Spoiler Warning: Top Gun: Maverick

After the Top Gun franchise was grounded for nearly three decades, Top Gun: Maverick took off at the box office. With a financial return quickly approaching the one billion dollar mark, it was the second highest-grossing film of 2022. More importantly, the reviews are in, and they are in favor of the film.

It’s plane (if one can excuse the pun) to see that Top Gun: Maverick represents the return of the summer blockbuster. It was unapologetically campy yet undeniably charming. With a new and exciting cast of characters, more high-flying fighter jet foolishness, incredible camera work that framed the magnificent military masterpiece in picture-perfect detail, and, perhaps most importantly, a sequel to the original Top Gun’s shirtless sports scene that left audience members, regardless of personal preferences, salivating, Top Gun: Maverick might have done what many considered impossible. It may be difficult for the former film’s fans to admit, but Top Gun: Maverick might just be better than its predecessor.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

New Cast Additions & Top Gun Favorites

     Paramount Pictures 

The internet is losing its collective marbles over Miles Teller (The Offer, The Divergent Series) as Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw. Teller, along with a host of other talented actors, including Jon Hamm (Mad Men, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), who portrayed the vexing Vice Adm. Beau ‘Cyclone’ Simpson, and Ed Harris (Westworld, The Truman Show) as Radm. Chester ‘Hammer’ Cain represents new additions to the franchise and the wealth of new talent in Top Gun: Maverick. Despite the undeniably impressive cast of the original film, the actors carry their weight and then some in this epic action flick.

RELATED: Paramount Releases Top Gun: Maverick’s Unseen Great Balls of Fire Performance

Audiences of the original Top Gun got their fair share of fan favorites as well. Of course, Tom Cruise stole the show in an epic reprisal of his role as the mischievous Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. And as a welcome surprise for fans of the original Top Gun, the legendary Val Kilmer, despite being the victim of a disease that affected his vocal cords, returns as Iceman, the former rival turned close friend of Tom Cruise’s Maverick. The return of said fan favorites, along with the additional amazing actors, might have added up to something even greater than the much-beloved original film.

Radical Revolutionary Aerial Tech

One of the best facets of Top Gun: Maverick was the incredibly aerial technology showcased throughout the film’s runtime. Near the beginning of the film, Tom Cruise’s Maverick commandeers (here just a fancy word for steals) a new aircraft prototype, a product of the mysterious hypersonic “Darkstar” scramjet program. Maverick blows past what his superiors thought was possible regarding the Darkstar’s speed capabilities, pushing the experimental fighter jet to high-hypersonic speeds, which literally represents a speed exceeding five times the speed of sound.

RELATED: Top Gun: Maverick Streaming Release Date Has Not Been Decided and Could Be Delayed

This speedy stunt by Tom Cruise’s Maverick ultimately results in the destruction of the experimental aircraft and his assignment to teach future fighter pilots. However, it is representative of the new and exciting technology showcased in Top Gun: Maverick, which allows for dips, dives, tricks, and turns that supersede even the aerial acrobatic of the original film.

A Climactic and Satisfying Conclusion

     Paramount Pictures

One of the significant ways in which Top Gun: Maverick was able to overshadow its 1986 predecessor was the jaw-dropping final battle. It is an epic aerial extravaganza that utilizes visual effects and fantastic flying that a film made almost thirty years ago could only dream of. Miles Teller’s Rooster and Tom Cruise’s Maverick, despite having been at one another’s throats throughout the duration of Top Gun: Maverick, are forced to put aside their differences and team up against a common enemy.

While the original Top Gun should be commended for its daring dogfights, the conclusion of Top Gun: Maverick was representative of the ways in which the sequel was more exciting than its predecessor. Rather than a straight-forward sky-high shoot-em-up, the sequel has a climactic conclusion that is rife with exciting ejections, scary shooting, heroic hijackings, and most importantly, a stunning sacrifice when Cruise’s Maverick puts himself in the line of fire to protect a defenseless Rooster.

It was beginning to seem like the idea of the legacy sequel, despite the strong undercurrent of nostalgia that currently undergirds American society, was losing its popular appeal. That is, until Top Gun: Maverick hit the theaters. Audiences have reveled in this new venture into the nostalgic, which was able to capture the original film’s magic in a way that few sequels, especially those created so long after their respective predecessors, have been able to achieve.

Top Gun: Maverick is a film for all generations, so if one can take the g-force, buckle into a theater seat for this inspiring I-Max-certified epic.