I figured we needed a place to discuss this one. While Barbie did not begin life as a comic book, she certainly had one for a while, and (more importantly) this film is the most credible threat to the near monopoly that comic book heroes have held over the movie industry for the past decade. Critics seem to be praising the film more for doing something different than the typical Marvel, Warner, and Sony offerings than for anything else.

I do have to say that my wife and I saw this opening weekend, expecting a few laughs, and both fell in love with it. I think I enjoyed it even more than she did and have now seen it three times. It's not a perfect film by any stretch, but it's hilarious, has surprising depth, and may be the most intelligent and inspiring commentary on gender issues in our society that I've ever seen on screen. It would have been so easy to say "girls = good, men = toxic," but they dug so much deeper, actually managing to make Ken (the center of male toxicity in Barbeland until his awakening at the end) the most sympathetic character in the film. I truly hope the inevitable follow-up film will continue to probe these issues deeply and maybe begin to show us a new way forward, and I also hope it sets a new bar for mainstream filmmaking where big box office films can be fun, mindless, and offer deep, thought-provoking conversations that move the meter on social issues, all at the same time.

And yeah, it was cool seeing the fangirls get to take center stage at the movie theater for once, too.