@kaito6 I saw it as a great way to teach children about gender inequality. I don't think it could have veered too far from feminism 101 without derailing the movie and losing those precious eyes.
Even directed towards adults, the very clear explainers were great directed at men who haven't thought much about the topic.
@jackdoddy that's fair enough, I understand that I am not the ideal target audience in that regard. Still even under that lense the ending bothers me - Instead of returning to kinda a matriarchy why not just establish gender equality in Barbieland? It's wild to me how the Kens are still homeless.
Review by KaitoVIP 2BlockedParentSpoilers2023-07-30T10:50:35Z
So, my feelings on this one are very divisive, so I will state first things I like, then things I dislike. I think this movie looks really good. The set design is awesome, I love how colorful it feels and the outfits are spot on. The combination of pink and light blue is great. This movie also had a lot of fun moments, especially with Ryan Gosling playing Ken. He absolutely killed the role, both in dumb fun and also emotional moments. Highlight of the movie of course was the dance sequence of the Kens. Absolutely in love with this scene, and I wish the movie would have more of that. I think the general intention of this movie to be empowering to little girls is sweet, and I do see how it also plays hardcore into the nostalgic factor for those who played with Barbie as kids. I’m not the target audience in that regard, but, the idea of how much this movie means to some people is kinda nice.
However, there are also things I didn’t like in the movie. The plot is not engaging, and apart from the humor I quickly noticed how I lost interest in the movie. The characters aside from Margot Barbie and Ryan Ken are also very flat, with some developments just happening off-screen (like Sasha and her mother making up all of sudden??)
The movie also was very on-the-nose with its message and themes, repeating surface-level feminism three times out loud, and I guess it serves well to convey that message to a younger audience but for me it felt tone-deaf. The ending I also take issue with as it just returned everything to the status quo which was previously criticized, and it felt like the movie went a bit into the direction that to solve patriarchy you reverse it which I don’t agree with. Overall it really is just surface-level feminism, though. Patriarchy wasn’t really explored beyond sexualizing and objectifying women, and Ken quickly changed his mind too but that doesn’t work in the real world, because misogyny is also a huge generational and systematic issue.
To sum it up together, the movie has very charming assets but the general plot and characters are not engaging and often boring, the delivery of its message is partly questionable and mostly feels tone-deaf and too safe. Honestly, I expected more.