Directed by : Joseph Kosinski

Trust your instincts! Don't think, just do. You think up there, you are dead. Believe me.

Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Monica Barbaro, Glenn Powell in 'Top Gun : Maverick"

Spoilers ahead... 

36 years later, as a top naval aviator, Pete Mitchell/Maverick (Tom Cruise) is still a Captain with no promotions and despite his attempts of dieing he keeps surviving dangerous situations including a Mach10 test exercise recently. Maverick is told to return back to the Top Gun but as a teacher only and train 12 of the best of the best for a mission which he feels may result in someone not coming back home. Another problem he has to deal with is, one of the pilots is none other than Bradley Bradshaw/Rooster (Miles Teller) who is the son of Goose (Maverick's close friend and wingman that died in earlier film). 

The start is ditto resemblance of 'Danger Zone' track but the visuals are much clear to watch this time. Beauty of the film is the writing that uses Nostalgia in a very effective manner. The entire Maverick-Iceman (Val Kilmer) plot is exchanged with Rooster- Jake Seresin/Hangman (Glen Powell) including a similar climax hug scene. If I start listing all the references then it may take a long while, my personal favourite however was use of 'Great Balls of Fire' which was such a fun track involving Goose and his family along with Maverick in the last movie but here its Rooster singing the track with his friends while Maverick through the window watches with the good and then the bad memories returning back (brilliantly enacted by Tom Cruise) to his mind clearly consumed with regret and the new fear of losing Rooster too in upcoming mission. 

Among the pilots, Rooster stands out because he very well carries the emotional arc 1st film had created with Goose death and by his looks you could easily say that has to be son of Goose. Even if you can predict all will be good between Maverick and Rooster by end of movie, it creates for some quality drama scenes. My pick of the scene was how angry Rooster reacts sarcastically to Maverick whose plane is inverted (again reference to a scene from last film) during one of the air exercise challenge. 

Another new character to love is Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly). If you watched 1st film carefully, then there's 2 mentions of Penny in it just through dialogues. Jennifer plays Penny with a perfect attitude visible in the initial bar scene and also the love/support she has for Maverick despite him all the time leaving her in the past. 

Glen Powell is also great in playing a version of Iceman, and again I am happy that this competition rivalry stays within the limits and the own team victory matters the most. Totally enjoyed the only scene between Iceman and Maverick, its emotional, brings back the memories of all scenes between Maverick and Iceman in last movie, how much their relationship has changed since that 1st meeting, and 'who's the better pilot' ending dialogue was fun one. 

Lady Gaga's 'Hold my Hand' is a pretty good track to finish the film at, I enjoyed One Republic's 'I ain't worried' much more with great visuals of beach and everyone playing football (it was volleyball in last film). I specially love the whistling in the song, and the lyrics that talk about enjoying the moment without any stress, something thats not so easy to do for majority of people.. maybe it very much suits Tom Cruise's personality. 

Tom Cruise over the past decade keeps coming up with performances (Mission Impossible franchise, Amercian Made etc) that could be applauded on the basis of just the action stunts alone for how good he is, but you gotta also admire that the other aspects of the character he is also able to bring out so well. I enjoyed him playing the dad kind figure to Rooster with one brilliant scene where Rooster says 'Talk to me, Dad', and we are cut to Maverick giving the much needed calm advice. 

Its fun watching his teaching methods, which expectedly aren't textbook based. Just watching that one scene where Maverick all by himself demonstrates that the mission is very much possible, you can't help but feel this movie would make for such a good experience if seen on big screen (I saw on mobile sadly). 

The eyecatching visuals, the thrill of watching Tom Cruise pull off unbelievable stunts with atmost ease and Hans Zimmer background score, can't really get better than this. The camera-work is pretty  good too as we are many times shown closeups of the pilots when they are attempting something that would stress their body muscles or make them blackout. Its breathtaking as a viewer making you feel the pain they are going through to be successful in this mission. 

The only reason why someone would not love this film I believe can be if they wanted a total original sequel with minimal references to past. I would have liked that too, but then did I still not enjoy this movie? I totally did.. Minor issues I had was, one they didn't tell much details about the enemy and other was that even after 36 yrs of commitment to see Maverick not been valued by seniors was odd even if I take under consideration that its Maverick's methods they are against. 

Overall, Top Gun is one of the best sequels ever, it delivers in every possible way. A super entertainer that also will get you emotional at many moments and it very much improves over the issues I had with last film. 

My Rating : 8.5/10 


Also, CHECK OUT -> Top Gun (1986) Movie Analysis