TaylorSwiftFan
Member
You’re probably giving them too much credit there. They probably went so woke that it felt like a parody but isn’t intentional.
-
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.
SJRB
Gold Member
Movie was surprisingly good in the first two acts. It seemed very self-aware of how ridiculous the notion of a Barbie movie is. Looked great, great music, story was actually really good, Margot Robbie and my boy Gosling hamming it up in a great way. Very funny and the "yay, women!!" satire was so obvious I legit didn't understand people were upset with this.
And then suddenly in the third act the mom gives this five minute monologue about how hard it is to be a woman and all the arbitrary rules society enforces on women and I thought "wait a minute, you weren't doing satire at all. You were actually serious" and then the movie turned to shit and it never recovered. Nobody expects all this shit from you except yourself and I guess other women? The notion that women are oppressed by this hidden societal list of rules they have to abide by 24/7 is just hilarious. Who lives like this, seriously?
It was smart to put that Ken song in the finale because otherwise it would be literally 25 minutes of dunking morale lessons on the viewers about the difficulty of being a woman, how easy it is to be a man because they build and lead (the irony of this..) and what it means to find purpose for oneself (which by itself is a great message for a movie like this).
The actual message of this movie is all over the place. "Be who you want to be" I guess, with a very, very thick layer of "men control the world and women are always, ALWAYS struggling".
And can I just say that the psyop to destroy the Ken kingdom was fucking insane? Like actually psychopathic. The Barbies' only goal was to revert back to being the dominant power with zero regard for the Kens or their feelings and motivations. They just wanted their fantasy dreamworld back in which they were priority #1, which is basically what they condemned the Kens of doing. The whole "hell yeah let's go get those Kens" tone felt insanely out of touch with what was actually happening. The notion that the barbies were "brainwashed" into showing interest in their Ken and they had to be liberated from this was super fucked up. Not to mention they snapped the Barbies out of their "brainwash" of being an equal to Ken by explaining to them how hard it is to be a woman, while these Barbies have been living the perfect life and have literally no idea about the concept of struggle.
O and they try to fuck with Ken by acting like Barbie's cheating on him with another Ken while Ken does nothing but serenade songs to Barbie, in the hope the Kens literally kill each other in open warfare while the Barbies take back the world.
This whole segment was extremely fucked up for so many reasons.
And then suddenly in the third act the mom gives this five minute monologue about how hard it is to be a woman and all the arbitrary rules society enforces on women and I thought "wait a minute, you weren't doing satire at all. You were actually serious" and then the movie turned to shit and it never recovered. Nobody expects all this shit from you except yourself and I guess other women? The notion that women are oppressed by this hidden societal list of rules they have to abide by 24/7 is just hilarious. Who lives like this, seriously?
It was smart to put that Ken song in the finale because otherwise it would be literally 25 minutes of dunking morale lessons on the viewers about the difficulty of being a woman, how easy it is to be a man because they build and lead (the irony of this..) and what it means to find purpose for oneself (which by itself is a great message for a movie like this).
The actual message of this movie is all over the place. "Be who you want to be" I guess, with a very, very thick layer of "men control the world and women are always, ALWAYS struggling".
And can I just say that the psyop to destroy the Ken kingdom was fucking insane? Like actually psychopathic. The Barbies' only goal was to revert back to being the dominant power with zero regard for the Kens or their feelings and motivations. They just wanted their fantasy dreamworld back in which they were priority #1, which is basically what they condemned the Kens of doing. The whole "hell yeah let's go get those Kens" tone felt insanely out of touch with what was actually happening. The notion that the barbies were "brainwashed" into showing interest in their Ken and they had to be liberated from this was super fucked up. Not to mention they snapped the Barbies out of their "brainwash" of being an equal to Ken by explaining to them how hard it is to be a woman, while these Barbies have been living the perfect life and have literally no idea about the concept of struggle.
O and they try to fuck with Ken by acting like Barbie's cheating on him with another Ken while Ken does nothing but serenade songs to Barbie, in the hope the Kens literally kill each other in open warfare while the Barbies take back the world.
This whole segment was extremely fucked up for so many reasons.
Last edited:
John Bilbo
Member
I think the underlying message of this movie was something like "power = happiness, purpose in life and wellbeing".
Also "men should find themselves, but be subservient to women".
Also "men should find themselves, but be subservient to women".
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
How is that the case? End-of-the-movie Ken is less subservient to women than beginning-of-the-movie Ken. At the beginning of the movie, the only way Ken could find validation or meaning of his existence is through his relationship with Barbie.
John Bilbo
Member
In the ending scene with the dad in the car I got the sense that both the daughter and wife pitied him and did not really respect him as a man or as a part of the family.
About the realization of Ken being Ken it fell flat and empty to me. I mean it could be seen as a beginning of Ken's journey but as a resolution to the arc of Ken in this movie it was lacking of meaning.
Last edited:
John Bilbo
Member
That scene actually stopped me and I liked it for other than how it ended: it could have ended in her realising she is responsible for her own thoughts and expectations about her life. Instead they went with the brainwashing stuff over the Barbies and Kens which was just weird as fuck.
I thought she didn't say society is the enforcer of those rules though. I thought she was just generally ranting about the expectations on women, but she didn't say who expects those things. There was so many things to take in in that rant though so maybe I lost focus.
It was actually hard to say in the beginning of this movie was a satire or not or what it was satirising if it was. And maybe that is a good thing. Maybe it is good that different people come to wildly different outcomes when watching the exact same movie.
The script could have used a revision or two though.
ManaByte
Banned
But he was watching it in NOVEMBER,,,think the screenings were still packed by then?
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The dad is played off as comic relief in the movie, and if you go back in the thread you can see me making commentary about how I felt he was portrayed as a little too incompetent. However, the second part of your observation (you thought the wife and daughter didn't respect him as a part of the family) I don't necessarily agree with. He seemed more like a newer addition to the family who is still trying to get his bearings and fit in. It's alluded earlier in the movie that the dad is more like a step dad. I don't see where the pity aspect comes from.
That being said, I don't think you can reasonably extrapolate that the message of the movie is "men should find themselves, but be subservient to women" based on the portrayal of a comic relief minor character who only has a minute of screentime. The main message of the movie comes through the main characters' story arcs and character development through the lessons they learned.
Not sure where you're getting the flat and empty, or lack of meaning parts. Ken went through an entire character arc that saw him being essentially Barbie's slave based on how he was created, observe the "real world" and become enthralled with an incomplete notion of "free will", attempt to implement what he thinks is the best part about the real world into Barbieland, and in doing so realize that he can't achieve happiness through authoritarianism and the imposition of his will onto others, which in turn helps him to realize what actual free will is, which then has him "free his mind" from his original programming and then proceed to find an identity for himself that revolves around Ken rather than Barbie.
That seems like a pretty complex and literary Matrix-esque red pill story to me. Can you explain how this doesn't resonate with you?
Last edited:
Mossybrew
Member
Saw it a couple days ago and honestly I love this movie, it was just hugely entertaining. Lot of super funny scenes especially Ryan Gosling, I havent laughed this hard during a movie in a long time. Also some feels to balance out the humor. Just a really weird and unique film that actually felt like something different.
Eiknarf
Banned
Shakira Says She & Her Sons Found 'Barbie' to Be Emasculating
Shakira Says She & Her Sons Found 'Barbie' to Be Emasculating
Shakira is sounding off on the "Barbie" movie -- saying that its message of ultra-feminism and female empowerment is misguided ... and comes at the expense of men.
www.tmz.com
"I'm raising two boys. I want ‘em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost."
-Shakira
