting of USS Theodore Roosevelt at North Island). This is due to the use of IMAX cameras called "IMAX-Certified Sony Venice 6K Full Frame" in order to give this a beautiful and impressive filming shots, one of which is the filming in the cockpit with four placements to facing at actors and of course, some angles from exteriors. Very impressive for movie not just releasing in theaters, but also gear towards IMAX goers.
Of course, the highlight of this movie is the use of jets for flight training and the action scenes, the main use of the jets is the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, originally designed and produced by McDonnell Douglas before took over by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, its a pretty cool looking jet that was first introduced in 1995. As for the enemy jets, its the Suhkoi's Su-57, this advanced jet was introduced in 2010 for not just building more advanced weapons in Russia (no really), but also build for stealth, which yes, this jet is obviously used on CGI. Speaking of which, almost everything for the action is done with CG, while the rest for the use of F/A-18-E/F are done practical to bringing actors and some stunt pilots to fly with it, of course, the camera angles are different placement from aforementioned attached in exteriors, from the ground and even placing a camera on the jets nose, they use Aero L-39 Albatros for not only modifying it, but also, like i said, attached the camera on its nose, quite of challenging to filming a jets fly by for 2022 movie.
Btw, they even wanting to bring back old favorite jet F-14 Tomcat, but it will be impossible to bring back since its been retired since 2006, but i heard they can be found in Iran, but i won't gonna SPOIL for the inclusion of F-14.
And the last jet to sharing its a fictional scramjet Darkstar, it was build from a collaboration by Lockheed Martin and its Skunk Works, even though it was build eerily similar to Lockheed Martin SR-72, but they said Darkstar has nothing to do with SR-72, it was obviously a fictional jet build from scratch for first act's plot purpose, especially to pulling a realistic hypersonic aircraft as they could for us.
As for the action scenes, they're pretty fun to watch from training that the students went for their first flight but got caught by Maverick way to easily for doing 200 push-ups (Damn, Mav, over-punishing much??) and of course, the climactic mission on the third act, its more about the stealth to be hidden without getting caught by the surface-to-air missiles. And the aerial dogfight is a one helluva battle in handicap, but again, not giving you an extension spoiler.
One last thing i wanna give, during the bare scene where we introducing the new students, there's a scene where we and Maverick see Rooster plays a piano for singing the iconic "Great Balls of Fire", which this scene gave us a flashback by using stock footage from the first Top Gun for, as anybody like to say, like father like son, especially for build up a character development when Maverick seen something familiar. The craziest about this is that the use of stock footage wasn't even on the script, it was actually the director Joe Krosinski's idea in post-production, its not hard to say they added this scene in the movie to reminding us what happened from the past, but at least the execution is both beautiful and unexpectedly sad for reminding a tragic moment from the past.
The movie's presentation is pretty damn good for the filming, the action and the jets as a sequel that making it more improvement over the first one.
The Characters
While some have a welcome return, but the characters in this movie are pretty to show and even a welcome return.
Lets start with of course, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell himself (reprised by Tom Cruise), as we seen from the first film, despite liked to be in teamwork as a fighter pilot, he was too cocky and reckless for his performance, but once his best pal and teammate died, his whole life has been changed. In this movie, Maverick is now as a teacher as he wanted from first film's ending, despite he's still got haunted from the past, especially when he first sees Rooster. Despite his struggle from the past, as well as keep his role as a flight instructor, he's still a memorable protagonist, its easy to feel bad for him that he wants to keep everything what he wants from the past, since time has been changed, despite that while being a teacher is not easy, he's still being a fighter pilot from Navy. Of course, Tom Cruise did a pretty good job for his role as Maverick for the second time, and of course, not only he's an actor, but he's also pulling stunts, including piloting a fighter jet, from flight training to piloting a jet on his own for the test for the mission. Man, Cruise is such a badass for doing stunts while being an actor...!
Next up is Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (played by Miles Teller), a lieutenant pilot who happens to be the son of Maverick's late partner and best pal Goose, Rooster likes to following his footstep from his late father, despite his mother refused to let him joining the Navy to become a pilot since his father died. At first, its not gonna be easy for him that having him following his footstep from his father is a risky decision since his death, even Maverick had a hard time train him since again, the past really hurts himself, cause otherwise, it will hurt not just his career, but hurting the relation between him and Rooster. Even though its no easy for being the next gen, we're always rooting for him to hopefully won't never happen again like his father, and Miles did a good work of his role as well, yet im surprised that like his father, he's taller than Maverick.
