• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Barbie | Review Thread

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
Sod it I'll give this film a go, as it looks like a laugh.

kaDNbhu.gif
 

Woggleman

Member
I was sitting at the mall food court which is right next to the movie theater enjoying my lunch and a group of women asked me to take a picture of then in front of a Barbie display so I obliged. When I handed back their camera one of them asked if I was single and I told her I was happily married which she seemed to accept. Just thought that was weird.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I didn't see anyone here calling for Gosling to win an Oscar so looked back through the previous pages and saw that a couple of days ago you said that you had just watched it having not expected much but enjoyed it and thought it had some genuinely good laughs. Now you just watched it, thought it wasn't your cup of tea, that you went in with your expectations too high and didn't find it funny? Did you watch it a second time and have your opinion changed or something?

james mcavoy split GIF
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
One more thing that I forgot to mention is how Barbie's character arc goes from being afraid of knowledge and death in the beginning, to fully embracing knowledge and the possibility of death because it's worth it in order to experience true freedom and the richness of the full human experience. It's an interesting contrast to other famous fictional characters who are defined by their relationship to death. For example Voldemort and his fear of death as his primary motivation.

A character arc that changes from one dimensional to multi dimensional is good writing, IMO.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
This is absolutely the most pathetic thing that’s ever been put on the internet.

I just watched his review and his follow up thoughts and I must say - did we watch the same movie? Either he's willfully misinterpreting the movie for rage clicks or the political brain rot is way too deep. It's a little silly at this point. If this is how he reviews movies, clouded with his own confirmation bias, I can see why his attempted past screenplays didn't exactly take off.
 

MegalonJJ

Banned
Got dragged to this by the gf. It was mainly garbage but okay garbage.

At the screening, there were a group of modern-women (you know, the ones who have cocks & Adam's apples) all dressed as Barbie doing their characteristic caricature of what they think for-real women behave like.

Parents of young girls looked disturbed - can't imagine why!!

What a time to be alive!!
 
Last edited:
I saw the movie tonight but was confused. I’d love an explanation.

At first, Barbie is perceived to be thanked for her contribution to a better human world.

Then, Barbie is shamed for making a worse human world.

Finally, she chooses a to become human to live in the worse world she helped shape, after making her home world perfect, to go get her pussy checked?

Best movie of the year.
 

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
I didn't see anyone here calling for Gosling to win an Oscar so looked back through the previous pages and saw that a couple of days ago you said that you had just watched it having not expected much but enjoyed it and thought it had some genuinely good laughs. Now you just watched it, thought it wasn't your cup of tea, that you went in with your expectations too high and didn't find it funny? Did you watch it a second time and have your opinion changed or something?

Oscar comments I was referring to tweets
'Barbie' movie first reactions: ‘Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar’ (nypost.com)

and yes this was my second run, AMC pass really isn't good for my health


I saw the movie tonight but was confused. I’d love an explanation.

At first, Barbie is perceived to be thanked for her contribution to a better human world.

Then, Barbie is shamed for making a worse human world.

Finally, she chooses a to become human to live in the worse world she helped shape, after making her home world perfect, to go get her pussy checked?

Best movie of the year.

she wasn't getting her pussy checked bro, she had no genitals. The point of last scene was, now you are a human so you can choose what gender you want to be. The whole LGBTIQA+ lol

and yes, I didn't get the second point either, why she wanted to be a human. I guess she wanted to explore her other endings
 
Last edited:

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Saw it tonight. Definitely not targeted for me, and that’s alright.

The Will Ferrell parts are the lowlights by far. Kill that and add more Gosling antics and you get another point or two out of 10.

I will agree with some of the critics that the movie feels ideologically confused at times. The real world is presented as just as much of a one dimensional caricature as Barbieworld, only a lot less fun, so it’s unclear why Barbie would want anything to do with it (despite the point it tries to make). If you had made the real world a bit more like the actual real world the arc about growing up and leaving the protection of childhood fantasy behind would be more effective. Maybe even lead with the same catcalling and objectification but then show what’s beyond that. But we only got complaining about patriarchy on repeat.

