Legacy sequels have a difficult time bringing in new audiences in an era where people generally don’t watch movies older than they are. You have to first appeal to an older audience who has nostalgia for the original without making them feel like you are trampling all over their “sacred cow,” while at the same time avoiding just copying and pasting what has been done before. Then you have to appeal to a new audience that may not be familiar with the original film and won’t have the nostalgia for the property. Brand recognition is a big thing, and most big money makers are part of a series or expanded universe that already has a built-in audience guaranteed to buy a ticket to see the latest installment. You don’t always have that with a legacy sequel. Such attempts to bring back older properties have met with mixed results. Ghostbusters is famous for trying to reinvent the franchise before realizing what fans really wanted was a legacy sequel. Recently, Beetlejuice just made a lot of money on a film that most people feel is lacking the original’s brilliance, yet that didn’t stop them from shelling out a lot of money to see it. In 2022, we got Top Gun: Maverick, a film that, upon its announcement, had more than a few people worried about how it would be handled, especially if what was released felt like nothing more than a carbon copy cash grab.
Top Gun: Maverick was supposed to be a summer 2019 release. And then it got delayed by a year when filming went over time thanks to several complex action sequences. It got moved again to the winter of 2020 when the COVID-19 health crisis shut everything down in the world, including movie theaters. This would spiral downward for two more years as it kept getting new release dates, frustrating audiences who had already seen the trailer and were repeatedly told to have patience. Ultimately, it would hit theaters in May of 2022, as theaters were starting to reopen and the uncertainty of the current model of film releases was in the conversation. Some studios had abandoned traditional releases altogether and were dropping their new releases straight to streaming services, and some felt that Top Gun: Maverick should just go forward with that method of release. Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures felt that this could be the movie to entice people back to the theaters, and, for a short window, it did. This film cleared a billion dollars at the box office at a time when people were largely avoiding public places like movie theaters.
In some ways, all those delays drove up the hype for this movie, preying on people’s impatience to see it. It had a great marketing team that made sure you didn’t forget it was coming out and inundated you with trailers and promotional material designed to keep you hyped up for a very long time. By the time it finally did reach theaters, people were practically foaming at the mouth to see this film. YouTubers were reacting to the original in anticipation for this sequel and driving up saturation in the youth market for Top Gun, and interest ran sky high. Seeing it opening week became a thing that nearly everyone had to do, and that meant theaters that had gotten accustomed to thin attendance for the scant few films that were getting released during the pandemic were suddenly facing sold-out showings. That was the atmosphere I experienced as I went to my local theater and saw Top Gun: Maverick that spring day in 2022.
I didn’t grow up a fan of Top Gun, even though I was at the right age in the 1980s. I was aware of it and had certainly seen it, but it didn’t really interest me initially. I remember going to movie parties, and someone would have a VHS copy boasting stereo sound, and everyone would get all excited over the aerobatic stunts bolstered by the 2.1 stereo and bass. I didn’t become a fan of the film until much later, well into the DVD era of home media when I rediscovered the movie and found that there was more going for this film than just the flying scenes. I enjoyed the personal drama with Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and his deceased father. I tolerated the underwhelming romance subplot, though, and rolled my eyes every time that Berlin song, Take My Breath Away, came on. For me, Top Gun was a good movie but hardly a “sacred cow.” All the sequel needed to do was be competent and exciting, and it would be a win for me. Oh, and it needed to be original. If it was nothing more than a repeat of the first film, I would have been upset.
The film opens up with a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the opening titles for the original film, complete with the same Kenny Loggins song, Danger Zone, that opened Top Gun. Fortunately, while there are several similar beats from the original film, this one does go on its own tangent and provide a story that is original while still being familiar. It’s just enough different to not frustrate me while not being so different as to alienate the die-hard fans who have wanted this movie since the 80s. This movie is nostalgia bait for sure, but it does it in a way that is still satisfying and doesn’t feel like a jaded cash grab.
The story is once again about Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a fighter pilot who long since should have promoted out of flying but instead is relegated to the position of test pilot. After a run-in with a general who is intent on transitioning the program over to unmanned drones, Maverick is reassigned at the last minute to return to Top Gun, this time to train a new group of pilots for a mission that appears to be impossible.
