Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Top Gun: Maverick 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 22, 2022

Top Gun seemed prime for some sort of sequel the minute it launched in theaters in May 1986. Fortunately, that sequel never materialized until 2022 (earlier Covid delays notwithstanding) with Top Gun: Maverick, a toned and total package film that propels the franchise forward while still holding to the essential characteristics and underpinnings from the original picture. The film does what it needed to do some 35 years later: offer a more mature lead character training the next generation of Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission. The film capably looks forward and backward, taking the best of what made the original film a landmark of its time while constructing firmer drama and deeper characterization around it. Cruise has repeatedly stated that he would refuse a sequel were it not spot-on for story and characterization, and he has delivered a practically perfect cinema experience that pushes boundaries while holding fast to the Top Gun character and charisma that has made that original one of the most beloved films of its, or any, time. This one is sure to follow in those giant shoes.

Thirty years into his career, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is still a captain in the Navy. He is not interested in retiring. He is not interested in promotion. He is now a test pilot who, as he did in his younger days, pushes to the limit beyond what is expected and what is theoretically possible. When he pushes an experimental jet too far, he destroys it. Now, rather than being summarily dismissed from service, he is being called back to Top Gun, the elite Naval aviation training facility in California. He is to train pilots to fly a dangerous mission to strike an illegal uranium enrichment facility that is well entrenched and heavily defended. He has a maximum of three weeks to prepare the pilots. There is a wrinkle, however: one of the pilots he is to train is Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Maverick’s former back seater Goose, whom Maverick flew with in his younger days and died in a tragic training accident at Top Gun of which Maverick was cleared of all wrongdoing. The mission’s parameters place the younger pilots in a position of pushing beyond their jet’s, and their own, limits, if they are to survive the mission, all the while Rooster finds himself at odds with his instructor.

Maverick begins exactly like the first film: the familiar anthem gives way to Danger Zone on the flight deck, this time with modern aircraft catapulting off the deck. It’s a wonderful connective tissue for a film that is both greatly similar to, yet also very different from, the original. There was a playful overtone to the first, where this is a more serious, more mature film. It’s also a better film, which is saying something because the original is one of a few handfuls of defining pictures from the 1980s which still holds up today in its quest to blend testosterone with a serious story about loyalty, friendship, and pushing danger to the limit. This film manages to maintain a similarly high testosterone level while holding to a tighter dramatic current, superior characterization, and even more boundary-pushing excitement. Few pictures blend spectacle and story so well. Maverick will certainly be remembered as one of the best in terms of defining what the cinema experience is all about.

Although the story is strong and the characters are very well drawn, with intense dynamics that naturally flow from the first film, there is no denying that Maverick is a product of spectacle. No film has achieved so much aerial complexity as this. Viewers will be in awe throughout the film with the speed, scale, access, intricacy, and intimacy of the aerial maneuvers and photography. Yet this content does not overwhelm the film. Director Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Only the Brave) does wonders behind the camera to keep the film running on all cylinders: allowing spectacle to dominate in the air, characters to breathe and build on the ground, and photography to dazzle and delight in the tradition of the original film while forging new ground in Maverick. This is a complete motion picture in every way. There are no faults or flaws in it.

Top Gun: Maverick 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Top Gun: Maverick soars onto the UHD format with a stellar 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD presentation (with shifting aspect ratios). The picture is particularly bold and sharp, more so than the companion Blu-ray, which is itself a master class for that format. Here, however, there is no mistaking a fairly sizeable boost to sharpness and there is no missing the gains to object clarity, whether odds and ends in a packed bar, instruments in a cockpit, or training materials and graphics on the ground. The picture is a dazzling display of intricate, clear detailing that far surpasses the 1080p counterpart. Just like the Blu-ray, there are no issues with the source or with the encode.