Cool set design in Barbieworld, nice to see some practical work there. The Kendom parts were the best, especially with the Barbies pretending to be interested in The Godfather with the Kens and all that. Funny satire.

The Barbie-centric parts were functional but didn’t have any humor land at all. The theater only laughed at Gosling’s moments.

Not great, and not for me, but better than Dial of Destiny.
 

DeaDPo0L84

Member
I feel it's as dumb for people to be in a state of absolute outrage as it is for people to feel emotionally moved by this movie. This movie isn't going to turn a blue collar worker into a sudden feminist, it's obviously written for a certain crowd while using Barbie as a conduit to deliver said message of "men bad women good". Do I think it's great for young girls to see this portrayed as a positive thing, no. But those same children are probably being raised by parents who are already pumping them full of this type of nonsense. As a 39yo man this movie regardless of messaging wasn't going to get me to the theater, but controversy creates cash so kudos to them from the marketing to the ability to get EVERYONE talking about it regardless of which side you may fall on.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
. When are men getting a big blockbuster movie about how shit it sometimes is to be a guy nowadays?
There is a fundamental disconnect between the "men soldier on ESPECIALLY when it sucks" type of masculinity and the "it's SOOOOO TOXIC for a guy to suppress ANY feelings!" brand of soy maleness. So it would be difficult to make a "pro male" film that doesnt trip all over one or the other. The best I think you can hope for these days is a Mission Impossible type man who tries to care for his own even if the women are all badasses just slightly weaker than he is.

I really can't imagine a film where the lead female gets abducted and tied to the train tracks and has to be rescued by the lead male. That kinda relationship is just done in hollywood.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
I didn't see anyone here calling for Gosling to win an Oscar so looked back through the previous pages and saw that a couple of days ago you said that you had just watched it having not expected much but enjoyed it and thought it had some genuinely good laughs. Now you just watched it, thought it wasn't your cup of tea, that you went in with your expectations too high and didn't find it funny? Did you watch it a second time and have your opinion changed or something?
giphy.gif
 

StueyDuck

Member
I just watched his review and his follow up thoughts and I must say - did we watch the same movie? Either he's willfully misinterpreting the movie for rage clicks or the political brain rot is way too deep. It's a little silly at this point. If this is how he reviews movies, clouded with his own confirmation bias, I can see why his attempted past screenplays didn't exactly take off.
Haven't seen Barbie and don't really give a shit about doing so because I'm not a 12 year old girl...

But did you guys really think Ben Shapiro was going to give a reasonable review 🤣.

I know legitimate reviews are hard to find but if your opposition to idiot far left media is far right media your just going to end up in the same pool of nonsense just with a different label
 

violence

Member
How many times is “patriarchy” actually said in the movie? That’s a pretty blatant buzzword and you can pretty much make assumptions about the movie.
 

Woggleman

Member
When you look at it the first Hangover was actually fairly pro male. The sub plot with the dentist and his fiancé was blatantly on his side and almost seemed like a parody of extreme feminists. I am surprised there haven't been think pieces talking about how she was actually in the right.
 

TheUsual

Gold Member
Just saw this yesterday with the fiancee. Definitely wasn't the target audience but nothing in it felt offensive to me.
Ken discovering the Patriarchy in the real world and bringing it back to Barbieland and the Barbies just folding over like cheap lawn chairs was just an absolutely hilarious plot point for me.
 
Last edited:

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
How many times is “patriarchy” actually said in the movie? That’s a pretty blatant buzzword and you can pretty much make assumptions about the movie.

It is mentioned a lot. It is not really a buzzword, and is an actual academic concept that is studied by sociologists and anthropologists. You could make assumptions about this movie, but they wouldn't necessarily be correct. Many of the assumptions I've read or heard are not accurate.
 

