Caught an early screening, had some a AMC gift card than i needed to burn down.
I couldn't stop noticing how every leader, wise character or in a position of power was female or a POC.
President Kamala Harris.
Two Star Rear Admiral.
The V-22 Osprey Pilots.
The Temu version of Vazquez from Aliens.
Hillary Clinton as the Kamalas BFF and voice of reason.
The 5ft 80lb female asian secret agent that saves the day.
The 5ft military police chick is supposed to be guarding the most dangerous man alive, Ethan.
The Mantis from GotG chick taking down men twice her size.
Other than Ethan and Benji, White dudes were either bad or goofy. So the movie itself was okay, it kinda dragged at the beginning and the early attempt at Marvel - esque humor during a torture / escape scene.
The good: Hayley Atwell cleavage with a tank top in full IMAX glory. The stunt scenes, specially the underwater one.
7/10.
It was definitely held above water by Tom Cruise. I could overlook all the plot contrivances, questionable editing, length, convoluted plot and girl bossing because I got the impression that the director didn't hate me. No doubt because Tom Cruise was a producer and used his star power. If he wasn't in it, it would be awful.
For all the weird shit with him (being part of a cult, for example), I have the impression that he's one of the few people who can direct movies, gives a fuck about the normal audience enjoying them (as opposed to the "but muh undiscovered new audience of fags and women"), and has the horsepower to mostly avoid the stupid bullshit movies tend to get forced into these days.
Top Gun Mav was an excellent sequel to Top Gun, for example. Had it's issues, but still a great sequel and very much the same style of movie as the first.
Watching TG: Maverick in the theater, right before the movie started there was a video message from Tom Cruise both apologizing to the audience for the movie taking so long to release and thanking them for seeing the movie in the theater. For all his faults he seems to be a guy who legitimately cares about the 'magic' of the movies. He has always impressed me with his insistence on having real stunts in his movies and not going the lazy route by doing it all in CG.
Yeah its like the South Park episode where the normal Mel Gibson South Park parody comes in full Braveheart makeup going crazy, then picks up a script, gives thoughtful critiques and how to fix its many flaws, then leaves and the people say something along the lines of "Say what you will about Mr. Gibson, but he knows plot elements".