The Dolby Vision grading certainly renders the film a good bit darker overall. Look at the scene when Maverick is speaking with Cain at the 14:02 mark. The UHD is significantly daker here, giving the picture a more ominous perspective, with more shadowy details that make the shot look like it's taking place in a room with the curtains drawn rather than the Blu-ray where the curtains look open. The same holds true during the scene when Maverick meets with Iceman in the latter's home office at the 57-minute mark; there's a different mood to the color grading but also far more tonal precision across faces and shadows. Look at a shadowy profile at the 53:58 mark. the UHD's blacks are deeper and offer a more striking silhouette shape. During daytime exteriors, the Dolby Vision grading proves far punchier and more vivid than even the Blu-ray, though still certainly a shade darker overall as well. There is no denying that, even if the image looks darker overall, that it is also heathier, more vivid, more capable of handling stark contrasts and difficult shots with a commanding ease and realism that the Blu-ray cannot match.

Please note that this disc would not play on my primary playback device, a Panasonic DP-UB9000. The player's firmware is up to date. This review is based on playback via Xbox Series X.

Top Gun: Maverick 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Atmos track is likewise perfect. That's unsurprising for a film that is the biggest release of 2022, which is also a big budget spectacle with countless opportunities for sonic excellence. It's the mach-10 equivalent of home theater sound mixing and Atmos audio presentation. The entire thing is a marvel, and it nearly defies review. It's simply perfectly balanced through the full range, from subtle sound cues to thunderous bass. Jet engine roars are deep and potent, hitting for all it's worth without falling into unbalanced, wonky rumble. Jets scream across the stage with pinpoint placement and seamless movement one end to another. Gunfire late in the film is terrifyingly and dangerously intense. Overheads carry a number of necessary supports that further draw the listener into the skies and the cockpits. There's always a perfect sense of weight to the whole aircraft dynamic, and the same is true of score: it's seamlessly immersive, perfectly clear, and presented with incredible bass. Dialogue is clear and front positioned for the duration. It just doesn't get better than this.

Top Gun: Maverick 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Top Gun: Maverick's UHD release includes five featurettes, one of which is exclusive to UHD, and all which are great. It also includes two music videos. The film screams for more, but what is here is great. No Blu-ray copy is included. However, Paramount has bundled in a digital copy code. Also included is an embossed slipcover.

• Cleared for Take Off (1080p, 9:15): Focusing on the lifelike aviation sequences, building a film that pushes the medium, rigorous actor training in real F-18s and military training requirements, Cruise's own flight training plan, and more.
• Breaking New Ground - Filming Top Gun: Maverick (1080p, 7:56): A look at the complexities of the filmmaking process, including building new cockpit cameras, jet exterior cameras, ground cameras, and the shoot's rigors and challenges.
• A Love Letter to Aviation (1080p, 4:48): This piece looks at Cruise's personal love for aviation and shooting the P-51 sequences.
• Forging the Darkstar (1080p, 7:31): A closer look at the hypersonic aircraft seen in the film: how it fits into the film, builds the Maverick character, aircraft design, and shooting at China Lake.
• Masterclass with Tom Cruise - Cannes Film Festival (1080p, 49:04): The actors sits down to talk up the film and his career.
• Music Video (1080p, 3:52): "Hold My Hand" by Lady Gaga.
• Music Video (1080p, 2:37): "I Ain't Worried" by Onerepublic.

Top Gun: Maverick 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Top Gun: Maverick is really something else. In a world of cookie-cutter, generic, bland cinema, this is what movie making is all about: it's a sequel, yes, but it's a sequel with heart, determination, focus, and visual and aural wonder. It's comfortable but groundbreaking, fast but absorbing, heartfelt yet still willing to fly by the seat of its pants. Credit Tom Cruise for his insistence on making a movie right, for caring about building a true, thrilling experience that is surprisingly one of the best movies of the year and one of the best entertainment escapes in many, many decades. Paramount's UHD delivers perfect picture and sound. Supplements do well to capture the essence of the behind-the-scenes story. Watch for this film and disc to be at the top of my best-of list for 2022. Top Gun: Maverick earns my highest recommendation.