海角大神

The arrival of 鈥淭op Gun: Maverick鈥� is being greeted not only as the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise smash hit but also as a return to the kind of high-style popcorn movie audiences presumably still crave seeing on the big screen. It also shamelessly draws on a nostalgia, however fuzzy and selective, for that 鈥�80s Cold War era 鈥� a time when Hollywood could pump up the heroics with glossy visuals and thumping pop soundtracks.

鈥淢averick鈥� is stylistically all of a piece with its predecessor. The director, Joseph Kosinski, and his team of writers don鈥檛 waste any time placing us in the cockpit, as test pilot ace Pete 鈥淢averick鈥� Mitchell (Cruise), takes a supersonic stealth bomber to Mach 10 against the orders of his crusty superior officer (Ed Harris), who tells our hero, 鈥淵our kind is headed for extinction.鈥� His response: 鈥淢aybe so, but not today.鈥�

Because of his old-school orneriness and love of pulling G鈥檚, Maverick has turned down loads of opportunities for career advancement in the Navy all these intervening years. He鈥檚 like a sky-high version of that hallowed Hollywood archetype, the aging Westerner 鈥� once the fastest draw, he sees his time ebbing away. Except there isn鈥檛 much ebb in 鈥淭op Gun: Maverick,鈥� since the whole point of the theatrics, almost as slick and pumped up as ever, is that Maverick is still tops. When he鈥檚 reassigned to his old San Diego stomping grounds as chief instructor of the legendary Top Gun air combat school, which now includes one female pilot (Monica Barbaro), it isn鈥檛 long before the young, dismissive hotshots shed their smirks.

All this intergenerational razzing would make more sense if anybody but Cruise, pushing age 60, was playing Maverick. But he looks fit enough to shut down the naysayers. Not that he brings a great deal of gravitas to the part: His character never has any real moments of self-doubt or world weariness. If he did, we鈥檇 be in a different movie, one where the people resemble more than action figures in a retro jamboree. Maverick is provided a love interest, an admiral鈥檚 daughter (Jennifer Connelly) with whom he shares some history, but the steam never rises. (Kelly McGillis鈥� Charlie, his romantic partner in 鈥淭op Gun,鈥� is MIA in the new film.)聽聽

Maverick鈥檚 only note of regret is prompted by the appearance in the Top Gun school of Bradley 鈥淩ooster鈥� Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick鈥檚 wingman Nick 鈥淕oose鈥� Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) from the first film, whose death he feels partly responsible for. No love is lost between these two, which, of course, means they will end up bonding.

The propulsively filmed climactic battle, for which the Top Gun squadron is being trained, is an extremely dangerous secret mission to take out a Death Star-like enemy uranium plant facility high in some unspecified mountain range. Guess who ends up leading the charge? Not surprisingly, the enemy itself is never named. In 鈥淭op Gun,鈥� at least we were told the bad guys were flying Soviet bloc MiGs, which limited the list of likely candidates. Here, presumably for commercial reasons 鈥� don鈥檛 want to alienate any potential overseas markets! 鈥� the villains are generic. With the Cold War reheating, it will be interesting to see if Hollywood feels free to once again bash 鈥淐ommies.鈥� Back to the future.

The only pull from the past I responded to in 鈥淭op Gun: Maverick鈥� was a brief scene between Maverick and his old rival 鈥淚ceman,鈥� now admiral of the Pacific Fleet, played, as in the first film, by Val Kilmer. He offers up a near wordless cameo that gives this wingding whatever grace it has. 聽聽聽聽聽

But grace isn鈥檛 what鈥檚 being sold here. More like bam, boom, and whoosh. 鈥淭op Gun: Maverick鈥澛爄s a perfectly tolerable time-killer, and I enjoy popcorn as much as anyone, but I just hope these won鈥檛 be the only kinds of movies that bring audiences back to the theaters.聽

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淭op Gun: Maverick鈥� is rated PG-13 for聽sequences of intense action and some strong language.聽聽