Summary

• Hit Man's 97% Rotten Tomatoes score barely beats Top Gun 2, making it Glen Powell's most critically acclaimed film yet.
• Powell's role as a college professor/undercover cop showcases his versatility, blending comedy, action, and film noir in Hit Man.
• While Hit Man impresses critics, it will likely not sur the global impact and legacy of Top Gun: Maverick in the film industry.

Richard Linklater's best movies of Richard Linklater's extensive career as a director and screenwriter as well, Hit Man blends several genres to create a well-balanced mix of screwball/romantic comedy, action-inspired thriller, and classic film noir. Hit Man is full of interesting twists and cleverly toys with the concept of identity through Powell's dual portrayals of Ron and Gary while still effectively carrying some familiar tropes of beloved action comedies.

Hit Man features Powell in his most versatile role yet as a loner college professor who moonlights as a fake assassin for his local police department. The highly in-demand actor recently starred in the popular romantic comedy Anyone But You alongside Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney and will star in what is expected to be one of the biggest blockbusters of summer 2024, Twisters. real-life Gary Johnson, an undercover cop who presented himself as a contract killer.

Hit Man's 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score Beats Top Gun 2's 96% For Glen Powell

Maverick still outranks Hit Man in of audience score

Hit Man's 97% critic score makes it the most critically acclaimed movie of his career, just barely beating Top Gun: Maverick's impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%. While the ratings of the two films are virtually identical on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic also has Hit Man receiving more overall praise from critics, earning a score of 83 against Top Gun: Maverick's Metascore of 78. Top Gun: Maverick does beat Hit Man in of audience score, however, earning a near-perfect 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes compared to Hit Man's 93%, which to some is a more impressive feat.

There are many different ways to interpret these scores as well as many external factors that go into the overall impact of each Powell film. First and foremost, the cultural and industry impact of Top Gun: Maverick cannot be understated as the first blockbuster to attract massive audiences to theaters following the recent global pandemic. Not to mention the remarkable effort that leading man Tom Cruise put into the film, literally flying fighter jets to achieve as realistic of a product as possible. Top Gun 2 is also a long-awaited legacy sequel that was finally released 36 years after the celebrated original. All these points add to Top Gun: Maverick's favor.

Why Hit Man's Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Better Than Top Gun 2

Top Gun: Maverick has twice as many reviews as Hit Man, many of them with higher ratings

Of Top Gun: Maverick's staggering 477 critic reviews, the film received higher individual scores from top critics, receiving several perfect 5 out of 5 and 4 out of 4 ratings.

It's important to that Rotten Tomatoes is a review aggregator, which means that its score represents the percentage of critics who give it a positive rating of 3 out of 5 stars or better. This means that 97% of Hit Man's critics gave the film a review of 3 out of 5 or better and the same metrics apply to Top: Gun Maverick and every other film rating on the site. This is not to say that either film is considered to be 96/100 or 97/100, which is how Metascore arrives at its ratings. Technically, any movie can get any number of 3/5 stars or better and get a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes as long as they have no overtly negative reviews.

In the case of Hit Man, which is Certified Fresh based on 222 critic reviews, many of its reviews from top critics are in the 3 or 4 out of 5-star range, with hardly any of them going up to a perfect 5 out of 5. This can be confusing because percentage-wise, 5/5 = 100% while 3/5 = 60%, and yet Hit Man has an elite rating of 97% overall. It also doesn't help that some critics review the film out of 4 stars while others are based on a scale of 5. Of Top Gun: Maverick's staggering 477 critic reviews, the film received higher individual scores from top critics, receiving several perfect 5 out of 5 and 4 out of 4 ratings. This more accurately reflects its 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Which Glen Powell Movie Is Really Better: Top Gun 2 Or Hit Man

Pitting Hit Man against Top Gun: Maverick is comparing apples and oranges

As a pioneer in independent cinema, any new Linklater film is something to celebrate, especially after the recent misfires of his Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019) and Last Flag Flying (2017). Ultimately, while Hit Man is a fun and original watch that subverts traditional action-comedies and hitman movie tropes, it's difficult to argue that it will be ed as dearly as Top Gun: Maverick, which was a worldwide phenomenon and remains the 12th highest-grossing movie ever made. Despite Powell starring in both films, sizing up Hit Man against Top Gun: Maverick is comparing apples and oranges, with the latter being one of the best action movies of all time and the former essentially parodying action comedies altogether.