Top Gun: Maverick leans on nostalgia

That training for war is fun. Top Gun: Maverick breathes the message. And immediately plant the viewer on such a powerful aircraft carrier, where tough pilots in streamlined fighter planes are flung into the air by elastic, or land on such a short piece of deck. Swirling opening images, provided with a booming sound mix full of screeching, braking and stirring music. The Air Force seen through a sports filter: winning for your country, but also for the fun of the competition.

And then the sequel to the 1986 action classic takes you to the American desert. There we meet Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) in the hangar, tinkering with antique aircraft. For all his decorations and kills, the pilot has never risen beyond the rank of captain. On the desk a photo altar for his tragic death wingman ‘goose’; the past has not rested.

Joseph Kosinski, who took over from the late Tony Scott, does not hide what his film leans on: nostalgia. The camera slides past that familiar old leather flight jacket, mirrored sunglasses and Kawasaki engine. It’s 36 years later, although you can’t see that in protagonist and almost sixties Tom Cruise.

Maverick is a relic, prints permanently disgruntled superiors into the pilot: unmanned stealthfighter jets will now soon surpass his flying prowess. If he ignores the command structure again, the hero gets one last chance. He serves the new generation top gunners to prepare for a dire air raid on a high-security underground uranium factory in an unspecified un-American place.

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The friction between Maverick and his commanders is played out nicely: the reckless teacher drives them crazy. The supporting role of Val Kilmer, who has been affected by time and illness, as a former competitor and friend of ‘Iceman’, is also nicely integrated, even moving. Just like in the original, the enemy stays (long) at a distance, fighter-flying with closed sights.

The battle takes place within the Air Force: Goose’s son (Miles Teller) is one of the stars of the new top class, but harbors a grudge against teacher Maverick. That class is a reflection of the times: more color, and also a nerd and a top macha among the top machos. The new faces don’t get much profile. And the rutting rivalry between the pilots, so emphatically present in the original, goes less deeply into the freshly polished Top Gun: Maverick†

But within the overall over-the-top signature of the new adventure, the highly predictable plot twists also become – or rather – amusing. Maverick may be a more sympathetic hero now; that suits Cruise well. The romance, with old flame and admiral’s daughter Penny (Jennifer Connelly), is still an afterthought, but the pilot seems to be a little more focused on it. And as soon as Top Gun: Maverick Take to the skies for a game of flight tag or the glorious real thing, the film rivals the spectacular action of the original.