Last week I went with some friends to go see the new Barbie movie. I want to be clear, this was not my choice. We were celebrating a friend’s birthday and she asked if we would go see it with her, so we said yes. I don’t watch a lot of trailers for movies anymore, or read news on movies, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here is my own personal review of the movie.
The Story
So, essentially, the story was weird. There is a world connected to ours where all the barbies and friends live. I can track with that. The world was ruled by the Barbie’s and everything was very barbie. Everything was perfect, girly, and overly friendly. There was a small rival between two kens, but even that was weird. Stereotypical Barbie, played by Margo Robbie, starts experiencing weird things and is told she has to go find the little girl that is playing with her and make things better. Yeah. Weird.
The Conflict
So, Barbie and her friends think that the real world is like theirs. Ruled by powerful women. Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, goes with Barbie and becomes really excited when he sees that men rule the world and believes that women are beneath them, to be used. He gets really excited and goes back to Barbie world to tell the other kens. Barbie finds out that the one she was connected to, and the reason she was experiencing changes, was because of a teenage girl’s mom. She wants to fix things so she takes them back to Barbie world, being pursued by Mattel agents. Once there, the kens have taken over and all the barbies have been brainwashed into serving them. They believe that it’s a joy to serve the kens.
The Solution
The mom, who was connected to Barbie, goes off on a rant about how hard it is to be a woman, which they discover breaks the brainwashing. They free the other barbies, turn the kens against each other and take back their world. The fight between the kens turns into some weird song and dance. In the end, Barbie tells Ken that he has to discover who he is without her and they all agree that Barbie World can’t go back to what it was. Barbie goes back with the mother and daughter, who have also mended the relationship between them, and becomes human.
My Opinion
There were some funny parts, but I did not enjoy the movie. Within the first few minutes I was contemplating if I could climb inside my bag and hide for the remainder of the movie. The story was dumb and did nothing to hide the woman verse man fight. The “fight” scene was ridiculous, as was the random singing done by only Ryan Gosling. The movie did not need a song and dance number. My opinion, don’t see the movie unless you like movies that are purposefully trying to be dumb. I don’t enjoy that genre, so I did not enjoy the movie.
Remember
Please remember, this review is my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own. If you saw the movie and enjoyed it, that’s great. There are lots of people who did. I’m not one of them. This is my first movie review, so feedback on what I should do differently will be welcomed. I want to do more, and even review some shows that I’ve watched. If you think that these blogs are stupid and I should avoid them, share that too. I’m not against any kind of feedback. Plus, I want to write blogs that you enjoy. Until next time, remember that anything can happen if you try.
Lol. It was an experience. I appreciate that you came with me.
There’s a lot of overt men vs. women, which is uncomfortable. However, it actually had some decent egalitarian subtext that I think gets a bit lost at times. In Barbieland, Ken is kind of created to have no identity outside of Barbie… and then things reverse. Both ways it doesn’t work for anyone. It’s not good for Ken to hang his identity on Barbie. It’s not good for the Barbies to hang their identities on Kens. My conclusion – it’s better for them to work together, alongside each other, for each others’ mutual benefit. That’s not explicitly stated and I’m not sure if they meant to be that deep. I could be reading something that wasn’t intended to be there.
I have heard from others that they found it to be a deep movie, all about how hard it is to be a woman. I think, though, that they portrayed it in such a way that it was too much man vs woman. So, that was not the best way to depict it, in my opinion.