Barbie Movie

Here's my take....
 The trailer for Barbie hints at a light weight comedy about Barbie turning up life size in the real world  with all the male oogling that would follow. There's humorous references to other movies -  red pill blue pill scene for example.

In my view, it's actually an interesting social commentary on stereotypes and a good discussion starter.

To me the end result was flat. It didn't give hope. My opinion anyway.

I felt that one message was that women can only be successful in a protected environment. I felt the movie started that way and ended up finishing pretty much the same same way. All those various competent Barbies only existed in the fantasy protected world.

Ken lives a life of pointless existence and perpetual rejection. Bit of a raw nerve for me. At one point early in the movie, the narrator says something like: "Every day is a good day for Barbie but for Ken a good day is if Barbie looks at him". He keeps trying to get Barbies attention but she's got no interest. "tonight is girls night.... Every night is girls night..." 

The "real world" is portrayed as even more male than is reality and that keeps with the stereotype theme. The Mattel board is all male (and possibly white? ) Ken "discovers" being a man is about horses and big 4 wheel drives and beer. Which he takes back to barbie land.

Then there's this assertion that the Ken's have somehow brainwashed the Barbies. Thought that was disrespectful to both men and women.  (Like... really??? can men brainwash women and really, are women so weak that they can be brainwashed by men.... really???)

By the end of the movie, it felt like normality, as portrayed by the movie, had been restored. The Barbies were back in charge in barbie land. Ken was irrelevant as always and Barbie moved to the real world. And there's a nice little final comment about gender right at the end.