Barbie the movie review

I loved this movie so much, I saw it three times within the first two weeks of showing. The first time I watched it, I felt like it wasn’t worth the hype and I was a little annoyed at the heavy feminism. However, I still had a great time and loooved the visuals. The set design was one of my favorite parts. Upon second watch I enjoyed it much more. My favorite part was the ken fight scene and my fav character surprisingly was ken. Ryan Gosling was hilarious and is very talented. I eat my words saying he was miss cast.

When I say the themes of feminism and patriarchy were heavy handed, I mean they were pretty heavy handed. I feel like if you asked a child what were some of the themes of the movie they would probably say girl power. That’s not bad of course but I feel like themes should be subtle not in your face. For example when Barbie was being ogled she said I’m sensing under tones of violence, rather than her just looking visibly uncomfortable she had to say as much. America’s speech as Gloria while powerful and true, those specific things about being a woman weren’t necessarily touched on in this movie so it just felt like a “yeah girl power” for the sake of girl power moment. Much like the “she’s got help” scene in Avengers endgame.

I want to emphasize that I did like the themes of feminism especially as it relates to child’s play. The town was ruled by Barbie and ken was just there. A lot of men thought it was man hating but it is simply the truth. No one cares about ken. He’s a side character in Barbie’s life. No one gets a ken to have a ken they get him to be the husband/bf.

“He’s an accessory he’s a purse with legs”

-Mr. Potato head.

But the movie by no means preached women are better than men. While everyone was mostly happy in a matriarchal society, we saw it still had flaws. No one is truly happy when either gender is overpowered but progress will be slow towards equality which is why kens got a small chair in government not jumping to be Supreme Court Justice much like women’s roles in real life.

A movie for collectors

There were so many references to Barbie’s from throughout the years it was like a collectors Easter egg hunt!

Other notes

I loved Will Ferrel as the Mattel exec and his minions. “A podcast hosted by two wise trees” but I had to role my eyes at the idea of this representing Mattel. Of course they had and have many influential female employees and while hilarious to see Mattel as a bumbling but well meaning group of goofy guys, it’s hard to annoy the elephant in the room them being a billion dollar cut throat monopoly in the toy industry.

A lot of people were upset at the ending and Barbie and Ken not ending up together. I didn’t care for the ending but I didn’t mind either. Just neutral. To me, this Barbie and Ken didn’t belong together. Barbie made no effort to be around him nor showed any attraction to him. These two characters needed to find out who they were without each other. (The point of the movie.)

lastly, as a Bratz fan, I hated the portrayal of the Bratz in the movie. Yeah they’re girls with attitude but to be so disrespectful to a grown adult! “Sasha” was out of line for that. Thats how you’d talk to a woman who thinks she’s Barbie? Anyway, my girls would never be rude like that.

Overall a great movie I enjoyed more with each re-watch and can’t wait for it to come out on streaming.#lemon8diary #barbietrend #barbiemovie2023 #moviereview #movierecommendations #lifestyle2023 #lifestylecreator #fashionblogger #feminineenergy #loveyourself