Can anyone say BAHBIE!
I watched the Barbie movie last night with my mom and sisters. The first 2/3 of the film was really good, extremely funny, good production quality, and Robbie and Gosling's performances, especially Gosling's, were spectacular. But the last 1/3 was nothing but feminist propaganda about how it's impossible to be a woman in a man's world, and as the credits rolled, we just kind of felt irritated. Basically, a good chunk of the plot toward the end became the fact that the Kens took over Barbieland, because they wanted it to be "patriarchal" like the real world, and the Barbies had to use their feminine wiles to regain control of their government and society. As the story wound down, it became clear that the Kens were only trying to take over the world because they felt unloved by the Barbies, and it seemed like the lesson was going to be that Kens are people too, essentially, but instead it turned into this misandrist thing where the Barbies in the end refused to incorporate them into their society in a fair and equal way. For example, the Kens ask if they can have a man on the Barbie Supreme Court, and they are denied this. Barbie also admits that she doesn't love Ken, which basically breaks his heart, and we are supposed to not care because he has to learn to stand on his own without her, for some reason. The story also concluded that "stereotypical" Barbie (as she was called in the film), has no place in Barbieland anymore, which was unsatisfying and strange. There was one Barbie played by a transgender actor, although the role was really pretty small. There was also a joke about the Snyder Cut of Justice League that my sister and I found to be in extremely poor taste, Snyder devotees that we are, but that will be neither here nor there for most people. We rated it a 7.5 out of 10, because it will be fun to watch again, but the last 20 minutes are basically a throw-away.
