JT REVIEWS! - 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)

It has been 36 years since Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) took to the skies in "Top Gun". Now, Cruise is back as Maverick in the aptly titled "Top Gun: Maverick". This time, director Joseph Kosinski had to do something that's a pretty tall order: he had to make a sequel that, at the very least, had to rise up to the original film.

In "Maverick", our hero is still a captain in the United States Navy as a test pilot. He should have been an admiral years ago, but his legendary reckless attitude kept him from advancing. That's fine with Maverick, though, as he really wants to keep on flying for as long as possible even if he knows that the end may be in site.

Maverick is summoned back to Top Gun in order to train a group of Top Gun graduates for a deadly mission. One of the pilots selected is Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Goose from the original film.

Now, it was expected that Rooster still held a resentment towards Maverick for the death of his father. The trailers certainly made it look that way, but the truth is that there's a little bit more to the animosity between the two characters. In addition to dealing with Rooster, Maverick has to also show a whole group of hotshot pilots that they need to learn more and push themselves more than they've ever had to if they wish to survive the impending mission.

In order to do this, Maverick must take them into the air and push them himself. The aerial photography in the original "Top Gun" was massively impressive and one of the highlights of the movie. "Maverick" has taken all of that to the next level, especially since they had cameras this time that could also be put into the cockpits of the F-18 Super Hornets provided by the Navy.

This means that Kosinski strapped Cruise and the cast into the F-18s and they were taken into the air to film almost all of their scenes. Not only is it great to see these fantastic aircraft flying through the air, it was also great to see the world of a fighter pilot from the cockpit itself. Claudio Miranda is the cinematographer and if he is not nominated for an Academy Award next year, I'll be severely disappointed.

Hell, if the movie doesn't win pretty much all of the technical awards, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The movie not only looks good, it sounds good! Take my advice and go to the biggest theater that you can find and watch the movie that way for the full experience.

Another aspect that surprised me was that I found that I was way more invested in the story this time around. Cruise does a great job showing Maverick's slightly more experienced but still rogue personality while also showing a vulnerability, especially when it comes to his fractured relationship with Rooster. The other actors also do a great job as the pilots and Teller is another highlight as he deals with Maverick and he also perfectly channels the character of Goose within his performance.

Ultimately, this is an old school action film that, for the most part, does it for real. They don't rely too heavily on CGI unless they need it and it feels like you're along for the ride with the pilots. This means that Kosinski managed to pull off his own nearly impossible mission: he made a film that not only rises to the original movie, it may even surpass it in many ways. Comparisons aside, at the end of the day, you'll definitely have an action-packed blast with "Top Gun: Maverick"!