This post is part 3 of the barbenhimer double feature review.
Please see post:
https://lemmy.world/post/1887202
&
https://lemmy.world/post/2099301
Barbie review:
This movie isn't hard to review. Its enjoyable to watch, funny for all ages. Just the right amount of meta and it ends on a nice warm message.
It does get a little long near the end. And if you can't sit through "woke" movies you're gonna have a bad time. But it is funny and weird and if you ever played with a Barbie you should def watch it. Especially if your a person with some old Barbie's you held on too.
Spoilerzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I really enjoyed it and i might watch it again . It highlighted all kinds weird discontinued barbies and kens. Like Alan. Lmao.
There's lotz of easter eggs and one liners me and my friends have been saying all day:
"These mojo dojo casa houses are flying off the shelves!"
"Yo let me get a brewsky beer!"
" just tell him you've never seen the god father "
"if you wanna beach him off, you gotta beach me off first"
And of course it has a really nice positive message for the viewer. Which make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
The film actively engages with some of the more problematic things about Barbie. like Barbie's race and the negative impacts that Barbie has had on young women.
It also does a good job dealing with how Barbie and Ken are not romantically involved.
I really liked Kens' journey. In the Beggining He defines himself as an accessory to Barbie while actively seeking a relationship with her. One Barbie is obviously not interested in. The film takes time to breakdown this behavoir and show a positive way out for Ken. One that is based in personal growth.
Its a wacky movie, and im reading into it. You don't have to do that. It is easy to enjoy.
Theres a lot more to mention but ill leave that to y'all.
Go check it out!
Would recommend to a friend!
I've had some issues with it, like how the fantastical elements aren't really well-explained or connected, and I didn't like the superficial take on sexism and misogny (there were good bits, but everything felt so lip-service at the same time).
I know it's a fantasy comedy based on a toy line, but it still needs to have some grounding, and I didn't think it did it quite well as the Lego movie, for example (which I still had some questions, but it did it enough that I could carry my suspension of disbelief over).
I think the superficial nature of the overall conflict between the Kens and Barbies (and Midge and Allan) isn't the main point of the movie. It helps to highlight certain negative aspects of the real world, but the overall journey of the movie is Stereotypical Barbie's. You see her journey from a world where she is the epitome of perfection in her own little world, to being confronted with feelings of imperfection and self-reflection. This is reflected in Ken's introduction of "the patriarchy" to Barbieland, and his own struggles with the inadequacies he's always felt, being little more than an accessory to Barbie.
In regards to the LEGO movie, Barbie is the next film in the "Will Ferrell is a bad toy company executive" cinematic universe.