Top Gun series

 By now it should no longer be noteworthy when a big title from the 1980s is revived with some of the current cast.  Star Wars, Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters are all active again.  The notable thing with Top Gun is there was only one.  Star Tom Cruise resisted big paychecks to make Top Gun sequels because he wanted to play a lot of different roles.  Over the years every now and then I would hear rumors of another Top Gun film.  After Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol was released and revived Cruise's career word came out that a Top Gun was being developed until the original director Tony Scott committed suicide.  

I was saddened by Scott's death as the circumstances were obviously extremely painful for Scott's friends and family.  As a film fan Scott had become a very reliable director of entertaining films with a visual flourish.  Except for Crimon Tide Scott's films were nowhere near as artistically inclined as his brother Ridley's but any audience member would have a good time.  Some of Scott's last films such Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123 remake, Unstoppable and Man on Fire all starred Denzel Washington were all pretty memorable and I always looked forward to his next film.  I figured though that the Top Gun sequel would not continue until around 2017 when Cruise reported that he would be indeed be both producing and starring in the Top Gun sequel soon with director Joseph Kosinski, with whom Cruise had made the interesting sci-fi adventure, Oblivion.

For Top Gun fans it was a long wait.  First there were about 30 years when it was not clear if there would be another film.  Then Top Gun: Maverick was announced with a 2019 release date, which was pushed back to June 2020 to allow time to work on the film more.  When the pandemic hit it ultimately was delayed for two more years because Paramount wanted the biggest possible audience though in retrospect it could have come out in the fall of 2021 which was one of the dates considered.  No Time to Die was out in October and performed extremely well.  But Top Gun feels more like a summer movie so this feels like the right time though for die hard fans of the original it must have been an agonizing wait.  My feeling on it was, I was glad to see Cruise was both producing and bringing a top level team like writer Christopher McQuarrie, editor Eddie Hamilton, and cinematographer Claudio Miranda.  I became optimistic this film might be something special since I had little interest in watching just another flashy movie about jets.  Also, I thought Maverick was not one of Cruise's better characters but trusted that the team would make good use of Cruise's depth as an actor to round him out a little more.  However I was much more eager for the next Mission Impossible films since, as you will read below, I had more mixed feelings about Top Gun.  

Spoilers for both Top Guns films below

Top Gun (1986)

When this film was released it was a huge deal, and what people spoke about were the incredible flying scenes.  I never went to see it as I have no particular interest in fighter jets.  A year or so later I caught it on VHS and my impression was it was a like the lead character Maverick, flashy, full of self importance but a little hollow inside.  The film is about two pilots who get the chance to train at Top Gun, a top school for navy pilots.  The sound design of the jets was impressive but as was common during that period of Tony Scott's career, it was difficult to follow the action and the editing was too rapid.  Maverick came on a little too strong and while Cruise definitely had charisma, his smile was overused and especially in the early scenes, he and the film were overusing his big smile.  Kelly McGillis is a fine actress and I really liked her in Witness and The Accused but she is miscast here as Charlie.  She has no chemistry with Cruise and I didn't buy scenes like when she chased after him in her car after he took off on a motorcycle.  I didn't like the "Take My Breathe Away" song and the love scenes are trying for a music video effect that do not work.  

The other parts of the film are more successful.  Anthony Edwards as Goose is a much more appealing character because he has humility and Maverick is nicer when around him.  Goose's relationship with his wife, played with sexy energy by Meg Ryan is a much more engaging romance and we feel more for her loss when Goose dies than for Maverick.  The "Great Balls of Fie" scene is the first scene of two in Cruise's career that I can think of when he is in a new romance on a double date with a more established loving couple (Jerry Maguire is the other).  The "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" is a little over the top but is a fun time.  Val Kilmer and Rick Rossovich help fill out the boys club as other pilots at Top Gun.  Tom Skerritt and James Tolkan lend good macho authoritative atmosphere.  

