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.
Late to the party. But i saw it recently. Went in for a laugh. And a laugh I did have (or rather many)
To respond to OP, all valid points and definitely girlbossing all-round.
Critical Drinker pointed out how a big theme of the story was the appeal to emotion over reason. Mainly how Ethan successfully emotionally manipulates people into going along with his ideas. But executed poorly. Even moreso when his team tries to do the same but executed poorly also, while failing to manipulate people at the same time.
Works for Ethan because the series has built him up as a master agent, and his achievements also speak for him -- i.e when he convinces the president after his turning himself in. So his record adds to his credibility when he proposes seemingly impossible ideas.
As for me, on top of all that - I couldn't help but laugh a lot at the meta narrative: AI and mutually assured destruction. The producers (or whoever made the final OK on certain story elements) really wanted to present AI as a existential threat to humanity. That whoever controls it (not Russia, not China) would rule the world. And that it was elevated to such a god-like status that it played into Ethan's emotional manipulation tactics quite well. His common approach was to unite "enemies" by claiming that this AI was so indiscriminate that it was best for the Global interests people work together to defeat something that goes beyond conventional borders.
Really trying to sell AI as this highly powerful, highly competent, invincible force that will radically change the world. Also really trying to sell that all these problems are best handled by our trustworthy governments and militaries, and that everyone else is helpless when left to their own devices.
So the AI boogeyman along with the "Kamala" prediction were two glaring overt messages that I couldn't take seriously and laughed out loud every time those scenes played in the cinema.
Only standout part of the movie was the submarine dive. Could've been better with fewer of the frequent CG cuts to the submarine. One or two shots to simply introduce the danger would've been enough.