Reviewing this film with a little distance from the initial hype that accompanied the release. This film was very clearly buoyed by the decline of Hollywood in the MCU era and the fact that movie theaters not only shutdown due to COVID but lack of quality for 2 years prior to the release.
The movie is first and foremost enjoyable to watch and surprisingly so for a sequel 35 years late. Enjoyability, in the vast wasteland of MCU Hollywood, counts for a lot.
At it's core, it is a nostalgia play. As it makes clear from the opening notes, reusing the soundtrack if not the opening images from the original this is not a reboot or an attempt to make Top Gun for a new generation. A transition from Rocky to Creed this is not.
Despite the toll time has taken on the original cast (minus the ageless Tom Cruise of course) we hit all of the notes. The bar full of cocky young pilots, the awkward first encounter with their Top Gun leader, the flying, the hard deck, Goose's death, every scene seems to harken back or be a mere echo of the original 1986 film.
Yet it works. You realize it works because of the depth of the source (Top Gun '86) material. That movie was more than just an ad for the Navy or a star vehicle to launch Tom Cruise or a music video popcorn summer blockbuster. It had real depth, real emotion and character development.
Unfortunately if there is one critique of Maverick it is that none of that happens in the context of the new story. When it happens in the film it is drawing again from the well of the original film, which fortunately is deep.
But we learn precious little about any of the new class of Top Gun characters and even a competent veteran actor like Jon Hamm seems to be just playing an echo of "Viper" (Tom Skeritt) from the original film. Time has taken its toll on Val Kilmer's health and while the inevitable Iceman-Maverick reunion scene is powerful, it is not what it could have been.
Some of that seems to be due to the fact that we are robbed by time limits of the ability to draw out the emotion from or dwell on any particular scene because we need to get to the hammy last 20 minutes of the film which contorts itself to give us one last sugary nostalgia high.
And that speaks volumes as to the choices, tenor and ultimate trajectory of the film. A nostalgic callback to a blockbuster film for Gen X, a long overdue sequel that ties up the original story, but certainly not a film that is likely to leave younger generations clamoring for more.
The movie is first and foremost enjoyable to watch and surprisingly so for a sequel 35 years late. Enjoyability, in the vast wasteland of MCU Hollywood, counts for a lot.
At it's core, it is a nostalgia play. As it makes clear from the opening notes, reusing the soundtrack if not the opening images from the original this is not a reboot or an attempt to make Top Gun for a new generation. A transition from Rocky to Creed this is not.
Despite the toll time has taken on the original cast (minus the ageless Tom Cruise of course) we hit all of the notes. The bar full of cocky young pilots, the awkward first encounter with their Top Gun leader, the flying, the hard deck, Goose's death, every scene seems to harken back or be a mere echo of the original 1986 film.
Yet it works. You realize it works because of the depth of the source (Top Gun '86) material. That movie was more than just an ad for the Navy or a star vehicle to launch Tom Cruise or a music video popcorn summer blockbuster. It had real depth, real emotion and character development.
Unfortunately if there is one critique of Maverick it is that none of that happens in the context of the new story. When it happens in the film it is drawing again from the well of the original film, which fortunately is deep.
But we learn precious little about any of the new class of Top Gun characters and even a competent veteran actor like Jon Hamm seems to be just playing an echo of "Viper" (Tom Skeritt) from the original film. Time has taken its toll on Val Kilmer's health and while the inevitable Iceman-Maverick reunion scene is powerful, it is not what it could have been.
Some of that seems to be due to the fact that we are robbed by time limits of the ability to draw out the emotion from or dwell on any particular scene because we need to get to the hammy last 20 minutes of the film which contorts itself to give us one last sugary nostalgia high.
And that speaks volumes as to the choices, tenor and ultimate trajectory of the film. A nostalgic callback to a blockbuster film for Gen X, a long overdue sequel that ties up the original story, but certainly not a film that is likely to leave younger generations clamoring for more.
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