After that, we have Penny Benjamin (played by Jennifer Connelly), a single mother who works as a bar owner and meant to be Maverick's new love interest. Surprisingly unlike Maverick's previous love interest, she's actually giving us a plot convenient, mainly towards the new kids in TOPGUN, even if she let the new pilots kicking Maverick out for not able to "Pay up, Tommy!". I find her not bad, even if she's meant to be Maverick's second love interest after the previous film. To the credit for Connelly, she did a nice work of her role.
Then we have Beau Simpson , aka Cyclone (played by Jon Hamm), the vice admiral where he also giving Maverick a plot convenient, but in a warning sign to our main hero that the time is up for the mission or shut down the mission if it doesn't going on the way, even threatens to taking over as a new flight instructor. Quite of risky development how, again, time has changed for new generations and technology. He maybe feel sorry for Maverick, but he takes it seriously to either do the right away or the time will be off for the change. No disrespect for Hamm, since he did a nice work of his role, its just that sometimes his character could ruining Maverick's hope stay.
One last character i wanna bring up is our old friend Tom Kazansky, aka Iceman (reprised by Val Kilmer), while its nice to see him again in the sequel of Top Gun, but also written as a plot convenient to save Maverick's place for his role as a teacher, despite Maverick likes to be a fighter pilot. However (sorry for the SPOILER), Ice appeared less in the movie, he's depicted as an admiral who's unfortunately in health problem. Like i briefly said in my review of the first Top Gun, Kilmer is no longer the same as what he used to, back in 2015, he was struggled from throat cancer, despite he win the battle, but the damage was already done that not only he went on chemotherapy, he got two tracheotomies, he's no longer speaking well with the use of voice box in his trachea, as well as using feeding tube for consuming for safety reason. Of course, Sonantic a software company from London created a AI technology to recreating his voice for audio recording of his voice. However in this movie, rather using the AI voice, the director Joe Krosinski wanted Kilmer to talk for real, but digitally altered to be easily clear for his limited voice dialogue. Its a very sad and heart warming to see Kilmer back, which despite no longer in good health from a throat cancer and had some troublesome history from his past, Kilmer did a nice work to playing as Iceman one more time.
In fact, he has a documentary movie simply call "Val" that you can check it out, if you're an Amazon Prime Video subscriber where he shared his time from the past.
As for the rest of the characters, they're nice to see, while the students are fascinated, though i wish it could've focus more on the new students, then again, this is about Maverick's struggles.
There's Jake "Hangman" Seresin (played by Glen Powell) who's a douchy pilot for hanging around on his way, (even if i wish they could give us a rivalry of Rooster vs Hangman, like Maverick vs Iceman), Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (played by Monica Barbaro) who's the only TOPGUN female pilot to be candidate, which is pretty cool, Robert "Bob" Floyd (played by Lewis Pullman) who's somewhat of awkward nerd(?) to be the pilot, despite his lazy callsign, Chester "Hammer" Cain (played by Ed Harris) who's the rear admiral and Maverick's superior for Darkstar program, and Amelia Benjamin (played by Lyliana Wray) who's Penny's daughter.
While some that i wish they could add more, but they're memorable, related and great work of their roles in this movie, especially for a build up chemistry between Maverick and Rooster, and some with heart warming welcome return.
And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Top Gun Maverick is a very impressive film and even welcome from the first film, the story is a vast improvement for struggle from the past, the presentation is beautifully good, the jets and actions are fascinating in rollercoaster ride, the characters are memorable and related and the actors did a pretty good work too, even one of them is not easy from health problem, but hey, its a welcome return to having a tear dropping. Sure, there are a a bit of flaws that i wish they could've the pilots a characters development (Except for Rooster, cause we all know behind his story), but even though it may not matter that its still a great film i've ever seen.
This is easily a Must Watch film of the year that you should definitely check it out if you're familiar with Top Gun. And yes, with a wide praise of this movie, its now raising more than 1 BILLION Dollars at the box office, and it still raising as im writing this. If you're very curious or really like to see this if you may not seen the first Top Gun, go for it, im sure lot of you will love it so much like me.
For my rating, despite it has some flaws, but i enjoy this movie as much as giving this with a PERFECT 10/10 with the Trophy of Success for a great welcome return!
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