Raven117

Member
That's basically Fight Club.
This is kinda funny. Fight Club is absolutely an indictment of “toxic” masculinity but recognizes that without channeling what “healthy” masculinity is, then men fall into destructive patterns.

Edit: we chew on coffee tables and shoes without a job to do.
 
Last edited:

Woggleman

Member
This is kinda funny. Fight Club is absolutely an indictment of “toxic” masculinity but recognizes that without channeling what “healthy” masculinity is, then men fall into destructive patterns.

Edit: we chew on coffee tables and shoes without a job to do.
This right here. Nature abhors a vacuum and men having a healthy concept of masculinity that still encourages pride and self respect Tate and the manosphere will fill that vacuum. You try and tell these feminists that though and they don't want to hear it. They want men to just nod in agreement when they are told their gender is trash and terrible and not expect them to gravitate towards the voices saying the opposite.
 

Raven117

Member
This right here. Nature abhors a vacuum and men having a healthy concept of masculinity that still encourages pride and self respect Tate and the manosphere will fill that vacuum. You try and tell these feminists that though and they don't want to hear it. They want men to just nod in agreement when they are told their gender is trash and terrible and not expect them to gravitate towards the voices saying the opposite.
Yup. I tell ya…. Being a young man these days has to be tough. So much noise and confusion around masculinity. Hard to know how to go about just being a “man.”

Im lucky. I’m older and grew up with great parents in Texas. It’s easy for me to ignore the noise and be confident in my “masculinity,” but for others say parents who ever towards the left side of the spectrum in the liberal cities…. Woof… recipe for disaster
 
Anyways I thought the movie was going to pivot toward a message of... a society being run exclusively by one gender or the other doesn't work great and just makes the other side feel like used garbage, and that we need to work together in equality to actually have a great balanced world, but actually it was just "men=dumb lol".

It also undermines it's own message in that the men of Barbieland are meant to represent the women in a partriarchy, and the movie settles on deciding those people should never be given any power.
 

DKehoe

Member
Impressive second weekend. Fans or hate-watchers?


From anecdotal evidence, I know plenty of people who hadn't seen it on opening weekend who were then planning to because of the good word of mouth. I think the "hate-watching" is limited to a pretty small vocal minority online. The film's success is a good reminder that the vast majority of people don't care about culture war stuff.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Impressive second weekend. Fans or hate-watchers?

Fans. This movie has clearly hit a target audience that hasn't been catered for before (no, all the Disney shit doesn't count, that's male oriented stuff with feminism crowbarred lazily into it, which no fucker likes).
 
Last edited:

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
I took my daughter to see Haunted Mansion last weekend and it was filled with (i would guess) early twenty something girls dressed in pink taking selfies. Probably lots of teen girls as well. On a side not Haunted mansion was pretty boring. Even my 10 year old wanted to leave early. We didn't because I paid good money.
 
Last edited:

Saber

Member
From anecdotal evidence, I know plenty of people who hadn't seen it on opening weekend who were then planning to because of the good word of mouth. I think the "hate-watching" is limited to a pretty small vocal minority online. The film's success is a good reminder that the vast majority of people don't care about culture war stuff.

Pretty sure its because is Barbie and the name is very popular with little girls(even more here, can't count the number of girls and old hags dressing as Barbie). My auntie took her 2 grandaughters to watch Barbie and left the cinema in the middle because the kids though it was really boring(probably though it was some magical Barbie movie). But sales wise, yeah my auntie and her grandaughters contribute to that number.
Reminds me of Sonic 06 times.
 
Last edited:

Billbofet

Member
My wife and daughter went to see it. They both thought it was okay with Ken being the funniest part.
They did say it got a bit preachy in a few scenes or there were some outdated girl-power jokes that were a bit on the nose, but overall nothing offensive or "woke."
Both felt it was solid, but nothing special aside from the theater being packed with everyone decked out in pink.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
The film's success is a good reminder that the vast majority of people don't care about culture war stuff.

