I had great expectations for the Barbie movie, mainly because of the writers (Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach) and the stellar cast with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling leading the way. Unfortunately I found myself disappointed, bored and shocked by some messages the movie tries to convey.

Starting with what I liked, the performances were great and in particular Ryan Gosling was spectacular with a wide range of emotions and a lot of humor displayed. Also the design of the sets was inspired with a lot of references to the Barbie world and the style was unique and recognisable. Finally some jokes landed pretty well and the movie (in the first half) is pretty funny. And the positives end here.

Unfortunately the negatives are much more important. Sorted in a order of increasing gravity: * some plot lines are bad and are closed so quickly that it would have been better not to include them in the first place. In particular I am referring to the mother/daughter one and the one about Mattel. Furthermore, the Mattel one is also a bit strange since it is useful to criticise however uses feminism to make money, while being a movie that does exactly that.

* the film becomes boring in the second half. This is due to a systematic shift in tone and style since if in the first part the satire is sharp and elegant and leads to numerous bittersweet laughs, in the second half instead the movie becomes full of exposition. There are a lot of scenes where things are directly explained to the viewer (clearly considered a bit stupid) and there are some too long monologues that are both cringe and painfully written. This is a pity because some ideas explored in the second half are interesting, but due to this shift "Barbie" becomes so boring to enjoy them.

* the messages: I found some messages the movie is trying to convey pretty baffling. First of all the film is not about parity, but rather about gender fight and I don't think this is the correct idea to give to younger viewers. I want that children/young adults get that as a society we want equal rights and opportunities, not to fight to be the dominant genere. This is also true because of the fact that there's no a single positive male figure throughout the movie because they are all treated like enemies or like total idiots. On the other side the Barbies are perfect entities. In a certain way it seemed "Birds of Prey" where the situation was exactly the same but in that case there weren't two of the biggest writer in Hollywood behind. Not to mention the totally worst thing that is how the Barbie solve the main conflict: instead of using intelligence they use seduction. This is so wrong because in a movie that wants to be empowering, women are depicted as better suited in seducing instead of thinking. All of these ruin other good ideas like for instance the inversion of the point of view that is useful to explain to men what women in our society has to live every day. That was pretty interesting but it gets lost between what mentioned before.

In conclusion, I was very disappointed by the "Barbie" movie because I actually had high hopes knowing that it could have been a fun movie with positive messages, but it was the total opposite. I've seen it with both females and males and the reactions were generally mixed and no gender pattern was evidenced in terms of appreciating it or not. However the great merit that I have to give credit to the movie is that it triggers a discussion capable of actually enrich people through sharing of experiences. And so, even if I didn't like it I'd suggest you to watch "Barbie" and discuss of it with your families and friends!