Actually, I saw it last Sunday, but just had a very busy week so I’m only now getting to writing about it. I’m not planning to really review it here, this is just going to be a post about my impressions of the movie, and of the general movie-going experience.

First, I have to say that I’ve obviously been aware of this film, and of its immediate massive success, which did surprise me a little at first, but then I guess it shouldn’t have. Barbie is quite a brand name, it feels like almost every woman in the world has played with a Barbie doll at some point in their childhood during the past 60 years, and this is the first live-action version. It’s surprising that it’s taken this long to do. And it’s weird how it somehow got tied to the Oppenheimer biopic, with both films debuting the same weekend, and the press promoted them together under the “Barbenheimer” brand which then drove two separate audiences to the theaters in record numbers. That’s so clever.

This wasn’t a film I personally had an interest in, but a female friend whom I haven’t seen since March wanted to see it, so I suggested taking her, so we could hang out again. I haven’t been to a movie theater since the first Black Panther movie, so that’s over 5 years. Even back then I’d grown less and less interested in going to the theater, so it wasn’t something I did often. It was becoming easier for me to just wait until a movie came on cable or streaming and then I could watch it in the comfort of my own home. Then Covid happened, which made me even more hesitant to get into crowded spaces, and streaming became even more prominent, with the wait times between even the biggest hit films going from theater to streaming getting smaller, and then some films were debuting on both at the same time, and there was just urgency to see anything in the theater.

So going back again was interesting, it wasn’t a bad experience, but I was reminded of the things I preferred to avoid. First I was surprised that now there are assigned seats. I go up to ask for two tickets at the next showing, and I’m shown a floor plan and asked to pick from the highlighted seats which are still available. I’m used to just buying tickets and then going in and sitting in whatever empty seats you wanted. The tickets themselves were about $21, which isn’t bad, but when we went to the concession stand, we just got to two little water bottles and a bag of Doritos, as we were planning to go out to eat afterward, and that was $15.50. I was like, damn. Next time I’ll just sneak something in. And then there had to be at least 20 minutes of trailer and promos before the film started, I forgot how annoying that can be. Especially since most of the trailers were for films that I have no interest in seeing, except maybe Blue Beetle.

Now as for the movie itself…

I thought it was alright. I’ll note that despite all the hype for it and the news about it, I didn’t know much about the film other than that Margot Robbie was starring in it. I hadn’t watched any trailers of commercials or read any reviews, so I really went into this with zero expectations or preconceived notions.

The general story is that all the various Barbies and Kens live in a magical mythical world of Barbieland. Robbie is the main Barbie, identified as Stereotypical Barbie, while the other Barbies a designated by their professions, like Doctor Barbie, Lawyer Barbie, etc. Ryan Gosling is the main Ken, constantly vying for Barbie’s affections, and competing with the other Kens. They spend every day acting out their dollhouse lives, where the women are in charge and it’s all fun and wholesome.

Then Barbie and Ken must travel to their real world, where they’re both shocked to see that the Matriarchy of Barbieland doesn’t exist in our society. While Barbie is disturbed, Ken is surprised and happy and goes back to Barbieland and tries to model it after our world, and gets all the Kens to take over and make the Barbies subservient to them. When Barbie returns, she sees how everything is messed up, and has to find a way to change it back before the changes become permanent.

It’s a fun little story, I liked it but didn’t love it. I think it could have been a little shorter, I may have cut about 20 minutes from the third act. But there were some good performances all around. Robbie and Gosling were perfect. There was also Simu Liu as another Ken, who rivaled Gosling’s Ken at first but then joined him to take over Barbieland. Issae Rae as President Barbie. America Ferrera as a woman who works as a designer of Barbies for Mattel, she’s the reason Barbie has to go to the real world. I always liked her, from Ugly Betty to Superstore, and she was good in this. Will Ferrell was hilarious as the CEO of Mattel, which has an all-male executive board. Helen Mirren narrates the film, often breaking the fourth wall to address the audience in a comedic way. Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie line. Micheal Cera as Allen, a rare character of the Barbie line who doesn’t have much purpose. They all do great jobs.

But the MVP of the movie to me is Kate McKinnon, as Weird Barbie. She steals every scene that she’s in.

I don’t regret seeing it, but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. But I’m obviously not the target demographic, and that’s fine. I came of course aware of the “controversy” surrounding the film from certain segments of society. Your Ben Shapiros and Bill Mahers think it’s all “misandrist” and “woke,” blah blah blah, and I think that’s just stupid.

Yeah, this is an unabashedly feminist/pro-woman/girl power film, and it’s not subtle about that at all. But what the heck did you expect? It’s friggin’ Barbie!

The whole concept of Barbie dolls is to celebrate empower and uplift girls, showing them that they can be anything they want to be. If female empowerment is something you have a problem with, why would you even bother going to a Barbie movie? Obviously, most of the negative critics just saw it so they could make their videos and podcasts trashing it for clickbait.

But I went knowing that I’m not the target demographic, so while it didn’t blow me away, I can definitely see why it’s resonating with some many women and girls, and I think that’s a good thing. Hell, it reminds me of the impact of Black Panther, which also made over a billion dollars at the box office thanks largely to how the underserved Black audiences connected to it.

I will be curious about what happens next. Personally, I didn’t see an obvious opening for a sequel at the end of this film,  and supposedly the director, Greta Gerwig has already said she doesn’t want to make one, but with this type of success, I’m sure the studio will try to change her mind. We’ll see.