Top Gun - Maverick
The movie which surprised everyone.
Not only becoming mega-successful as if the pandemic weren´t still raging, but also despite being one of those sequels which come decades after the original. Usually, that does not work too well because the important part of the audience was not even born when the original was playing in theaters.
Often sequels fail because they are either just a bad copy of the original or they ignore or do not understand what made the original a success. Sometimes both.
“Top Gun - Maverick” is unique in the sense that everything about it works in its favor.
It does copy the structure of the first film - but it also enhances it, plays on the original´s themes, actually develops its characters further and gives them a satisfying arc. Original and sequel now belong together, as if they are one film, bridging the gap of the many decades in between.
The secret weapon, of course, must be Christopher McQuarrie who rewrote the script, and as we know from his M:I films (and his previous ones) he is one of the great blockbuster writers because he always injects character and unusual honesty into genre proceedings - without, and this is the big artistry, drawing attention to it. There are so many little beats in this movie which are going such a long way (i.e. the scene in which Mitchell is literally thrown out of Penny’s bar, and then he’s watching the young generation from the outside, doing what he used to do. And Penny notices it. All of this explains character in shorthand, without dialogue, it shows how time has moved on, and it sets up the dynamic for the finale of the Penny-Mitchell relationship.)
And then, of course, there is Tom Cruise. Not only he still is one of the last big movie stars, commanding the screen as if that were easy, and at the same time disarming criticism by playing right into it (i.e. replying to “Don’t give me that look” with “That’s the only one I got”.)
But the main takeaway from this film for me is the fact that audiences loved this one so much.
Why? Because it is very old-fashioned: the hero is called back, hesitant at first, having to overcome a trauma, then almost failing, throwing himself into a crisis and prevailing. It´s basic, it´s done before so many times, and despite the usual impressive “Tom Cruise really does all these dangerous stunts himself”-panache the action is rather routine.
And sure, we can argue that the pandemic actually helped the success of this movie because people were starving for a nostalgia-kick, a movie making them feel young again or at least as if time had not passed and everything were still as “easy” as they imagine the mid-80´s (they weren’t that easy but much easier than these times of permanent threats to life as we know it).
But I think the success can mainly be explained by this: audiences want a good time at the movies.
Maybe there was a bigger need for anti-heroes and a sinister atmosphere in the last decades, also because that was a breath of fresh air into stale formulas.
However, that cycle has come to an end, for sure. We want hope. We want light. We want happier endings. Heck, we want a great, uplifting hummable musical theme (Faltermeyer´s tune was kept, thankfully, and enhanced by the new love theme.)
And when “Top Gun - Maverick” proves a huge demand for this kind of mass entertainment, studio executives and producers surely must take notice when crafting the next big blockbuster.
Bond 26, for example.
That does not mean, mind you, that a blockbuster must ignore sadness and desperation. The way this movie incorporates Val Kilmer, giving him such an emotionally true and effective scene, is just one more example of how Cruise and McQuarrie know exactly how to connect to the original movie, how to use the passage of time, how not to shy away from reality and how to combine all of that in the service of their story.
When the first “Top Gun” was released, at least here in Germany, there were many critics who hated it and saw a “flag-waving, nationalist, imperialistic empty exercise dressed in MTV aesthetics” in it. Which it probably was. I remember going to the cinema, almost feeling ashamed buying a ticket for “this”. I also remember not really enjoying it. Cruise was at the start of his career, and I did not feel he was that special.
Well, that changed afterwards. “The Color of Money” and “Rain Man” made me notice him as a talent. “Born on the Fourth of July” made me realize he is a great actor. And from then onwards I was a huge fan of his.
I haven´t seen “Top Gun”, the original, since then. I never felt the urge, frankly. But after this sequel I think I should revisit it. Although I suspect I won’t like it as much as this sequel. Which also says something about its quality.
