‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Has a Secret Weapon Even Its Makers Didn’t Know About: A Great and Timely Villain (Hint: It’s Russia)
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe striking if not really shocking success of “Top Gun: Maverick” is built around the simple fact that it’s an exquisitely executed blockbuster.
It seems to have everything a commercial retro action movie would need: a prime movie star — one of the only ones left — who still knows how to fold a movie around his image; jaw-dropping aerial-combat sequences that blow away any hint of green-screen fakery (because those are real actors lifting off and flying); the kind of ’80s nostalgia that, at this point, is almost too potent to call mere nostalgia — it’s more like nostalgia for nostalgia; a story just good enough to pluck every carefully planted heartstring of authority-figure-vs.-cocky-upstart, Tom Cruise-is-old-but-still-master-of-the-game resonance; plus the haunting presence of Val Kilmer (though it would have been even better if they’d let him speak in his own damaged voice).
Of course, what good would an action movie be — one that’s all about the interface of 1986 and 2022 — if it didn’t also have a great villain? “Top Gun: Maverick” has one.
Yet that villain is never mentioned. In fact, it’s not in the script. The filmmakers didn’t even know about it. Yet you can feel it as you watch the movie, lurking in the shadows.
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