Tom Cruise plays Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ Photograph: Scott Garfield / © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved. Click to view the trailer.
When Tom Cruise pulled out his phone and called producer Jerry Bruckheimer and said he wants to make another Top Gun, we can be thankful that he did.
Top Gun: Maverick is superb filmmaking, the year’s best film by far.
Cruise plays Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a top pilot in the U.S. Navy, still a captain after more than 30 years of service. Maverick is a man more interested in giving all he got, even if that sometimes means bending the rules.
The film nods to classic filmmaking when cinematography carried the story forward with light, color and mystery.
I mean, why show Cruise’s bare ass in a love scene when colorful bokeh and fade-out will deliver the point.
Thanks to the work of Chilean cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi (2012), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)) shapes, symbols and colors dominate some of the scenes: when Maverick is responding to a life-changing order, a blue triangle on the floor points the way. Oh, and the flight scenes? Spine-tingling!
This is where I stop revealing any detailed plot points, but another aspect worth mentioning is the iconic soundtrack that pays homage to the first one. And like what Celine Dion did as a theme song for the Titanic (1987), Lady Gaga will lure young adults in small-town nightlife into a dance where the moves involve two hands being pushed into the pockets on the back of tight blue jeans. (Watch the music video of “Hold My Hand” to get a taste of what’s coming.)
Cruise’s evolution as an actor over the past four decades includes replacing his wild antics and cookie-cutter smile with charisma and calmness. Cruise, 59, becomes a better Maverick! The act grabs you by the collar and fastens your eyes to the screen.
With all this being said, a fair question would be how does the sequel compare to the first one directed by Tony Scott in 1986?
Well, there are hardly any one-liners (I was inverted. I am not leaving my wingman.), and while there’s less dry-ish humor, in director Joseph Kosinski’s hands (Oblivion (2013), Tron (2010)), you are going to watch a much better movie.
A film with a 100 percent score.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ premieres in Finland on May 26.
