Why Top Gun: Maverick is the best blockbuster of the year!

Long belated sequels have become a trend in Hollywood. These sequels sometimes fall in the category of soft-reboot or the newly coined legacy sequel (thanks Scream 5). In my opinion, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ can be classed as both! 36 years after the original film flew into theatres and became a pop culture phenomenon in its own right, Maverick returns to the big screen in a very big way. At the time of writing this blog post the film is already Tom Cruise’s highest grossing film to date, with nearly $1.5 Billion grossed at the worldwide box office, pulling in nearly $720 million is the United States of America alone. My anticipation for the film peaked with an interesting marketing campaign that promised a lot of the thrills the first film possessed but with updated visuals and improved stunt work. The film’s premise remains relatively similar to the original with the butting relationship this time around between Bradley Bradshaw, call sign ‘Rooster’, the son of Goose from the original film played by Miles Teller and Captain Pete Mitchell, call sign ‘Maverick’ played once again by the magnificent Tom Cruise. This film may just be the best time I have had in a cinema since Avengers: Endgame and quite possible, ever. The scope of the film remains small scale, but because of the amazing characters and near perfect action, I found myself completely swept up in the world of ‘Top Gun’ once again. So, to celebrate the film's release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD, I will be breaking down ‘Why Top gun: maverick is the best blockbuster of the year’! Without further ado, lets go!

As mentioned, this film is just incredible, awe-inspiring, gripping, entertaining, heart-felt, just every adjective you can think of to positively describe this film, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is all of those things. A huge part of what makes this film so amazing, is the dedication from its talented cast. We all know Tom Cruise is a mad man when it comes to putting his body on the line for the good of the movie. He has done it his whole career, with the Mission Impossible films being the shining example of this. He brings that risk over to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, experiencing the G-force of the jets in the air, actually going up in the planes and training the cast around him in the art of stunt work. Cruise continues to astound audiences in his dedication to the finer details. It would be so easy these days with the technology available, to just put in a green screen to simulate the action set pieces, but the fact that Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Only the Brave) went the extra step really benefits the audiences, as we feel every action beat. 

The action here is seamless. There are computer generated effects that are also featured in the film, these are so well blended with the practical that you don’t even take notice of them. This is a credit to filmmaker Joseph Kosinski Kosinski has worked in effects heavy productions before with both practical and CGI effects, but has mastered his craft over the years, with Top Gun: Maverick being the pinnacle. The action is breathtaking, awe-inspiring, epic, it is everything I wanted it to be and more. The completion of the mission at the end of the film had me at the edge of my seat for the entire third act of the film. The stakes are high, the film has spent the previous two acts developing this group of characters so we as an audience really do care about the outcome and don’t want to see any of them get hurt. It’s a testament as well to Cruise’s friend, and colleague’s writing abilities, Mr Christopher McQuarrie. Kosinski also uses Hans Zimmer’s score appropriately. It is a play on the original score from the first film, but updated with new orchestral beats. When the score kicks in, you really do take notice of it, feeling almost like a character in the film. 

The film's cast of characters are all magnificent as well. We have Hangman played by Glen Powell, Bob, played by Lewis Pullman, Phoenix played by Monica Barbaro, Payback played by Jay Ellis, Rooster played by Miles Teller and of course team leader Maverick played by Tom Cruise. The comradery felt between this group feels real. The banter is funny and sometimes leads to great tension within the group, especially between Glen Powell’s ‘Hangman’ and Miles Teller’s ‘Rooster’. The two go neck and neck, trying to get the wingman position for the mission and their relationship is very reminiscent of Iceman and Maverick from the original Top Gun. This comradery and conflict resulted in some of my favourite character driven scenes from the film. The cast are all great here and have fantastic chemistry with one another, I hope we see more of them in a possible third Top Gun film down the track. 

Top Gun: Maverick ranks among one of the best cinema going experiences I have ever had and ranks, quite possibly, among my favourite action films of all time. It is superbly shot, marvellously executed and held together by a wonderful, heartfelt story about forgiveness, redemption and brother/sisterhood. The action is breathtaking, and the cast are all wonderful. I cannot recommend this one enough. After spending months in cinemas, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ finally makes its way to physical media on November 2. Head on over to your local Sanity or online to pre-order your copy today on DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K UHD. If you pre-order now from your local Sanity or online now, you will also receive a bonus keychain. 

Get the Top Gun Movies on DVD, Blu-ray & 4K UHD here including Top Gun Maverick!

Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here