One of the biggest factors of the success of any film is the use of music.  For the most part Top Gun succeeds.  I like Kenny Loggins a lot and Danger Zone, while not one of my favorites of his, works pretty well.  "Playing with the Boys" is a little too on the nose but fits the scene its in.  Harold Faltermeyer's synth score is appealing (and different from some other themes he did at the time) and Billy Idol's guitarists' Steve Stevens does some soulful electric guitar work in it.  Hot Summer Nights by Miami Sound Machine, Mighty Wings by Cheap Trick and Heaven in Your Eyes by Loverboy are also highlights.  

Top Gun's strengths are greater than its weaknesses and while I only watched it through perhaps twice I would sometimes catch pieces on TV.  It did not need a sequel but what a nice surprise the sequel turned out to be.  ***

 Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

The new film sends Maverick back to Top Gun as an instructor after he accidentally destroys a prototype plane by pushing it too far.  The young pilots, who are all Top Gun graduates, need to be trained for a mission to bomb a uranium enrichment plant, which is well defended.  One of the pilots is Rooster, played by Miles Tellar who was excellent in Whiplash as a young drummer.  Rooster is the son of Goose from the original film.

I expected there to be tension between Rooster and Maverick because Maverick had been involved in Goose's death but the truth is actually more complex.  Maverick, as is typical in military families, helped raise Rooster after Goose died becoming a kind of surrogate father to him.  To honor a promise to Rooster's late mother to protect her son, Maverick had blocked Rooster's application to the Naval Academy, which created resentment from Rooster, and delayed his Navy career, which explains why over 30 years later Rooster has only recently graduated from Top Gun.  I appreciated the dynamic.  Maverick has to carry the burden of the young man's resentment without being able to explain why to him.  Any parent who makes a difficult decision on behalf of his or her kids could relate to that.  Miles Teller is made to look and act a lot like Goose while carrying a chip on his shoulder that Goose did not have.  The scene in which Rooster plays "Great Balls of Fire" on the piano like his dad both shows the comradery between the pilots and plays as a painful memory to Maverick.

The romance between Penny Benjamin and Maverick is more successful than the one in the first film.  As Penny is an old flame there is no need for them to get to know each other and the film plays more as if they are catching up.  Penny owns the local bar and is the daughter of an Admiral who I think was referenced in the first film.  Jennifer Connelly is charming in the role and she and Cruise look and feel right together.  Connelly, who was 48 during filming is more age appropriate to then 56 year old Cruise though like him she looks younger.  One moment I particularly liked is when they do finally get together the focus is more on them talking to each other afterwards than in showing a scene in with a pop song and mood lighting in which they slowly undress each other. When you get a little older a romance is more about spending time with a person than hot passion.  There is a sense that since Penny is an ex flame that she was originally written as Charlie but since McGillis might now look more her age another character was created.  However I never got the sense that Charlie and Maverick were ever destined for anything more than a fling and Charlie never would have bought a bar.  

The flying scenes more than deliver the goods and are not disorienting at all this time.  They clearly establish the geography and there is an extra sense of authenticity since they were largely filmed during actual flights.The initial flight both captures Maverick's skill and tendency to still push things too far when the plane.  Kosinski does create a real sense of heavenly wonder when Maverick hits Mach 10 and terror once he foolishly decides to pass it.  When Maverick gets back to Top Gun instead of teaching the kids from the ground he does so from the air, daring the young pilots to outmaneuver him.  This allows the focus to remain on Maverick's brilliance, and recklessness, and keeps him centered as the main character, but also gives the kids a chance to grow.  

The flying scenes all clearly establish the geography and there is an extra sense of authenticity since they were largely filmed during actual flights.  The actors often were filmed in the rear seats of planes in the air.  Hamilton keeps the pace moving quickly and the final film is just over two hours.

