Film I can't decide if this film is outdated by 8 months or 20 years
I admit I'm not a war film devotee. Films like 1912 and Dunkirk have their human moments that can make me enjoy them, but if I have to watch a rush of heroes fight a bad guy then I'd rather watch a spandex crimefighter fight a big purple guy than point to an enemy nation and say Americans are going to beat them in some fictionalized scenario that leans toward America as the unambiguous good guy. I can enjoy the original film for being a cheesy action flick, but the sequel is being released at a time when the factors of the film couldn't be more divorced from reality.
It's bizarre when a war doesn't want to name the very enemy they are fighting. The audience knows a faceless enemy that threatens to destroy the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction in a vaguely mountainous region. But that's it. The conclusion is that by bombing the bad guys, America will win once again. Yet anyone that followed the last two wars can say bombing bad guys doesn't solve the problem. If anything, the portrayal of the enemy as faceless simply just encourages the bad attitudes within the public that persisted in those wars. The film projects a standard that doesn't match reality and cuts to the credits before any potential fallout can occur from the consequences.
Maverick may not be invulnerable, but he might as well be. He flies an experimental aircraft to the point of breaking it apart, but walks away with no form of lasting injury. He get shot down again and still walks away without losing anything. Or anyone for that matter. Whereas the original film at least had the guts to depict what could go wrong in a training exercise using dangerous equipment, the sequel shies away from presenting casualties in its let's-feel-good-about-war movie. Maverick is even rewarded several times over for openly disobeying military doctrine. He possesses an anti-authoritarian yet submissive rhetoric that really doesn't go in any particular direction and its not clear what its trying to say about military chain of command, if its saying anything at all.
The portrayal of older is better is a further indication that this film really wishes it could leave the bleak war connected events of the modern day and return back to the 80's when war heroes only needed a can-do American attitude and some elbow grease. Maverick doesn't need to adjust to a new world, but rather shows why he is better than anyone else just through pure capability. The drones that dominate US air operations today are barely mentioned at all and much of the story is about the newbies (who are barely characterized) being humbled by the older pilot. The film seems to echo the statements of older generations seeing the younger generations as entitled, all while keeping itself in a bubble of nostalgia.
Top Gun Maverick is a superhero movie that tries to hide its costume under a military uniform. Considering the failures of the Afghanistan War and the public's wide acceptance of standing on the sideline regarding Ukraine, showing American military forces as heroes of the war comes off as insensitive if not outright blind to the suffering that has occurred/ is still occurring in these conflicts. There's an old saying "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" but with films like this, maybe the true condemnation comes to a public that can ignore the present as well.
Film An Event Film that Stands Spectacularly by Itself
I just saw it on Friday evening in a packed theatre. Cruise's megawatt charisma is the major power source for this film, but the actions scenes are spectacular as well. Connelly is *radiant*, and her and Cruise's chemistry had me grinning like a loon during the film. Finally, Teller and the other TOP GUN actors do decent to great jobs as well, especially the former, Powell, and Barbaro.
Film A love letter to military aviation fans that is up there with or even surpasses the original
Make no mistake, Top Gun: Maverick is quite an escapist film. An action film that can maintain the balance between realism and balls-to-the-wall action is difficult to do right, especially when it comes to intense, fast-paced action only warriors of the sky can provide.
Like the original film, this movie does shy away from aspects that would be applicable in real life for the sake of entertainment, such as how Maverick - who's basically a live-action anime protagonist - constantly manages to survive or get away from insane odds with little consequences. However, the film also goes out of its way to show just how extremely lucky he's able to survive the stunts he pulled, and that no matter how many times he's able to get out of insane odds, he's certainly not invincible, and that he's not going to stay relevant forever. The age-old trope of 'America Saves the Day' is also in full play once again. Once more you have a faceless enemy that our protagonists could take down with little to no consequence, and that the world is apparently all chill with the idea of a high-profile aerial engagement without an open war breaking out somehow.
However, with all that being said, the film understands its target audience and delivers exactly what they wanted: a story of exceptional fighter pilots doing what they do best. You get to see just why these guys are so idolized back in the day and how the first film inspires an entire generation to dream of becoming fighter pilots. Maverick manages to recapture that magic that fans of military aviation have been craving for so long (it helps that there are so few quality military aviation works of entertainment out there) while also presenting a compelling and personal story about coming to term with your past and accepting that sometimes risks aren't avoidable and must be confronted head-on despite the stacked odds. It's pretty much an underdog story that happens to be set in the fascinating world of military aviation.
In summary, Top Gun: Maverick doesn't exactly break new grounds when it comes to originality. It doesn't offer any deep or thought-provoking themes to explore, and much of the story is about fulfilling the desires of its target audience. On the other hand, it succeeded in fulfilling those desires with flying colors, and those who have loved the original film or are fans of works that feature intense aerial battles where heroes go up against insane odds and defy the impossible, such as the Ace Combat video game series, or even Star Wars films, are sure to have a great time with this Tom Cruise offering.
Film Double the Stupid, Double the Fun
This is a fun and stupid movie. This is a sequel to a fun and stupid movie. However, the fun and stupid sequel achieves a fun and stupid glory: it’s even more fun and even more stupid than the fun and stupid movie it’s based on. If you get into the film, if you achieve the suspension of disbelief specific to this movie, a plot twist will happen during the climax—and if you watch it, you’ll know what I mean—and this absurd film will somehow shift into an even higher gear of silliness, and you will achieve transcendence. The waves of fun and stupid just roll off the screen. Don’t fight them. Let it flow through you, and you will ride as I did… into the Danger Zone.
Top Gun: Maverick works by making the objective a video game airstrike, then adding elements of the original, amped Up to Eleven. The original had unspecified enemy planes; here is an unspecified enemy superbase. The original rival was a cocky professional who made snide comments; here he’s a smug douchebag who vocally doesn’t give a shit about the other pilots. In the original, you vaguely wonder why Maverick is allowed to keep flying jets; here you vaguely wonder why he’s not in prison. None of these people are military officers. As others have noted, this is a superhero team, and they’ve traded fighting other aircraft for taking on the Death Star.
Yet, this is still Top Gun (albeit with some Mission Impossible). The Top Gun “vibe” is present. A lot of the plot is rooted in the original, yet it introduces a bunch of new characters, while also having a fast-paced script, and is also stuffed with references that don’t feel like pandering.
Many, if not most, derivative works nowadays feel like cynical acts of artistic strip-mining. Top Gun 2 was clearly made by people who liked Top Gun 1. If you liked Top Gun, you'll probably like this.