Cocky "Top Gun" aces and a computer more vain than "2001: A Space Odyssey's" HAL work under the command of a driven military leader who's apparently never seen "A Few Good Men."

Digital Domain/Columbia Pictures Jamie Foxx portrays a highly trained Navy jet pilot in "Stealth." Click photo for larger image. 'Stealth' Rating: PG-13 for intense action, some violence, brief strong language and innuendo. Starring: Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx. Director: Rob Cohen. "Stealth" Web site Family Film Guide review of "Stealth" A Post-Gazette review from a family perspective: Rated: PG-13. Best for: Teens and up. What you should know: Navy pilots battle an experimental attack drone that countermands orders and launches a cross-border assault that could ignite World War III. Language: Racial insults, sexually suggestive jokes and not quite enough coarse language to warrant an R rating. Sexual situations/nudity: No nudity; implied sexuality. Violence/scary situations: Frequent scenes of peril and remorse, sanitized war violence, lots of explosions. Alcohol and drug use: Drinks are served in the restaurant scene.

Despite the title, "Stealth's" seen-'em-before characters and complications are telegraphed from miles away. Despite director Rob Cohen's high-tech intentions, the crash-'em-up adventure seems old and stale. Despite the weak story, the how'd-they-do-that computer imagery is spectacular.

Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx star as highly trained near-future Navy jet pilots who can launch from a carrier, skirt the edge of the atmosphere to any spot on the planet, surgically strike terrorist targets and make it back to the flight deck in time for dinner. Adding a pilotless drone to the strike group presents predictable rivalries, especially when the computer guidance system learns from team members and outperforms them. But when the computer thinks it's outgrown its need for people and dreams up a mission without regard to collateral civilian casualties or international treaties, the flawed humans have to hunt down and kill the machine before it kills them all.

Science-fiction writers have been grappling with the philosophical ramifications of artificial intelligence for half a century or more. When weapons systems can efficiently obliterate enemies with no risk to the lives of their operators, will it become too easy to make war? When we finally teach computers to think like we do, will they develop our personality problems, too?

The closer we get to viable artificial intelligence, the more relevant and specific those questions become. W.D. Richter -- a screenwriter who co-wrote "Needful Things" with Stephen King and helped polish "Big Trouble in Little China" and "Brubaker" -- could have used a script doctor of his own to buff the central-casting Hollywood sheen out of "Stealth." Borrowing too liberally and literally from other films has tarnished what could have been a great story.

Lucas, Biel and Foxx inhabit predictable characters without giving them more humanity. Lucas is the alpha male Top Gun who gets the girls and makes the decisions. Biel is the Top Babe who fights like a man, but is saving herself for true love. Gee, any chance those two might finally get together? Foxx offers no surprises as the less-disciplined sidekick who cracks racial jokes that are politically correct, I guess, because they're about Caucasians. Sam Shepard pretty much reprises his deadpan "Black Hawk Down" role as a colorless, aggressive military commander who won't take no for an answer. The bad guys are even more two-dimensional.

Director Cohen proved in "The Fast and the Furious" that he's got a knack for goosing weak scripts with overwhelming visual effects. He trades in the race cars for futuristic aircraft in "Stealth."

Turn off the sound and "Stealth" looks great: beautiful high-altitude vistas, harrowing mach-speed chases, boiling fireballs and dramatic shots from inside the mind of the computer. The real stars of "Stealth," in fact, are the two dozen computer-imagery and special-effects technicians who bring the technological fantasy to life.