Top Gun: Maverick Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs

6. The Genuinely Satisfying Character Development

Again, few would've been majorly bothered if Top Gun: Maverick was a down-the-line action film low on nuance in the script department, and yet, this sequel is a genuinely smart and emotionally compelling piece of work.

Perhaps courtesy of Cruise's regular Mission: Impossible collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the screenplay, Maverick is far more interested in the interior lives of its characters than likely anybody ever expected.

In Maverick's case this involves him examining his age and questionable utility in a world becoming overrun by drone technology, and also the unresolved guilt he feels over the death of Goose decades earlier.

The movie's other major emotional touchstone concerns Goose's son Rooster, who suffers to shed the weight of his father's demise and prove to Maverick he has what it takes to excel at the highest possible level.

That the characters' arcs might even leave you more than a little teary-eyed - again, in a damn Top Gun movie - is quite the achievement indeed.