Cert: PG

*****

After several delays due to the Covid crisis, the long awaited sequel to Tony Scott’s much loved 1986 aviation thriller Top Gun, is finally heading to the big screen. The film premiered earlier this month at a special screening in California and will soon be hitting the famous Croisette at the 75th Cannes Film Festival with a star-studded premiere

Reprising his original role as the fearless ace pilot Maverick, Tom Cruise stars alongside Miles Teller (Whiplash), while Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) makes a decidedly age-appropriate love interest for Cruise’s character. The film is directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy, Oblivion) and produced by legendary Jewish producer Jerry Bruckheimer with the help of Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie and David Ellison (The Mission Impossible films). Elsewhere, Val Kilmer also returns to the franchise, while Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman, Glen Powell and Jon Hamm also star.

Test pilot Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) has deliberately hindered his own career and as a result held himself back from ever reaching a higher ranking in his 36 years of service. When he is called upon to help prepare a young team of Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission, Maverick comes face to face with Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller) who also happens to be the son of his late best friend Nick "Goose" Bradshawold. As the two lock horns over their more recent past, Maverick must decide whether he is prepared to risk the life of his best friend's son.

Joseph Kosinski and producer Bruckheimer deliver a fun, fast-paced and genuinely thrilling sequel to Scott’s much loved, and often parodied, original. In short, Top Gun: Maverick is the most fun I’ve had watching a big dumb Hollywood blockbuster for a while. It is a film that not only understands what is truly expected from it, but it also never shies away from paying homage to its own mythology throughout.

With more of the same big cheesy smiles, perfect tans and homoerotic undercurrent that made us all fall in love with Cruise et all over 3 decades ago, Top Gun: Maverick has deliberately chosen to stick to a tried and test formula all the while updating its story for a more modern setting. This is demonstrated by the decision to include a handful of female fighters who are as bright and as rowdy as their male counterparts. Having said that, one would have appreciated a slightly more effective female centric subplot. 

On the whole, this is a thrilling sequel which is bound to delight fans of the first film, all the while acting as the launching pad for a potential second or even third sequel with its young cast at the centre of new adventures.