So, I recently saw Top Gun: Maverick in theaters… twice. On IMAX screens. And also once on a standard. I guess you want to nitpick, you could say I saw the movie three times in theaters. I’ve only seen the first one twice. I basically loved everything about this movie. Let’s start with the boring stuff I liked. The performances are really good. Jennifer Connelly plays a nice, albeit unnecessary, romantic interest for the title character. Miles Teller is, in a word, fine. His performance doesn’t break new ground, but again, he provides good motivation for the protagonist. Val Kilmer shows up and delivers a gut wrenching one-scene performance. The rest of the cast is well directed to be caricatures of military weirdos, which works to the films advantage.
Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff. Tom Cruise. Specifically, Tom Cruise kicking ass flying a plane and having unrealistically witty banter with the students that he is teaching (seriously the plot is so wildly unnecessary to the film), who are also established as being the best pilots in the Navy. When I say this is the most fun action I have experienced in a movie since 2018 at the earliest (we’ll come back to that) I mean to say I was gripping the armrests on my chair so hard, my knuckles were sore after the movie. Everything about this movie is either delightfully weird, or delightfully intense.
However, that is not why I love it. Before the film started, there was a trailer for the upcoming film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One. Going back through the last decade, the movies that are IMO the most fun action movies are both Mission: Impossible film. 2011 was Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and in 2018, we were gifted Mission: Impossible – Fallout. All three of these movies have two things in common. That is two people. Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise. Let’s start with McQ, as Tommy Boy calls him. He has brought consistency of storytelling to Tom Cruises movies that was totally absent from his career. He was always making good movies, but for every ‘A Few Good Men’ (1992) there was a ‘Cocktail’ (1988). McQ was simply adding some confidence to people like me who viewed Tommy as a psycho who was weirdly committed to being at the max setting when it came to filmmaking.
However, now, we must look at the mountain in the face. It’s a complicated mountain. It has some super whack religious views. It has been known to be a bad family member. It even makes other mountains feel inferior at work, intentionally, so that those other mountains will work as hard as him. This is a weird mountain. Now, to abandon the metaphor, Tom Cruise has something that nobody else in Hollywood has: cross generational appeal. When I tell you that I was ecstatic with anticipation for Avengers: Endgame, multiply that by about a billion, and you will understand where my parents were at last weekend when they were going to see Top Gun: Maverick. And imagine their elation when it wasn’t just fine and good, but an absolute thrill ride.
Tom Cruise’s films are honestly kinda difficult to be cynical about at this point. He is definitely a weirdo, but this is one of those instances where I feel like I can say, please separate the art from the artist. There are definitely examples where I cannot do that any more. I don’t listen to Michael Jackson. I cannot stand to watch anything with Bill Cosby. I cringe when I see an old movie that I love and realize it is produced by the Weinsteins. However, the fact is Tom Cruise is really only guilty of being an absolute loon. Would I get dinner with him? That is the impossible mission right there. Am I gonna be in an IMAX theater on July 14, 2023 to see him do something astounding in camera? Easiest mission to accept ever (P.S. if anyone is free on that day, I would gladly pay for a ticket for you to come).
If you take nothing else from this, here are two practical things you can (SHOULD) do: 1.) go to the movies. Top Gun: Maverick is such a bizarrely great movie and if you don’t have a good time watching it, you are unfortunately beyond my ability to help. 2.) when you get back from the theater, subscribe to Paramount+ (just get a free month or whatever) and watch the three most recent Mission: Impossible movies (Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout). You will see at the very least, some action, done in camera, that no other franchise (except for ones starring my man Tommy) would do without CGI. Also, spoiler alert, in Ghost Protocol, Tom Cruise is climbing on the outside of the Burj Khalifa. It’s absolutely insane! You have to see it!
Sawyer Huelat 