What a damn shame. A PG-13 Barbie movie from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, intended for those who loved and hated Barbie. I was looking forward to seeing Barbie. However, even those who hated Barbie would not call her fascist. This film borrows from so many films, The Truman Show, The Lego Movie, Legally Blonde, Toy Story 1-3, Singing In The Rain, Born Yesterday, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and so many more. Other films which I could not help but recall how they got it right, where this film did not.

Barbie is more than a film about iconic dolls coming to life. Filled with a lot of heavy messages, all of which are hard not to miss, and all of which are very forcefully delivered...repetitively. A week ago, I saw Oppenheimer. Had it been on the same level as Barbie, we would've been hearing the words, "Nukes are bad" over and over and over throughout the whole film. Yes, it would've been an extremely annoying experience. We, the audience, know nukes are beyond bad. The film gave its audience the respect in knowing this. Barbie, holds nothing back in constantly spelling out the same messages for its audiences. Did they seriously think the audience would not get any of these directly stated messages? Barbie has little faith in its audience and treats us like....dolls. In fact, Oppenheimer is over an hour longer and yet Barbue felt longer.

I do agree with several of the points the film makes, but it's not done in a clever or impacting way. Not just in one or two scenes, but in dozens. One of the biggest messages is feminism and inequality, to which I agree with many points the film, not so subtly makes. However, most of the arguments can be said for both sexes.

The film aims to be a battle of the sexes, but instead ends up less of a battle between men and women and more between privileged middle class and d-bags.

There was a little enjoyment with Barbie. Margot Robbie and especially Ryan Gosling both look like they're having a blast with their characters. The production design of Barbieworld is wonderful. There were some laughs scattered throughout, about 1 in every 4th joke. Gerwig did a fine job directing this, but the script ultimately brought the film down.

One other thing which ruined the experience for me was the audience. The 9pm audience on a Monday night of a nearly sold out show would not stop talking, or giggling during scenes which were dramatic and not comedy. One of the movie's best scene between Barbie and her creator which is a somber moment, had girls giggling left and right. Barbie was one of the worst theater experiences for me and my wife, who said it was the worst theater experience she's ever had, and even though she liked the film the audience around us ruined her enjoyment. Will say, at least Barbie was better than The Dial of Destiny.