Direction: Joseph Kosinski
Country: USA
The return of Top Gun, again with the forever-young Tom Cruise at the center, takes a coherent, sober treatment in the hands of director Joseph Kosinski (Only the Brave, 2017; Oblivion, 2013). Dedicated to the late Tony Scott, who directed the original in 1986, this sequel replaces Kelly McGinnis with Jennifer Connelly as the new love interest of Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise), a subversive US Navy ace pilot who is told to teach and prepare 12 Top Guns graduates for a nearly impossible special mission.
All skillful pilots show absolute respect for what he is and what he has achieved, but one of them, Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), expresses resentment about a situation from the past. He is the son of Maverick’s deceased best friend, Goose, who was played by Anthony Edwards in the first installment.
Even not hitting a single beat you don't expect, the film is actually well-paced, fun to watch, and genuinely tense at times. It packs heart and visual flair within a good old fashioned storytelling that often feels nostalgic. It might be schematic and simplistic in its dramatic framework but the action is bracing and it never shortchanges the human scale or the heroic scope.
Kosinski, who understood how to equalize the romance, the drama and the action in the film, is not interested in dazzling us with mind bending ideas or twisty plots. Instead, he sticks with a stylistically coherence that becomes all the more powerful as the film advances. CGI technology was refused in order to deliver the most authentic experience possible, and the spectacular aerial maneuvers of the third act are breathtaking. Top Gun: Maverick is high quality Hollywood entertainment for all generations.
