Top Gun: Maverick was a huge success when it hit theaters in 2022, but it doesn’t really deserve the high praise it has maintained since that release. There was a lot of excitement for the movie when it hit theaters in 2022, and it exceeded all expectations. Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the beloved 1986 film, Top Gun, with Tom Cruise returning as that movie’s hero, Maverick, to help guide the next generation of Top Gun flight students.
Joining Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick was Miles Teller as Rooster Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s former partner, Goose, who died in the first film. In addition to its fantastic cast, the sequel came complete with flight stunts that rivaled even the original movie, not to mention a moving character arc for Tom Cruise’s Maverick. That is mostly why it was so big at the box office, with people praising the IMAX screenings above all else. However, watching the film at home shows it isn’t worth the 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Top Gun: Maverick’s Faults Become More Obvious During A Rewatch
Taking Top Gun Out Of Theaters Lets The Flaws Show
Top Gun: Maverick is a movie that brings Tom Cruise’s Maverick back to the Top Gun academy. Once the shining star student who did the unthinkable, he is now a flight instructor asked to help lead the new Top Gun students on a specialized mission. He gets to see his old nemesis, Iceman (Val Kilmer), one more time. He gets a new love interest, too, in Jennifer Connelly’s Penny. However, other than the expected intense flight action, there’s a sense that there’s not enough here to justify a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%.
One thing that really holds the story down is the era. In the ’80s, the original Top Gun took place in a world where everyone in America feared a nuclear apocalypse. This made the mission for Maverick and his teammates so important because it was based on real-life fears. The new movie is about a mysterious group building a weapons facility that has America worried. This is not based on real-world fears any more than a James Bond or Mission: Impossible movie is. That is where Top Gun: Maverick falters.
The film is not better or worse than any other action film.
This means that the story lives and dies through the action scenes, which, once again, are Maverick and his new students flying dangerous missions at high speeds, often to a classic rock soundtrack. It brings back lots of memories, but other than nostalgia, it’s not a truly “great” movie on its own. There are some emotional moments, but the film is not better or worse than any other action film in recent years, and the best parts of it were left in the theaters in 2022.
Top Gun: Maverick Loses A Lot When Taken Away From The Big Screen
The Movie Was Made For IMAX Screens, Not Televisions
There is a big problem with a movie as incredible as Top Gun: Maverick was when watched on the IMAX screen. There is always the chance that it isn’t quite as good when watching at home on a smaller or even a big-screen television. A movie like Sinners was amazing on the IMAX screen, and it is likely to hold up well on television since that film is all about the story. Maverick was, at its heart, all about the exhilarating action scenes.
That isn’t to say that Top Gun: Maverick didn’t have a good story. The problem is that it was overshadowed by the intense action scenes. Watching Cruise flipping his jet around in high-speed flying scenes on the IMAX screen was exhilarating. When leaving the theater, it is easy to say it was the most incredible movie in theaters, and that is true. But, it is also enough exhilaration to make someone forget that the movie needed more than that. Reviews coming out of theaters were monumental. Three years later, on television screens, it doesn’t seem to be as great.
Top Gun: Maverick’s Acclaim Was Partly A Response To Other Factors
Movie Fans Needed Top Gun In 2022
There is a big reason that Top Gun: Maverick was such a huge success. People hadn’t gone to movies for a long time, thanks to the COVID-19 shutdowns. Christopher Nolan thought he could fix that with Tenet, but that movie was confusing and polarizing, and it didn’t do what he had hoped coming out of the lockdown. However, Top Gun: Maverick had something on its side that even Nolan didn’t. A sense of familiarity and comfort. Those feelings went a long way in developing the sense of love that people had for the movie when they saw it in theaters.
Top Gun: Maverick Leans Too Heavily On Nostalgia
The Sequel Wants People To Remember The First Movie Too Often
In the end, Top Gun: Maverick succeeded both at the box office and in reviews for one big reason. This was a movie people wanted to see in theaters, and it came when they were ready to get back out into the world. This was comfort food for a world that needed something to pick them up, and for that, everyone should applaud the success of the Top Gun sequel.
However, the movie pushed too hard in the way of nostalgia. Fans were happy to see Tom Cruise back on the big screen as Maverick once again. Seeing him interacting with Goose’s son was a great way to pull people into the story. Having Val Kilmer show up for a rare late-career acting appearance was emotional, especially when he died shortly after this in real life. Even the music brought back memories of Top Gun.
Top Gun: Maverick made $1.45 billion at the box office.
This is why Top Gun: Maverick made $1.45 billion at the box office (via The-Numbers), a monstrous number coming out of the lockdown. It helped prove that people would go to the movies again to see something familiar they knew they would love. However, nostalgia only goes part of the way. When the film hit home video and streaming, that nostalgia would diminish when people could watch the original movie again and see it was no different, and the sequel is not as special as they might have remembered in the IMAX theater.
Top Gun: Maverick Is A Good Movie – Maybe Even Great – But Not An All-Time Classic
The Top Gun Sequel Doesn’t Have To Be “Great”
There is one thing that remains true about Top Gun: Maverick. It is better than the first film. As much as people love to pump up Top Gun as quality ’80s entertainment, it is mostly nostalgia talking. The film is not so much a military or even a war movie as it is a sports film with jet planes and jocks who want to one-up each other. In the Reagan-era Cold War America, Top Gun was a cheer-worthy film for the era that doesn’t hold up as well today as it once did. The flight scenes are still entertaining, but they don’t make for a masterpiece.
Top Gun: Maverick fixes some of those problems. The new students are much more mature and less of a bunch of frat boys or uber-athletes trying to one-up each other. The story is a little more serious and offers some emotional impact at points. However, it is still a movie that lives and dies by its flight scenes and intense moments in the air. Even at home, it gets the heart pumping, and it works for what it is.
Top Gun: Maverick is not one of the best movies of the decade. It is a fun and enjoyable action movie that does what it needs to for people to smile, but has a very thin story that relies too much on the big-screen action scenes and the nostalgia of it all. But in all fairness, not all movies have to be “great.” Sometimes it is just good to be a fun film, and this sequel is one of the more enjoyable releases in its genre.
Source: The-Numbers
