Top Gun: Maverick

 202(2?) - Joseph Kosinski - in theatre

I neither like nor care about the seminal 80's dude-bro movie Top Gun.  I don't believe I've ever watched the whole film all the way through in one sitting.  It was, as far as I can recall, a hyper-masculine dick-measuring contest between pilots with egos bigger than the fighter planes they fly in.  Add to that all the US/military jingoism, an overplayed soundtrack full of (let's face it) mediocre songs, and Tony Scott's icky grainy shooting style (looking at Scott's repertoire, the only film I have any zeal for is The Last Boy Scout) and it's a film I've long just categorized as "Not For Me".

So why go see Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited, long-gestating sequel to a film I possibly detest?  I promise it wasn't so I could just shit on it afterward.  I actually went into the screening optimistic.  I really like director Kosinski's two previous efforts (Tron: Legacy and Oblivion), and yeah, Cruise is still a mega-watt star who can carry a film on his own.  And no doubt there would be some form of spectacle to all this that, not for anything, would be entertaining.  Plus, a dash of Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly certainly didn't make it any less appealing.

The results, well... I want to be polite, as I was entertained, but I think I was entertained in the wrong way.  This film is corny, full of oft regurgitated mantras and platitudes as Cruise's Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell needs to whip a bunch of top-tier navy pilots into shape for a near-impossible mission (cue the theme) that is basically a "real-world" (or, rather, "Earth-set") Death Star trench run in nameless enemy territory.

The young moppets (all in their late-20s and 30s, both as performers and characters) behave like an unruly class of high-school kids, and their general vibe upon introduction is that of a band of Disney Channel teen-drama rejects with little charisma or personality.  The script seems completely disinterested in looking at them as human beings and there's never really that teacher-student connection established.  Maverick just takes the kids out into some simulated dog fighting and spanks them.

The film can never resist reaffirming that Maverick is just The Best.  It's a post-middle-aged white-guy Gen Xer fantasy, this film, one in which the old guy who never really grew up nor moved past the traumas he experienced in his youth is constantly vindicated for breaking rules and living the life he does, and is constantly proving to the younger generations that He Is Right. That His Way Is The Best Way. That He Is, And Always Will Be, Better Than Them.  Hell, he winds up with Jennifer Connelly (a character who exists to reaffirm his every decision, or to push him further into rebel behaviour) so it truly is a middle-age Gen Xer fantasy.  Connelly, for her part, gets to dominate Maverick by showing him how to sail, and by not being there waiting for him when he gets back from mission...she makes him wait.  It's about the only subversion of tropes this film carries off.

The final act, I can easily admit, is pretty exciting and worthy of the big screen treatment, but even still, it's full of nostalgia bait and riddled with cliches, as the entire film is.  I found myself chuckling inappropriately throughout the film because of the corny one liners, the banal mantras characters keep reciting back to one another ("it's not the plane, it's the pilot" gets dropped at least four times), and just how heavily the cheese is slabbed on.  The spirit of Goose looms large over the proceedings, as Maverick still feels guilty about his death, and he's had a falling out with Goose's son "Rooster" who is, of course, one of his students now.  There's inherent drama to be explored there, but it just kind of sits there ...it's dealt with in the stoic, manly way of not having a conversation but by saving each other's lives in combat.  You know, the relatable way every day people deal with their problems with each other.

Val Kilmer gets a big credit at the beginning of the film and for the longest time we wonder if he only exists as "Ice" over text, that Kilmer gets name checked solely for his presence in spirit.  But there is a Kilmer cameo, ultimately, and it's a painful one to watch, because it doesn't really give Kilmer much to act on (understood that Kilmer likely had a small threshold for what he could actually do), and it's still a scene that's All About Maverick.  I don't begrudge the film bringing Kilmer in and the hug between Mav and Ice is about the only thing in the film that came close to bringing a tear to my eye...but I wish they gave that scene more importance (but perhaps it's just my lack of connection to Top Gun that I wasn't really feeling it).

I wanted to like this movie. While I was somewhat entertained, I also think it's kind of a silly piece of work, and maybe, in many ways, a bad movie.  But I recognize that my feelings towards Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick are probably the same as how non-nerds feel about most sci-fi or superhero movies.  It just doesn't resonate with me so I feel almost completely dismissive of it.  It's firmly categorized as "Not For Me".

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A side note, I watched this, unintentionally, in "ScreenX", where there is basically additional (suitable) imagery projected on the side walls of the theatre to fill your peripheral vision as you watch the big action scenes in the film.  As described by Cineplex: "Surround yourself with exclusive imagery enhancing the narrative of a film in select scenes with the immersive 270 degree panoramic premium experience." I have to say, if anything, this was more of a distraction than an enhancement.  I found my eyes constantly being drawn away from the actual film and puzzling over what is projected on the side and why, and to what benefit?  Kosinski's such a clean director and he was crafting some very strong imagery on screen especially in the flight sequences, but I found the ScreenX projection made it hard for me to focus and appreciate the production values.  I will be avoiding these theatres in the future.