Thoughts on the Barbie Movie?

[_Miew]

I personally liked the movie. The humor is very good, I got a lot of enjoyment from the visual gags throughout Barbie land. However, I found it's representation of men potentially... problematic for the more impressionable audience members. I feel this film has one of those stories where the protagonist can very quickly become the antagonist with a simple flip of perspective, and given the real world message it's trying to give I can't help but think this is a major issue with the plot. 

 

I am certain this film will be analysed by many students for many years to come. What's your respectful, constructive opinion of this film? 

[4uffin]

Is it bad that as a male I’m excited to go see it? (Planning on going next weekend hopefully)

[YellowJersey]

TBH, the last movie I saw in theaters was Deadpool. I've kind of stopped caring about movies since.

[dcgreen2k]

My gf and I are going to see it on Thursday, pretty excited! 

[4uffin]

6 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

TBH, the last movie I saw in theaters was Deadpool. I've kind of stopped caring about movies since.

Deadpool is a solid film though!

[art12354]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:49 AM, _Miew said:

I personally liked the movie. The humor is very good, I got a lot of enjoyment from the visual gags throughout Barbie land. However, I found it's representation of men potentially... problematic for the more impressionable audience members. I feel this film has one of those stories where the protagonist can very quickly become the antagonist with a simple flip of perspective, and given the real world message it's trying to give I can't help but think this is a major issue with the plot. 

 

I am certain this film will be analysed by many students for many years to come. What's your respectful, constructive opinion of this film? 

Have not seen it yet, the gf and I are excited to see it soon.

 

I'm curious, in what way is the representation of men problematic?

[dalekphalm]

One thing for people to know going in, expectation wise, is that this movie is primarily for adults, not children.

 

That's not to say a kid couldn't watch it with their older sibling or parent and enjoy the movie, but most of the jokes and plot will just go over their heads. This movie is for Adult Millennials, basically.

[Real_PhillBert]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:49 AM, _Miew said:

I personally liked the movie. The humor is very good, I got a lot of enjoyment from the visual gags throughout Barbie land. However, I found it's representation of men potentially... problematic for the more impressionable audience members. I feel this film has one of those stories where the protagonist can very quickly become the antagonist with a simple flip of perspective, and given the real world message it's trying to give I can't help but think this is a major issue with the plot. 

 

I am certain this film will be analysed by many students for many years to come. What's your respectful, constructive opinion of this film? 

I have not seen the movie, without any spoilers can you expound on this a bit? Genuinely curious. 

[Yummychickenblue]

I really liked the film. It had a great soundtrack and and a good message about the goals of feminism and how thinking of the movement of as just "womens liberation" is a limited perspective. I enjoyed the dance-fight scenes at the end, they were fun. If I had to offer a critique i would say it didn't go far enough in exploring the ways that patriarchy harms men but it was the barbie movie not the ken movie.

 

[BeefSupreme]

4 hours ago, Real_PhillBert said:

I have not seen the movie, without any spoilers can you expound on this a bit? Genuinely curious. 

I really enjoyed the movie myself, but I kind of get what @_Miew is talking about. I don't personally think there's anything wrong with how men are represented in the movie (if you understand the themes they're trying to portray), but they do kind of hammer in the "She's BARBIE, and he's just Ken" mantra enough that I suspect some people (who don't understand the point of the movie) will take that at face-value and use it to put people down. Also, minor spoiler: 

Spoiler

the Ken's never get true equality in Barbieland, so that left me feeling a little sad about the whole thing as it kind of goes against the direct premise of the movie

 

[Locrin]

I saw it yesterday with my wife and her sister. We all had a good time. Everything was of course quite American and dramatic but i loved the spectacle of it.

The main theme in my eyes were how:

 

Spoiler

Impressionable children and young adults are susceptible to bad influences and they need to develop the tools to understand the world better and withstand pressure from big companies. The Barbies and Kens are stand ins for tweens.

 

Ken came to the real world and were overwhelmed by advertisements telling him how he should be. In short, big strong, masculine, big truck, horse, in charge, tough etc. That appealed to him but it was not really who he was. But everyone wants to be big tough and in charge sometimes so it is an easy target for advertisers.

 

The Barbies were suddenly told by the Kens to act differently, be subservient and that the Kens should be in charge. Lacking any other experience than positive reinforcement from the Barbies around them they had no tools to understand how that was a bad situation, and how to get out of it.

 

The only thing I did not understand / like was Glorias rant about how women have to be perfect in every way, and how she was so stressed and sad and how everyone should pity women. What a whiny brat, she has a comfortable job where she has time for hobbies like drawing, she drives a nice new car, she has a husband which we know very little about but he seems okay. The only negative thing in her life seems to be having a difficult teenager. Oh no woe is her. Would actually love it if we saw more from her personal experience being treated poorly because she is a woman.

 

Disclaimer: This might be a US issue, and not something I or my wife can relate to after discussing the movie.

 

 

 

[DeerDK]

On 7/30/2023 at 10:53 AM, 4uffin said:

Is it bad that as a male I’m excited to go see it? (Planning on going next weekend hopefully)

No. This "men can't enjoy that" attitude has to go. I love listening to chicklit with my wife while playing som turnbased pc game. And I love musicals.

Also: A usually high brow movie critic in a leftleaning Danish newspaper gave the bloody movie 5 out 6 stars. And he is usually a grumpy old man. 
You wanna watch it, go watch it. And get a nice fruity cocktail to enjoy with it. Being a man should be about being comfortable in what we enjoy and not what other people think.