Top Gun: Maverick – Well Worth The Wait

Posted on by

 Top Gun: Maverick, is the ever-awaited sequel to the blockbuster classic, Top Gun, which premiered all the way back in 1986. The speed and precision of the United States Air Force combined with Hollywood’s biggest names such as Tom Cruise, Miles Teller and Jon Hamm come together with one goal; pay homage to the original film while captivating a new generation of movie goers. The Paramount Films produced sequel is an Action-Adventure film that plays on some of the original film’s storylines, while also trying to create a new, original story that is shot in the present day. Sequels with long breaks between films are heavily awaited, and heavily analyzed by the public. Would this be a cash grab playing on the nostalgia of the first film, or could they create project that can stand alone on its own.

LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 19: (L-R) Christopher McQuarrie, Jerry Bruckheimer, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Greg Tarzan Davis, Joseph Kosinski, and David Ellison, London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

                Upon completion of the film, I sat there completely satisfied with my experience and honestly blown away at the unique storytelling, and the cinematography that truly showcases the elegance and power of our technology, specifically fighter jets. I have seen the original film a while back and saw Top Gun: Maverick opening weekend with my family and apparently with a large portion of America as the film succeeded in the Box Office. When compared to recent Action-Thrillers, Top Gun: Maverick differs in a very refreshing way from the recent ‘green screen’ and special affects trend which is being used more and more. The Action-Thriller genre has been dominated by Sci-Fi stories where its near impossible to film without the use of ‘green screens and other affects. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t completely rid of this, but they stretched the boundaries with what they can film with cameras and the results showed, making for some incredible shots that added to the storytelling. The fact that it is a story of US Air Force pilots, allowed them to use a lot of real locations as well as real jets. Due to the film’s long anticipation and excellent execution, it has definitely raised the bar for sequel films in the future.

                The film starts in modern day as the US Air Force is in need Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) for a top-secret mission coming up. Its Mavericks duty to select the members for this top-secret mission and train them to execute it. As the movie unfolds multiple corkscrews are thrown the teams way and the recruits, as well as Maverick, all have to adapt along the way. The climax of the film starts as the team gets ready to destroy their target and attempt to get home safely. As the film does follow the US Military, choosing an enemy must’ve been a strategic one as global tension aren’t exactly calm right now. The film does well in never naming a specific location, as well as referring to them as “the enemy” or “the target” the whole film. Remaining neutral in this sense is critical as this film is not going to be unique just in the US.

By no means am I a movie critique but you know when you are viewing a bad movie or a good one, and Top Gun: Maverick is definitely the latter. The casting used some faces from the old film such as Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer while also introducing fresh Hollywood stars like Miles Teller, Jon Hamm and Ed Harris. The new generation actors bridged the age gap between the two sides extremely well and the screen writing, and execution of lines was great throughout the film, demonstrating that generation gap well. Maverick was the best fighter pilot back in 1986, but a lot of time has passed since then and the new trainees make sure he doesn’t forget that. Miles Teller’s character plays a critical role in the film as he’s one of the only new cast members whose story in the move has a connection to the original film. His execution of that lead role really stood out and he played it extremely well.

Onto the cinematography, this was where the film truly excelled and blew me away with every passing shot. Their devotion to getting the perfect shot and wanting to use as little affects as possible really did wonders. Using almost all real footage and trying to use the real jets as much as possible. Director Claudio Miranda even went inside a jet himself to capture shots for the film.  

“Every time we approach a new project, we go into it with the intent of trying something new and shaking things up for us in terms of its technical aspects and visual style. For Maverick, it was about capturing the experience of actually being in one of these fighter jets while it’s in the air. That’s how we were able to go beyond the first film.”

Iain Marcks – May 26th 2022: American Cinematographer

The extent that the team went to get these shots paid off in the end as the movie really did capture the chaos and beauty of these powerful machines.

In the end, the movie exceeded all expectations. What I thought was going to be an evening of dads reminiscing on their favorite film from the 80’s as I sit there scrolling twitter turned into a wonderfully executed Action-Thriller that surely raised the enrollment in the Air Force tenfold. Fantastic movie? Without a doubt. Worth the $12 bucks? Maybe wait for $5 Tuesdays.