Top Gun: Maverick 4K review

Nov 04, 2022- Permalink

It’s been 36 (!) years since Top Gun gave film-goers a shot of high speed, high altitude fun and audiences and critics alike have said that its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, was worth the wait with a perfect blend of action and poignant moments. A huge success at the box office, the film is now available for your home library with Paramount’s 4K release. I had a chance to take a look.

Tom Cruise returns as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who is now a test pilot pushing new plans past their limits. His antics have always seemed to have him on the verge of dismissal, but this time around he’s called back to the Top Gun training facility to prepare a new batch of pilots for a very dangerous mission that will require the skills that Maverick has to teach. One of the pilots, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) is the son of Goose, Maverick’s late radar intercept officer and best friend. Rooster blames Maverick for his dad’s death and the pair frequently clash. The movie also stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio for most scenes and the IMAX aspect ratio of 1.90:1 for action sequences. The video presentation looks amazing with fantastic detail in facial features, environments and textiles. The colour palette and contrast is amazing as well, with bright blue skies, white clouds, and scorching sunlight. The HDR adds to the highlights of fiery explosions and metallic reflections, while the black levels are deep and allow for detail to remain in darker moments and shadows. I’m going to say it again, it looks amazing.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 as well as Czech, Spanish, Latin Spanish, French Canadian, Italian, Hungarian and Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, and Thai. I’m going to use that word again: the audio on this disc is amazing. The Atmos soundtrack places you in the cockpit and in the middle of every scene with perfection. You subwoofer will rock you with every explosion or knock you back as the jet engines thunder fighter jets through the sky. The score is powerful and dynamic, while dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized. This is the type of movie that people will use to show off their home theatres.

The 4K disc comes with a digital code. Bonus features include featurettes on the flight sequences and training the cast went through, a look at the production complexities of shooting the aviation scenes, a look at Cruise’s love for flying, a piece on the creation of the test vehicle Maverick flew, a 49 minute interview with Cruise at the Cannes Film Festival, and music videos from Lady Gaga and Onerepublic.

I’ve used the word amazing a lot, but the Top Gun: Maverick 4K deserves it. Of course it’s recommended.