'Top Gun: Maverick' takes off with Tom Cruise on a rousing flight into the sequel zone

Nimbly mixing nostalgia and full-throttle action, "Top Gun: Maverick" soars higher than it has any right to, constructing a mostly terrific sequel 36 years later (including a Covid release delay), using a good but not great movie as its jumping-off point. That might not be enough to take your breath away, but as brawny summer entertainment goes, it comes shockingly close.

The original featured Tom Cruise on the early cusp of his movie stardom, but he demonstrates that even as an older guy there's still plenty left in the tank. If you needed bookends for nearly four decades of roles, you could do a whole lot worse than this.

Older but not necessarily wiser describes Cruise's Pete Mitchell, a.k.a. Maverick, the daredevil Navy pilot whose career hasn't matched his high-flying skills, largely because he has a bad habit of sidestepping orders and flouting authority.