How Tom Cruise makes 'Top Gun: Maverick' a modern take on old-fashioned movie fun

Martin Scorsese made headlines for saying that Marvel movies were more like theme parks than cinema.

He also could have been talking about “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the need-for-speed 1986 film that helped make Tom Cruise whatever celestial being is beyond a star.

Except in this case, theme park should be a compliment.

“Top Gun: Maverick” is a theme park with incredibly fun rides. It is a movie painstakingly constructed for maximum audience enjoyment, whether it’s an emotional callback featuring Val Kilmer or over-the-top state-of-the-art action scenes. You can sense the manipulation at every turn. Ha, sense it? Director Joseph Kosinski doesn’t exactly try to hide it.

And yet you are powerless to resist.

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Val Kilmer makes an appearance as Iceman

It’s not a great movie. But it is a good one, better than you might expect, and it is kind of great at what it does. It could be a metaphor for Cruise’s career. At one point Kilmer’s Iceman, now an admiral who serves as a kind of guardian angel for his former rival, tells Cruise’s Maverick it’s time to let go.

“I don’t know how,” Maverick says, and neither does Cruise. That’s a good thing.

Kosinski begins the film on a busy aircraft carrier, much like the original, complete with Kenny Loggins’ massive hit “Danger Zone.” But we’re in the present now. Maverick is a captain in the Navy, though as Ed Harris’ admiral points out, he should be at least a two-star admiral by now, maybe a senator.

Instead he’s still pushing the limits of his planes and himself. If someone has to prove a plane can go Mach 9, you can be sure he’ll push it beyond 10, and that Kosinski will capture it in rousing fashion. Maverick seems happy enough, breaking rules and ticking off superior officers.

Then duty calls. Iceman pulls some strings to get Maverick shipped back to Top Gun training, where he’s met with hostility by the commanding officer (Jon Hamm), who makes it clear he has no use for Maverick. His feelings echo those of Harris’ admiral, who tells Maverick his time is ending.

Maybe, Maverick says through the famous Cruise grin. But not today.

Indeed. His job is to train the best of the best of the Top Gun pilots for a seemingly impossible mission to prevent an enemy country from enriching uranium.

What country? Who knows? It’s never mentioned, the better to avoid boycotts of ticket sales in countries that might not appreciate the rah-rah military message being used at their expense. Like every other detail in the film, it’s a calculated decision.

Maverick is not slated to actually fly the mission, just instruct his students on how to. But, you know, come on. You’re not plunking down money to watch Tom Cruise stand at a blackboard. “Maverick: Top Gun” is kind of like “The Right Stuff” if Cruise played Chuck Yeager and all of the Mercury astronauts.

Part of Maverick’s job is to choose from the pool of pilots. You won’t have any trouble doing that. Hangman (Glen Powell) is the Iceman stand-in, good and knows it. Phoenix (Monica Barbaro) must prove her mettle in this male-dominated, macho world. Bob (Lewis Pullman) is the nerd with guts.

But it’s Rooster (Miles Teller) who is the most problematic. He’s a good pilot, but he’s also the son of the late Goose (Anthony Edwards), whose death Maverick still mourns and can’t shake responsibility for. They have other issues in their past, as well.

Some of this we learn through Maverick’s romance with Penny (Jennifer Connelly) — along with Phoenix, Penny provides most of the female presence in the film. There is not a lot.

No spoiler: Fighter jets play a starring role in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

What there is a lot of is Cruise and spectacular set pieces set in fighter jets doing outrageously dangerous and entertaining things – with little CGI, a nice change from other action movies.

That is, after all, what we’re here for.

But there’s also a sense of melancholy, and not just because of the danger involved. Cruise is right, his kind won’t go extinct today. But he’s almost 60, which is likely true of much of the audience for the first “Top Gun.” This film was delayed repeatedly by the pandemic, because there was no way Cruise was going to premiere it on a streaming service. He’s a throwback, in so many ways – an out-and-out movie star, his insistence on realistic stunts, his belief in the theater experience above all others.

Today, at least, he’s right. “Top Gun: Maverick” is a movie-star movie with great action pieces best seen on the biggest screen available. It’s a modern take on old-fashioned fun.

'Top Gun: Maverick' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Joseph Kosinski.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller.

Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action, and some strong language.

Note: In theaters May 27.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tom Cruise has a lot of old-time fun in 'Top Gun: Maverick'