It’s finally here, the long-awaited sequel to the ’80s cult favorite, Top Gun. If you’re like me, you were probably apprehensive about a sequel to one of the greatest ’80s movies ever.  How could they capture the same old magic! Well, Top Gun Maverick is actually good. This is no joke, it’s a worthy sequel that doesn’t take away from the original film and in a lot of ways makes it better by hitting every emotional and nostalgic note that you would expect from a great sequel. I don’t know if it’s a better movie than the original Top Gun, but it’s at least just as good and for different reasons. Personally, I never expected I would say that in a review because I do love the original film and very, very rarely can you make a sequel that’s just as good if not better. And one of the reasons this sequel works as well as it does is because in the original film we saw Pete “Maverick” Mitchell at the beginning and height of his aviator career, young and cocky, and one of the best pilots in the Navy, but with the sequel, we see a legendary pilot at the tail end of his career wrestling with the ghosts of his past but still trying to be on top as one of the best pilots in the world. You get two very different pilots who are in a lot of ways the same. This makes for a great story and at the very heart of this sequel, you’ll find a great love letter to aviators who have gone through the same thing. They have been the best when they were young and still trying to hold on to that edge while their career was winding down. They captured that beautifully in Maverick. More on that later.

After 30 plus years of service, we see Maverick still flying, but this time he is a test pilot, which seems very appropriate for somebody of his caliber. He is still a Captain even though he should be an Admiral as pointed out by the Ed Harris character we have seen from the trailer who is about to ground him for doing what Maverick always does best, breaking the rules and pushing the envelope as an aviator. We find Maverick in his element as he is attempting to become the fastest pilot alive, a modern-day Chuck Yeager and then he has called back into service to train Top Gun pilots for the riskiest combat mission known to man because there’s only one man who can truly do it. And as you find out there’s still one man in the Navy that believes in Maverick and points out that the Navy still needs a pilot like Maverick. I’m not going to give away spoilers, but only talk about things that you already know. Yes, the man I’m talking about is “Iceman” who is like a three-star admiral and commander of the Pacific Fleet at this point. So, you basically get these two iconic pilots at the end of their careers, but still the old dogs who can teach those young pilots new tricks. And then to add to the emotional weight of the story, one of the pilots the Maverick has to train is none other than Bradley Bradshaw, the son of Goose who has a very contentious relationship with Maverick as you can imagine. Nobody really believes that Maverick is the right man for the job except Iceman because he would know, he’s the one pilot that knows Maverick’s true potential and knows that Maverick really is the right man to train all of these young hotshots for the most dangerous mission that they’ve ever seen because he has the most experience, especially in combat. As I mentioned before, this story is about the main character wrestling with his past, especially with the weight of keeping the son of his best friend who tragically died, alive.

So, what really makes this movie worth watching. Yes, it is one of the best action movies that you’re going to see and all of the aerial footage goes above and beyond and exceeds what we saw in the first film. It makes it even better that they used practical effects and very little CGI. The way they filmed all the aerial shots with cameras in the actual planes brought the intensity level 10-fold and it will keep you on the edge of your seat. This is definitely the kind of movie you want to see in an IMAX theater. It was beautifully shot and although it might feel like a Mission Impossible movie, but with jets, you can’t help but be amazed at how they shot this film. That alone would make this a fun movie to see in the theater, but there’s so much going on with the story, especially the juxtaposition of Maverick from the first film to what he’s dealing with in this film that makes this movie more emotional. It’s not hard to connect to the characters. I think in a lot of ways I connected more to these characters than I did in the first film, especially Maverick because of all the weight that’s on his shoulders as a pilot. He’s having to be a father figure to Bradley Bradshaw and reconcile the past where he feels responsible for his father’s death even if it wasn’t his fault. But you add more to that emotional weight with the type of mission they’re going to have to fly. Now, I won’t tell you what the mission is, you’re just going to have to go see the movie and find out. I will say that it’s very different from the dog fights we saw in the original movie. Warfare isn’t exactly the same anymore, so they’re training for how we would fight in the modern age, especially when planes are used to bomb enemy sites. I still like the original movie better in the sense that you knew who the enemy was and it was a straight-up old-school dogfight with a very clear enemy. One of my critiques of this film is you don’t really know who the enemy is, but it also kind of makes sense who the enemy is and why America is at that war with them. That’s all I can really say without spoiling anything. Whereas the original movie was very much an 80s Cold War film, this is very much modern warfare and part of what all the pilots are dealing with is knowing that they are kind of obsolete, that technology is so advanced that you can pilot an airplane without the pilot. However, the story addresses the fact that there’s a reason we still need pilots who have good instincts and are trained in dogfighting, especially with an enemy that has Superior planes. Sometimes an aerial battle comes down to the man in the “box” and who has the better skills.

Tom Cruise did an amazing job! I actually liked his performance as Maverick better in this film because he does show a character with much more experience and also wrestling with his past as well as knowing that the end is in sight as a pilot. He’s very much aware that this is probably his last mission and plays the role of the old pilot who knows more than the young pilots he’s training.  He’s essentially the “Viper” character from the original movie.   Really, the entire cast was great. Glen Powell did an amazing job playing in modern-day version of Iceman, the cocky pilot who knows he’s the best. And for those of you who might miss Charlie as the love interest for Maverick from the first film, you will quickly forget her with Jennifer Connelly’s performance as Penny Benjamin. It’s not really a spoiler thanks to imdb.com, but she is playing that Penny Benjamin that’s mentioned in the first movie, the admiral’s daughter. She plays a character that clearly has a long history of an on and off again relationship with Maverick. You can say that she’s Maverick’s true love and somehow, they always come back to each other.  Jennifer Connelly was great and in some ways better than Kelly McGillis. It’s very easy to connect with her as the love interest and nothing against Kelly McGillis, she was great in Top Gun even if it wasn’t her best movie… I still think Witness is her best movie. But the performances truly drive the emotional part of this story and make this a film much more than just a great action movie with jets. However, if there is one performance, one scene that makes this film worth it, it is the reunion of Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise playing Maverick and Iceman in a scene together. Their scene is even more emotional knowing that Val Kilmer lost his voice due to throat cancer and I have to commend the writers for how they cleverly dealt with that issue. But everything that we love about Val Kilmer as an actor is all in that scene. If it doesn’t bring you to tears, then you have no connection to the original movie and you’re probably not a Val Kilmer fan even though you should be.