The culture war has pretty much been massively inflated right from the get go. Propagated by a lot of people who take advantage of a small minority of angry people to increase their online popularity.

When you take a look at the whole damn thing objectively, audiences are just flat out rejecting shit, and embracing decent projects. People scream ‘get woke, go broke’ … but all it really is, is ‘make shit, get fucked’. And thank god for that.
 

Woggleman

Member
A college aged summer employee at my work place saw it and said it was the worst piece of crap she ever saw in her life. She said wondered during most of the movie if the Ken's were gay and it was just weird. This is not some conservative and traditional woman either. She plays soccer and wants to try for the pros one day and is fairly liberal though reasonable.
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
A college aged summer employee at my work place saw it and said it was the worst piece of crap she ever saw in her life. She said wondered during most of the movie if the Ken's were gay and it was just weird. This is not some conservative and traditional woman either. She plays soccer and wants to try for the pros one day and is fairly liberal though reasonable.

Krystal Ball, the progressive political pundit, said she didn't like it either. It was too cringe for her

But I'll still go see it. Or wait for home release. It's almost at a billion.
 

Toons

Member
I just got the of the movie, and I had a good time. It took a while to get going but by the end I found it pretty moving and a nice encapsulation of what the "character" barbie was intended to be.

Also a surprisingly nuanced and accurate take on male toxicity without just telling the man "deal with it" it acknowledges the part that women play in men's self image and confidence. Ryan gosling does a really good job being over the top, kinda cool, kinda cringe and pretty intelligently written all the same.

The movie glosses over some of the real world issues, but in the end its about taking the good with the bad and being the change you wanna see. I thought it was a feminist message done right, and I think a lot of naysayers would agree if they gave it a watch. The movie is absolutely not about hating men, or punishing them but creating an environment of unity and balance.

Some of the humor doesn't land at all and some of it lands well. Ken's whole dance sequence and song /fight is great. Not the best movie ever made but I really can see why women love this.
 

Toons

Member
"Go woke, go broke" is and always has been BS. Lots of woke shit is doing just fine, if not breaking records in some cases.

Yea thats always been an online only thing. Great movies have flopped, bad movies have done well.

The market is a mercurial thing that is hyperanalyzed by every single exec every year, and sometimes they don't land on the mark.

I think the whole discussion of film success has itself become superfluous and ideologically influenced, there was a time when your movie doing bad didn't make it bad, and your movie doing good didn't make it good. Its a gamble.

A ton of films considered legendary today did little fanfare at the box office when they released. And in 30 years a lot of the convo surrounding some of these recent films are gonna be dated or forgotten.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I saw this recently again and immediately thought of this thread. I think most guys would like this sort of thing quite a bit.


3 hot chick' and a little old lady giving complements? No guy would complain. Then again, few ladies would complain if it was Brad Pitt or Henry Cavill saying it either. So that strip needs to have some fat girls and a meth head saying it to approach the level of creep necessary for it to really register for most guys.
 

Toons

Member
I saw this recently again and immediately thought of this thread. I think most guys would like this sort of thing quite a bit.



That because women generally arent a physical threat to men, so there's no veneer of ulterior motive coming from them, when it happens it's a genuine compliment.

In the alternative case, there's unfortunately been plenty of times those otherwise innocuous statements have been lead ins to less altruistic intent.

To drive this home, you'll never see a female complaining that a ten year old boy said any of these things to her, there's no threat. Its just a cute comment. When it's a large man, an older man, or even a scrawny adult guy though there's always the chance they are being condescending, creepy or passive aggressive.

Theres also plenty of times this can happen when a woman is speaking to a man this way such as if they are a douchey boss singling out someone.
 
Top Bottom