The Reviews For ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Are Hailing It As The Best Summer Blockbuster In Years

Reviews For 'Top Gun: Maverick' Are Positive Across The Board

Paramount Pictures


  • Top Gun: Maverick will finally hit theaters on Friday, May 27.
  • The review embargo has lifted more than two weeks ahead of the film’s release, which is always a good sign.
  • The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun has opened with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

After years of delays — filming was originally completed back in March 2019 —- Top Gun: Maverick will hit theaters later this month on Friday, May 27. And according to the early reviews for the film, the wait has apparently been worth it, as Top Gun: Maverick has opened with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score after 43 reviews.

Having seen the film myself, I can attest to the overwhelmingly positive response as the film is what a legacy sequel should be. While it may be blasphemous to some, I don’t like the original Top Gun all that much as the aggressive 80s stylization and themes are just too much for me. But what’s great about Maverick is it’s the perfect example of taking something beloved and updating it for modern audiences.

That said, Top Gun: Maverick still maintains some of that inherent and surprisingly earnest corniness but it’s far more palatable for a millennial like me. The action rocks and the emotional beats all work as well, resulting in the sort of throwback summer blockbuster that Hollywood used to be built on.

Luckily for Top Gun fans, I’m far from alone in my affinity for the film, as the early reviews from all corners of the entertainment world for the movie have been wildly positive.

Reviews for Top Gun: Maverick are positive across the board

“Joseph Kosinksi’s long-delayed sequel is a confidently rapturous, emotionally involving, take-your-breath-away great time at the movies,” says IndieWire, who gave the film an A- and said it’s the most “satisfying” summer action movie since 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

“Jets still scream and muscles still gleam in the ridiculous and often ridiculously entertaining Top Gun: Maverick, though in several respects, the movie evinces — and rewards — an unusual investment of brainpower. I’d go further and say that it offers its own decisive reversal of Maverick’s dubious logic: It has plenty on its mind, and it’s gloriously alive,” writes the Los Angeles Times.

“Hardly anything in Top Gun: Maverick will surprise you, except how well it does nearly all the things audiences want and expect it to do… Engineered to hit so many of the same pleasure points as the original, Top Gun: Maverick fulfills our desire to go really fast, really far above ground — what the earlier film unforgettably referred to as ‘the need for speed,'” hailed Variety.

“This legacy sequel is more than just a glorified tech demo. Kosinski’s film is allowed to soar so high thanks to its frivolous spirit and beating heart. The story at hand finds enough worth in justifying its own existence now more than 35 years after the original,” DiscussingFilm says.

Top Gun: Maverick is an out-of-bounds blast of afterburner fumes and thrillseeker highs that’s sure to please audiences looking for a classic summer blockbuster. Director Joseph Kosinski doesn’t lose the ‘80s nostalgia of movies that were light on reason and huge on chest-beating heroism,” IGN reports.

“The sequel follows the original beat for beat, to a degree that’s almost comical. And yet, as formulaic as it is, there’s no denying that it delivers in terms of both nostalgia and reinvention. Mainstream audiences will be happily airborne, especially the countless dads who loved Top Gun and will eagerly want to share this fresh shot of adrenaline with their sons,” The Hollywood Reporter claims.

In addition to Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick stars Miles Teller as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, a trainee who is the son of Maverick’s late best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, and Lewis Pullman. We’ll be releasing an exclusive interview with Jon Hamm closer to the release of the film — which hits theaters on May 27 — so make sure to check back for that.

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