Sometimes I hate being a critic, but I have to be one with this film even though I loved it. Even though it’s a movie that you will want to see a few times in the theater, it isn’t perfect. Beyond all the tugs at those emotional strings, you will to the original Top Gun movie, there’s still some problems with it. Are they enough to make you not watch the movie, hell no, go buy your tickets now!  But here are some of the things that I would have loved to have seen from this movie. I always talk about pacing in movies and sometimes movies can either be too long or not long enough. This is one of those times where I feel like an extra 15 or 20 minutes would have made this movie perfect. Here’s why. Because it’s such a great action movie with all of the aerial footage, especially the training sessions at Top Gun in the first half of the movie, the film moves so fast that sometimes it’s hard to catch your breath. Yes, all of these scenes are great, but this sequel is over 30 years removed from the original that we have to get to know Maverick again. What happened with his career over 30 years.  Yes, it’s brilliant to have him be a test pilot at the beginning of the movie and see where he’s ended up, but we really don’t know anything of his career except for some very quick conversations with Penny Benjamin. We also get a very brief description of their history as well as how Maverick has watched Bradley Bradshaw while trying to direct his career.  Between all the action scenes we get these little glimpses where I feel like, if the film would have been a little bit longer, we would have gotten more story and it would’ve slowed everything down so that the movie doesn’t feel so rushed because of the action. In the first half of the movie, it feels like one big action movie with some quick comedic scenes between these characters you’re only getting to know again. It isn’t until the scene between Iceman and Maverick that the movie slows down before its climax with the final mission. That’s where that extra time in the movie could have helped because pouring over the history of these characters and how they’ve ended up at this point is just as important as all of the action. But I feel like it’s that one scene that finally slows the movie down to where you aren’t so rushed and when you get to the end of the film with Maverick and Rooster having to work together to complete the mission, well, it makes the emotional connection between these characters much more vibrant. I loved all the action, but I don’t want to watch a Top Gun movie that really just feels like a Mission Impossible movie with jets and unfortunately that’s kind of what the first half did. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying they could have done a better job to make this movie perfect.

My other major critique and it’s kind of minor, but it really goes into my nostalgia for the original film, it’s the soundtrack. I think for people who grew up with the original film and it’s soundtrack will find it hard to disagree with me. Nothing against Lady Gaga and her Hold My Hand song that seems to be the anthem for Top Gun: Maverick, but the original soundtrack was so much better and her song doesn’t hold a candle to You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling… I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t. The soundtrack is okay and of course, having a nice nostalgic moment where Bradley Bradshaw is playing Great Balls of Fire in a Bar is cool, but let’s be honest, we aren’t going to remember the soundtrack to this movie as much as we will with the original film 30 years from now.  There’s just too many iconic songs from the original movie that could have been played again in the sequel, after all, the movie starts off with Danger Zone just like in the original and it works. So, with that said, we can’t have a beach scene with the song, Playing with the Boys. You can’t put You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling in this movie and have modern-day pilots sing it just like pilots from the ’80s, you’re telling me that it still wouldn’t work… Nonsense! Maybe these are all just minor critiques, but I do feel like they’re important enough that would have helped make the movie perfect.

The bottom line, Top Gun Maverick is a masterpiece of a sequel… It may not be as good as the original, but I think it’s just as good and with a great story. The action in this movie does improve from the original because technology has allowed filmmakers to do more than they could have in the 80s with the aerial footage. It’s a hell of a ride that should be seen in an IMAX theater to get the best experience of this film, but because there are so many emotional connections to the original film with these characters, it makes it much more than just an action movie. I think its more than just a summer blockbuster. As I said before, it’s a great love letter to aviators even if the aerial footage is over the top and can’t really be done… That’s not the point! It’s still a fun movie and will remind you why we still love Pete “Maverick” Mitchell! This movie reminds us why he is still the best fictional pilot on the big screen. He’s the old dog that we still love and plays a great father figure to the son of his best friend. There’s a lot of emotional parts to this movie that can bring you to tears if you love the original film. But for the newcomers, it’s just a fun movie and it’s not so over the top and silly that it makes you feel like you’re watching a Fast and the Furious movie with jets and you just roll your eyes at the absurdity. It’s the perfect sequel to a movie that probably didn’t need one, but it works in every possible way and brings the story of Top Gun full circle. No, I won’t give it a perfect 10, but this movie is so good that I can’t be over-critical because I have to admit, I loved it and can’t wait to see it again. And I bet once you see it, you’ll agree with me. Top Gun: Maverick is a winner and it was worth the wait despite two years of delays. Maybe that’s the true success of this movie that despite all the delays, it’s still one of the best movies that you should see in a movie theater. And yes, Top Gun: Maverick is one of the best sequels ever made right up there with, dare I say, The Empire Strikes Back!