The screenwriters and Kosinski successfully establishes the stakes by showing a graphic of the tricky objective and then making the focus of the film the preparation of the pilots for it.  Maverick's test run at the end of the second act not only gives the kids some extra confidence but also makes it clear that Maverick is far better as a team leader than an instructor.  When the sequence begins unlike in the first film in the audience we understand the challenge, the different steps and always know where we the characters and where they need to be and what to do.  They pull a little trick when Maverick tells Rooster "We'll talk later" and we are led to falsely believe that one of them will not survive the mission.  When Maverick intercepts a shot for Rooster and goes down offscreen I briefly thought he might be dead until I realized that if the filmmakers had killed him it would be a big onscreen death.  When the two team up by going into an F-14 it gives Maverick a chance to fly a plane from the old film and put old technology and and an older pilot against newer models of both.

For a film that relies so much on nostalgia for the original it is interesting that apart from Cruise, only Val Kilmer appears from the original cast.  Kilmer, who has suffered from throat cancer and cannot speak, is given a touching scene when we realize the texting he has been using to communicate with Maverick offscreen is actually the only way he can speak.  Iceman has been Maverick's guardian angel, keeping Maverick's career going despite his many screw ups over the years.  However I found it unlikely that a character that ill would still be the active Commander of the Pacific fleet in the U.S. Navy.

The game on the beach is recreated though this time it is football and instead of a mindless diversion Maverick uses it as a team exercise.  Maverick, who is still fit, holds his own in the game as one would expect but also has to sit down before the others are done.  I prefer the melody of the song I Ain't Worried here over "Playing With the Boys".   

The nationality of the third act antagonist is unnamed though as it was likely to be the Soviets in the original film I suspect it was the North Koreans given the terrain, the proximity to the coast where a naval vessel could sit, and the uranium plant.  When Maverick and Rooster steal the F-14 from an empty hanger I expect it was unguarded so we did not have to see the nationality of the people they would have had to take out had they been there.  During the dogfight scenes the helmets of the antagonists are blacked out as in Top Gun.  Ultimately the mission is what matters, not who the opponents work for.

As Harrison Ford did with Han Solo in The Force Awakens, Cruise brings much more depth to what was previously a thinly written role.  Maverick is still well named and addicted to speed but he has also paid a heavy price for his refusal to leave the air and Cruise wears that.  The character that dissimilar to Ethan Hunt but Ethan is more of a natural leader than Maverick.  

Glen Powell, who was so charming as John Glenn in Hidden Figures, plays Hangman, who develops a rivalry with Rooster similar to the Iceman/Maverick  dynamic in the first film, although Hangman is more of a loose cannon like Maverick and Rooster is more cautious like Iceman.  Hangman struck me as a one note jerk but probably due more to the lack of screen-time.  He has a nice redemption in the third act which I anticipated but also enjoyed.  Jon Hamm plays Cyclone who Maverick reports to at Top Gun and is antagonistic towards Maverick until he realizes that Maverick can actually pull off the mission.  Ed Harris lends his natural authority to the aptly named Admiral Cain, who only appears briefly a senior officer who has had it with Maverick's antics.  

Harold Faltermeyer, Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe (who did the terrific score to Mission Impossible: Fallout), and Lady Gaga all worked on the score.  I could hear the collaboration most clearly on Darkstar track, which has Balfe's building intensity mixed with Zimmer's background melodies.  Toward the end Faltermeyer's Top Gun theme comes into play.  I wonder a little if Faltermeyer really worked on it much or if he just got credit for any track in which his theme was used.  

Top Gun: Maverick is an excellent ride.  I would give it a top score but the lack of development of the other characters brings it down just a notch.  I am curious if it will lead to more Top Gun films, which Paramount will surely be interested in.  By this point I think Maverick's story has been told but there might be potential with the younger pilots.  Either way, I enjoyed this trip so much I stayed through the end credits to listen to the theme and put the soundtrack on my regular play list later that day.  ****  

The music