Shall I go see the Barbie movie today, yes or no?

[SmoothSeasDoNotMakeGoodSailors]

I've taken today off work to meet up with a friend and have just had a message from her to say her DD has a high temperature and won't sleep so she is cancelling. I've now got the day to myself and thinking I might go and see the Barbie movie. Been googling reviews and they're mixed. The cinema is an expensive treat - shall I go? Is it worth it?

I don't have pink clothes either so painted my nails pink instead . Enjoy!

Enjoy!

I loathe pink, so own no pink clothes or nail polish. No one was wearing pink when I went 🤷‍♀️

What did you think of it OP?

I really enjoyed it! It was not what I expected really despite reading the reviews. I get why people said to take tissues, though I thought it was poignant rather than sad. Margot Robbie was perfectly cast, I can't think of anyone else that could have filled the role. Not sure why people think Ryan Gosling should get an Oscar though! He was good but it was definitely Margot's film.

I just don't get their target audience though. It was clearly aimed at an older audience, about female empowerment, but - Barbie's a doll aimed at kids. So there were lots of kids in the audience, seen "Barbie" marketed and wanted to see it - and who were obviously bored. Mattel were clearly involved but they don't stand to take much in merchandise given older audiences aren't going to buy Barbies on the back of it. Why didn't they just go for a kids film?

Sorry, not quite clear - why did Mattel not go for making it a kids film?

@SmoothSeasDoNotMakeGoodSailors Mattel want their brand out there to bring it to a new generation. I genuinely don't know any kids who have Barbies these days. They are making tons from the licensed merchandise too. Parents are the ones with money and if they think the brand is cool, they will spend. I was in London and people were queuing to go to Selfridges for their Barbie pop up, all adults. If Ryan is nominated for an Oscar, that will be even more coverage for months.

Personally I enjoyed the movie but I'd never buy the brand for my children or myself as I still think it's a dated brand, too focused on looking perfect. But I'm sure there will be a lot of parents buying Barbie again now.

i think the film is aimed at the mothers.

i intentionally went to the late evening booking so no chance of kids being there!

Adults do buy toys! There are tons of nostalgia movies out now for people who feel affectionate for the toys and characters of their childhood and adults buy the stuff to collect. They'll buy it for their kids too now as well, and kids are dialled into the marketing and the memes even if they haven't seen the movie. I think it's much more clever to hook in nostalgic grown-ups than make a movie purely for kids; they've really broadened their reach. I think the voice of Gen Z in the movie being so disparaging about Barbie means they will have to change Barbie up a bit for them though.

I'm glad you liked to movie, I loved it! There's a few reasons I can think of re why not make it a kids film. There have been 43 previous Barbie movies aimed at children. This one however is on track to end up as one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time - you definitely can't say that about the other 43! I also think it's unlikely that filmmakers of the calibre of Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling would ever sign up to make a Barbie movie aimed at kids, so it would probably have been a 44th Barbie film that hardly anyone knew existed. Brand consciousness for Barbie is now huge. This will no doubt have a massive impact for years to come - it's much more than the initial merchandise sales related solely to the film release. The film's message also encourages you (ie adults - who might buy Barbies for children at some point in the future) to re-evaluate how you think of what Barbie represents. I'm certainly more likely to buy a Barbie as a gift for a child now whereas I'd never have considered it previously. I think it's a very clever move all round!

Glad you enjoyed it. I loved it too but have to say it was Ryan who constantly made me laugh out loud!! Margot was good but her character was not that hard to act. Ryan was hilarious!

Wanted to come back to this thread as I've now seen the film (forced by my children and their friends).

I stand by my earlier comments re 'pretend feminism'. It's superficial as fuck.

It's visually lovely. Margot Robbie is OK. Ryan gosling is meh..he could be anyone with a six pack.

The film isn't half as clever or subversive as it pretends to be

It takes on the 'easy' questions of feminism (representation at high levels in business, being objectified) and doesn't go anywhere near the really difficult ones (abortion, rape, trans issues, eating disorders, self harm, racism, child abuse).

It's feminism ultra-lite-lite-lite for 12 year olds. And even then it falls short.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. It's a million miles from being a genuinely subversive or feminist film

I thought and said this before I saw it, but can now speak from a more informed perspective!

Oh and to add: I went with 2 x 12 year old girls and 2 x 9 year old boys, none of whom fully understood it. There was a mum there with three much younger children who left before the end. There were also three middle-aged to elderly (say 60ish) women behind us who also left halfway through.

I don't know what it's trying to be, but it doesn't really land anywhere. It can't afford to approach the really difficult questions because no Hollywood studio would go near it..but it's not a simple crap kids' film either.

I can see that Greta Gerwig could have made something amazing but there was no scope for that here. There were some gorgeous moments in it

But to pretend that this is a film that genuinely explores what it means to be a girl/woman now is a joke..

Couldn’t agree more @Superfood , it has no depth and I just didn’t understand who it was for.

Well the movie has triggered my DC to play with their barbies again, and they were doing a competition today to see which barbie could put her feet down the flattest, so that’s what mine took from it 😂

I'm going to sound judgey here but one reason the feminism preaching annoyed me was because i find Greta Gerwig quite distasteful because she allegedly had an affair with her now partner whilst his wife was 8m pregnant. Essentially from the same school as Claire Danes and Geri Halliwell. Plus Margot Robbie really owes her career to going full frontal in Wolf of Wall Street.

i dont know about Margot Robbie, but she was great in this, as she was in I Tonya.