PARIS — Three months into his term, Emmanuel Macron faces a problem that other world leaders would love to have: he may be too PR-savvy for his own good.

Counseled by image wizards Sibeth Ndiaye and Sylvain Fort, the 39-year-old swept to power on a wave of magazine covers and public relations stunts. Since taking office, he's only grown more ambitious on communications, shunning speeches for dramatic photographs, many taken by official Elysée photographer Soazig de la Moissonnière, and video shoots that serve his ambition of being a "Jupiter-like" president, above the fray.

Cue Macron's bone-crushing handshake with Donald Trump back in May; his James Bond-esque descent into a submarine from a helicopter; or, this week, his visit to an air force base in southern France wearing a suit that looks like the one Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (a.k.a. Tom Cruise) wears in "Top Gun."

But as Macron met Wednesday at his office with U.S. pop star Rihanna, having met a day before with U2 frontman Bono, pollsters warned he runs the risk of overplaying his hand. France is highly attuned to the potential for ridicule, excess or striving in any public persona. And with anger growing over a spate of budget cuts to be enforced in the fall, Macron's image-making could suddenly start to appear out of touch, insensitive or even grotesque.

When Macron's approval rating plummeted by 10 percentage points in the space of a month, pollster Ifop attributed the drop mainly to anger over budget cuts. But head analyst Jérôme Fourquet also detected frustration with Macron's frenetic use of public imagery, with respondents citing irritation over what they called "a communications presidency." Other critics are accusing Macron of acting too much like Russian President Vladimir Putin, another fan of action photographs.

"Macron is very much a man of communications. However, he should be careful because it's becoming more and more ridiculous," Dominique and François Gaulme, authors of "Les Habits du Pouvoir" ("The Garments of Power") wrote in Challenges magazine.

More than half of French voters — 54 percent — still have favorable views of Macron, according to the poll. Some experts believe it may be a good idea not to irritate them with too much Instagrammable imagery, at least until Macron's toughest reforms get passed.

But careful attention to viral imagery is making Macron world-famous. And as the seven pictures below show, his team is seeking inspiration far and wide for presidential setups, often from the United States (and not only from Barack Obama).

1. Top Gun (or George W. Bush)

When Macron showed up at Air Base 125 in Istres, southern France, wearing a flight-suit, French commentators immediately thought: "Top Gun." Macron, a child of the 1980s (he was eight when "Top Gun" came out), was channeling "Maverick" while trying to win over military personnel still boiling over the resignation of former top officer Pierre de Villiers. But the commentators missed out on another, perhaps more obvious, source of inspiration: former U.S. President George W. Bush's landing aboard an aircraft carrier in full flight gear to make his ill-fated "Mission Accomplished" statement about the war in Iraq. Compare below:

Tom Cruise reveals the title for the 'Top Gun' sequelhttps://t.co/7X10koEQta pic.twitter.com/9kr0jOsilf — David Dungay (@CommsGuru4U) July 12, 2017

2. Submarine (James Bond)

When Macron's press team released this photo, which shows him being lowered by helicopter into the nuclear submarine "Le Terrible" on July 4, the internet couldn't cope. Here was the president, a real person, behaving like James Bond or Jason Bourne. The framing of the shot, from above, with dramatic effects on the water from helicopter downdraft, was pure action film. "How freakin' hardcore is this Macron dude?" tweeted journalist Stanley Pignal. But even as he won plaudits abroad, at home the chattering class was already sneering. "Macron is (over)playing the superhero," ran a headline in Nouvel Obs magazine.

Visite aux sous-mariniers du SNLE "Le Terrible". pic.twitter.com/Eu9dYmrXCO — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 4, 2017

RT "@XHNews: Stunt man of @DanielCraig_007 fighting on helicopter during filming of new #007 #Spectre007 in Mexico pic.twitter.com/k8IQ1jTK2z" — Rakesh Taneja (@taneja_r) April 1, 2015

3. Sporty president (Barack Obama)

Here is one drawn directly from former President Barack Obama's PR playbook: photos of a trim president playing sports. In the top photo, Macron joined a game of wheelchair tennis to promote Paris' bid to host the 2024 Olympics. In the second, he's playing a neighborhood game of football in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles between rounds of the presidential election. Below are images of Obama, who was frequently photographed mid-effort, wearing a suit. The message: Your president is fit, trim and ready for action. Don't you love him?

4. Flag (Barack Obama)

Macron also likely sought inspiration from the former U.S. president for his official photograph. The French leader poses in front of a window (open) and desk, in front of the French and European flags. In Obama's version, the president poses in front of a window (closed) and flags of the United States and the presidency. French commentators immediately picked up on the similarities, the careful choice of items on the table (clock, two iPhones, open book), with some dismissing the photo as "too busy."

5. Guess who? (Barack Obama)

Not only does Macron use dramatic photos to highlight his personal links with Obama, he also draws inspiration from his stunts. Back in 2015, the then-U.S. president staged videos and photographs of himself calling voters on Mother's Day, in a series of "This is Barack Obama" moments. Macron pulled a similar stunt soon after taking office, picking up calls himself at the Elysée presidential palace's switchboard. Compare and contrast:

6. The Pyramid (François Mitterrand)

The president also draws heavily on French influences, namely former President François Mitterrand. The Socialist, who was obsessed with building monuments, some of which he also named after himself, presided over the construction of the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. A photograph of him standing in front of it is one of the most iconic of Mitterrand. Macron used the glass pyramid as the backdrop for his victory speech, in a nod to Mitterrand and his pharaonic conception of the presidency.

7. Bromance (Obama-Trudeau)

Before Macron, there was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And before Trudeau, there was U.S. President Barack Obama, another comms wizard. With their liberal leanings, snappy suits and "bro" attitudes toward sports and PR, it's little surprise that these men have sought each other out for "bromances." First came the (ongoing) one between Obama and Trudeau, but Macron quickly caught up by courting the Canadian prime minister at their first meeting in Taormina, Italy.