This is unquestionably one of the worst films I've ever watched. When I found out Greta Gerwig wrote and directed it, that was the only reason I could even muster to try to watch it. I'm assuming that the whole concept was so dreadful chiefly because Mattel was one of the production companies behind it. As typically happens, heavily hyped films cannot live up to the flackery. This was no exception. I suppose it's possible I did not like it because I am not female and was not a child who spent much time playing with dolls, so I just cannot identify with the fantasy world it tries to create, or with the pseudo-feminist triumph storyline, which is not really all that triumphant in the end, though I hope the gist is that it does not need to be a triumph as much as it needs to be a catalyst for coequal cooperation.

Ultimately, "Barbie" has a poor, silly script, and fails on various levels: it does not work as a musical, the music is generally awful; it does not work as a comedy, the only effective joke is the very last dialog line of the film; it does not work as romance because the characters don't even think about sex; it does not work as a sociopolitical allegory because none of the characters are believable and none are even sympathetic. The film failed to make me care about anyone in it.

At the end of the day, there were three good things in it: Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie came closest to being believable and likable; America Ferrera's "Never..." speech was the only well-written and well-played dramatic moment; and Rhea Perlman as the inventor, and the climactic scene of Barbie's self-discovery that she sweetly supported. I believe stars Robbie and Gosling gave director Gerwig what she wanted of them, but why write protagonist characters that stupid and dull? And how did Mattel let this get released without noticing that that is the overriding characteristic of the protagonists and the whole film?

Was this film original and inventive? Somewhat; but it was also so derivative of the continuous marketing of the real product in the real world that the pink and the other candy-coating colors simply became tiresome, lifeless, unaffecting, and creepily commercial and materialistic. I suppose a story like this could have become a better production than this one, (it does *look* sleek and professional, but it doesn't *sound* like those attributes), and I'm really not convinced this story needed to be made. It's not "Lady Bird," and not worthy of that film's creative force.