Upon arrival, Maverick is dismayed to find that one of the pilots in this group is Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, the man Maverick flew with when he attended Top Gun and who died while Maverick was piloting their plane in a training assignment. Maverick pulled Rooster’s application for the Air Force Academy, setting him back by four years, and Rooster has a chip on his shoulder over it, unaware that it was done at the request of his own mother who feared losing him to an accident like his father.
Training goes poorly as the more Maverick pushes the pilots, the more they believe that it cannot be done. On top of that, egos run rampant, and Maverick needs to find a way to reign it all in and make a team out of these young hot shots. Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer), former Top Gun pilot who went through the program alongside Maverick years ago, personally stepped in to bring Maverick to this assignment, but he is dying from cancer and, upon his death, Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Hamm) relieves Maverick of the assignment, believing it is impossible the way Maverick has laid it out and prefers going in guns blazing rather than stealthily. He feels that a gunfight is safer than the sure fire death of crashing into the mountains in an attempt to remain unnoticed. Maverick, knowing that this new approach will result in many casualties, finds a way to prove that his way can be done, drumming up the young pilots’ confidence, and putting Cyclone in a bind over whether to fire him or put him in command of the mission, leading the planes into action.
This is a modern Tom Cruise film, and as such, it is filled with spectacular aerial shots and stunts. Most of the cockpit shots are filmed for real rather than utilizing the far more common poor-man’s process of filming things stationary with a moving background or green screen behind. Even though it is obvious at times that the actors are actually in the back seat of the planes for these shots, as they were not allowed to fly the planes themselves, it doesn’t take away from the beautiful and intense cinematography. It’s puzzling then that this film failed to nab even a nomination for the cinematography, getting the nom for visual effects instead.
Top Gun: Maverick has all the same emotional beats of the original while updating it for modern audiences. It also introduces a new generation of pilots that could easily step into the pilot’s seat should more sequels be made. These include up-and-coming stars Glen Powell; Monica Barbaro; Lewis Pullman, son of Bill Pullman; and of course, Miles Teller. Should Tom Cruise bow out of any more sequels, there are more than enough colorful characters to take his place. Miles Teller has even hinted that ideas are being pitched for a film following his character, Rooster.
Top Gun: Maverick is one of those long-gestating sequels that manages to be worth the wait. Had it been made just a few short years after the original, we would have gotten something without the heart and the mileage behind it. There is just something about seeing these characters a bit more seasoned that brings with it emotions I never thought I would have with Top Gun. This is seen most heavily during the one scene Maverick and Iceman share together, where Val Kilmer’s real-life illness was incorporated into the character. In the years since the first film, there has been a long history between these two that we don’t need to see in order to understand their relationship. Their moment is brief and it ends on a bittersweet bit of humor, but it also drives the narrative as Iceman gives Maverick a bit of advice that helps redirect his path.
Cynics can point out this scene or that one and claim it is nothing more than a rehash of the first film, but I would argue that it takes the basic structure of the original film and builds on it. There are only so many directions a film like this could have successfully gone, and all of them would be derivative of the original and be accused of cribbing off of it. Instead of trying to radically reinvent the wheel and alienating the fanbase, this film embraces the original, gives us just enough call-backs to hit nostalgia hounds in the feels, and tells a compelling story about friendship, teamwork, and heroism. It also has a love story involving Penelope Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly), an old flame that Maverick gets back together with, but this part of the story is inconsequential, there just to provide a love interest. She’s a better character than Charlie in the first film, but not by much. Did it deserve its spot on the Oscar ballot? Had it been just five nominations, I would argue that it didn’t. But the extended ballot was designed to allow more commercial films into the mix. With that in mind, yes, it did deserve that spot.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison, and Jerry Bruckheimer.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Peter Craig, and Justin Marks.
Best Original Song: “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop.
Best Sound: Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor (won).
Best Film Editing: Eddie Hamilton.
Best Visual Effects: Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson, and Scott R. Fisher.
____________________________________________________
Release Date: May 27, 2022.
Running Time: 131 Minutes.
Rated PG-13.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer.
Directed By: Joseph Kosinski.
Comments
Post a Comment