For a lot of cinema-goers, Top Gun: Maverick was a movie that hit it out of the ballpark for 2022. It was certainly worth the wait to see it on the big screen.
Delayed until people could go back into movie houses as the pandemic eased, Top Gun: Maverick resulted in impressive box office figures while earning mostly favorable reviews, of which you can see a sample of further below.
As you’d know, crowd-pleaser Tom Cruise returns as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, reprising his role from the 1986 original Top Gun directed by Tony Scott. A sequel had earlier begun development around 2010 but was put on hold two years later after director Scott sadly ended his life. The ball got back rolling on the project with Joseph Kosinski signed on the direct, a number of years after he had already directed Cruise in the 2013 science fiction film Oblivion.
In Top Gun: Maverick Cruise earned widespread praise for his role alongside actors including Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer.
See below for a sampling of reviews for the film.
JUDGEMENT
“The plot is as cheesy as a fondue fountain, which is just what you’d expect from a nostalgia fest co-written by Ehren Kruger, the man who worked on three Transformers movies. But it’s also soapily compelling, and every now and again, springy lines, almost certainly the work of Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects and has long been part of the spry Mission Impossible team, ensure we laugh with TG2, as well as at it. In other words, the film is meant to be funny haha and funny ridiculous, which is probably why naughty Lady Gaga signed up to do the (outrageously effective) theme song.” Charlotte O’Sullivan, Evening Standard
“Finally. In Top Gun: Maverick we have an old-school, 1970s/’80s/’90s-quality summer blockbuster, like they used to make ‘em, that’s also very possibly the best action movie sequel of all time. In fact, it’s safe to say that the sequel outshines the original. Fans have waited 36 years for this, and thanks to movie star and producer extraordinaire, Mr. Tom Cruise (and original producer Jerry Bruckheimer), Top Gun: Maverick exceeds all expectations. It’s been a long time since I exited a movie theater wanting to immediately go back in for the next available screening.” Mark Jackson, The Epoch Times
“Top Gun: Maverick is a dangerous film. When the lights went up I swaggered out of the cinema and leapt into my car. Installing myself in the driver’s seat was like sitting in the cockpit of a fighter plane. I hit the ignition, slammed into gear and crawled out of the carpark. On Anzac Parade I had the urge to flatten the accelerator, zipping in and out of the traffic. I couldn’t feel satisfied travelling at anything less than Mach 9, but unfortunately the speed limit was 50 and there were cameras on every corner. And so the fever passed. I hate to think what will happen when thousands of teenage rev-heads exit the movie and get behind their steering wheels.” John McDonald, johnmcdonald.net.au
“Tom Cruise knows that if Hollywood is to recover its connection to America’s self-respect after the past decade’s sea change of international apologies and at-home racial protests, the answer might be found in entertainment that satisfies the need for speed. Speed is basic to cinema — from the Greek word “kinesis” (movement), relating to the visceral and emotional workout once known as catharsis. Maverick isn’t sensational entertainment like Transporter III, Torque, Transformer: Dark of the Moon, or anything directed by Zack Snyder, but its simplicity challenges recent lousy hits (i.e., Marvel). The combination of kinetic art and American power create the test that Cruise poses to cynical Millennial moviegoers.” Armond White, National Review
“In a different package, all the brouhaha jingoism and proud fist-shaking seen in Top Gun: Maverick could have been borderline insufferable. But fortunately Kosinski—whose underseen and underrated Only The Brave will hopefully find a second life now—seems to understand exactly what kind of movie he is asked to navigate. In his hands, the tone of Maverick strikes a fine balance between good-humored vanity and half-serious self-deprecation, complete with plenty of quotable zingers and emotional moments that catch one off-guard.” Tomris Laffly, rogerebert.com
“Planned for decades, with a release postponed for two years during the Covid pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick, the eagerly awaited sequel to the late Tony Scott’s 1986 action blockbuster Top Gun (a movie that didn’t need a sequel) is here at last. It’s noisy, derivative, contrived and more focused on adrenaline-pumping aerial antics by pec-flexing alpha males than anything you might call narrative insight, freshness or character development (translated, that means guaranteed boffo box-office) it is, in short, not my kind of movie. That said, I must hastily add that even if it is not always logical, coherent, or believable, it is undeniably exhilarating, suspenseful, well-acted and loaded with sequences of fabulous aviation combat.” Rex Reed, Observer
Watch Chris Stuckmann’s review for Top Gun: Maverick.