Movie Review: Top Gun Maverick
By: NHAN PHAN ’24
Do you remember the last time you’ve been to a movie theater? The dark of the room, the velvet, patterned carpet and the popcorn crumbs? The magic of classics brought into reality? Tom Cruise’s most recent masterpiece Top Gun: Maverick does this place of wonder justice. It brings out the thrills of cinema, presenting us with an example of how every blockbuster action movie should be duly executed.
What makes Top Gun: Maverick the blockbuster movie of 2022 is the mastery with which the movie continues from its predecessor. The sequel brings back a Maverick that has experienced loss, ambition, failure, and guilt. What the first Top Gun movie managed to convey was the sense of competition within the crew. Phoenix, Hangman, Payback, and Rooster provided the movie with the camaraderie that Top Gun: Maverick needs. Each character has a history. Their reconciliation with their past selves and their realization for the importance of teamwork are clear in the way the characters choose to see their teammates differently at the end of the movie. There was also a reunion between Maverick and his old friend, Iceman. Val Kilmer, who plays Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, has been away from the series due to illness; he returned to Top Gun: Maverick one more time. Cruise and Kilmer delivered an incredibly poignant scene where the two shared an unspoken understanding of their history together. This moment provides the movie with much-needed peace in the midst of the jam-packed action; as Iceman passes away in peace, we once again get to experience Maverick at his most vulnerable, emotional self. All of these aspects of the movie demonstrate how Top Gun: Maverick is a masterful sequel to the original that brought the series to fame.
Every movie needs a gripping soundtrack to evoke emotions from the audience. It would be remiss not to mention the soundtrack of this movie. Top Gun: Maverick’s soundtrack, masterfully crafted by Hans Zimmer and Lady Gaga, portrays the heroism of the characters in the movie while also capturing the essence of the action and the movement within the movie with its fast-moving tempo. The melody of Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” plays throughout the background of the movie (including in the scene where Penny and Maverick reunited at the famous I-Bar); the song serves as a metaphor for the relationship between Maverick and Penny. The song’s lyrics: “To tell me you need me, I see that you’re bleeding/You don’t need to show me again/ But if you decide to, I’ll ride in this life with you/ I won’t let go til’ the end’’ sums up the highs and lows of their relationship as Maverick grapples with guilt and the prospect of redemption. Lady Gaga had a gigantic influence on the soundtrack: the melody of her song provided the main leitmotif of the movie’s soundtrack. Hans Zimmer added the cinematic depth that was needed to emphasize the scale of the situations within the movie as well as highlight the suspense that makes for an anticipating cinematic experience.
Finally, a characteristic of every single Tom Cruise movie that sets them apart from other action blockbuster movies is its authenticity. Fans of Cruise would know that the majority of the stunts performed in all of his movies are performed by him. From the challenging corkscrew helicopter manoeuvre or the Halo jump in Mission Impossible: Fallout to hanging off of an airplane while in the air in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Cruise has a knack for ensuring that the movie is as realistic as possible. In this movie, Cruise took the time to master operating fighter jets while putting all his other actors in flight school and through the same training regime. The G-Force experienced by all of the actors in this movie was authentic; to be fit for the role, the actors in the movie had to undergo intensive physical and mental training. According to director Joseph Kosinski, he took over 800 hours of footage for this film to craft the most exhilarating aerial shots in the history of cinema. This just shows Cruise’s unwavering commitment to upholding the authenticity of his craft.
Overall, Top Gun: Maverick is worthy of the praise it received from critics and audience members alike from around the world. The fact that this sequel was over 30 years in the making is evidence of Cruise’s effort to truly perfect the emotional, physical, and aerial delivery of the storyline. This movie is notable for being a distinctly cinematic experience; Top Gun: Maverick cannot be fully enjoyed any other way. Combined with a moving soundtrack, creative editing, poignant emotional delivery, and a kick of badass aerial action, Top Gun: Maverick has delivered everything a blockbuster could ask for, and beyond.
