The reviews are in for Barbie and yikes, some of them are fully savage

Barbie is probably the most anticipated film of the decade. The whole world is gearing up for Barbenheimer day; you cannot go anywhere on social media without seeing endless streams of the cast’s press interviews; and you can now buy a Barbie-fied version of basically anything you’ve ever dreamed of and even stay in her Malibu Dreamhouse. The film has every famous person you’ve ever encountered, from Netflix faces Nicola Coughlan, Emma Mackey and Ncuti Gatwa, to Hollywood stars like Will Ferrell and America Ferrera, and the whole thing is soundtracked by the likes of Lizzo to Billie Eilish. All in all, it’s set to be huge. But the Barbie reviews are now in, and it’s safe to say they’re a mixed bag.

While basically every Barbie review agrees the film is funny (although some people are a lot more positive about it than others), some of the reviews are pretty savage, calling the movie “disjointed” and too self-aware, even saying that Ryan Gosling’s Ken overshadows Margot Robbie’s Barbie. But other Barbie reviews say the Greta Gerwig film is essentially a groundbreaking masterpiece. I guess we all just have to watch it for ourselves to find out – what a shame x

‘Uneven and disjointed’: The Barbie reviews are here

“Barbie is fun”, one Daily Mail journalist said, but “it won’t change your life”. Another went even more savage, saying the film is “uneven, disjointed, the plot makes no real sense”. Ouch.

“It’s a movie that’s enormously pleased with itself”, a review in Time says. “Barbie never lets us forget how clever it’s being, every exhausting minute.”

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Ryan Gosling “is allowed to steal the whole film” as Ken, the Guardian writes, “and so often Barbie winds up playing the bland comic foil to comic characters” like Ken and Weird Barbie, played by Kate McKinnon.

Weird Barbie

The Guardian gives Barbie three out of five stars, saying the film “has to keep second-guessing … the anti-Barbie impulse with a stream of knowing references and self-aware meta-gags”. Ultimately, it calls Barbie a very funny and “good-natured but self-conscious movie”.

‘Hilarious and deeply bizarre’

But not all is lost! In a four-star review, The Telegraph says Barbie is “deeply bizarre” but “roar-out-loud hilarious”. Despite the film’s marketing team seemingly having the biggest budget known to mankind, the journalist says the film itself “is far from the blunt-force cash grab many of us feared”.

Ken

Barbie is “painfully funny”, Empire says in a four-star review, calling Margot Robbie “hilarious” but Ryan Gosling a “scene-stealer”. “Life after Barbie will simply never be the same again”, it says.

The Independent gives Barbie a full five stars, calling the film “a near-miraculous achievement” which is “joyous from minute to minute to minute”, in an overwhelmingly positive review.

“Barbie is a new, bold, and very pink entry into the cinematic coming-of-age canon”, IGN says. It advises everyone to wear their “pinkest outfit” to Barbie, and to remember to bring tissues when you go to see the “hyper-femme roller-coaster ride”.

One journalist summed it up on Twitter, saying that despite the fact they think “the story overall is quite weak”, Barbie is “a hoot and well worth the watch”.

Full pink ‘fit at the ready, I for one cannot wait to watch.

All images including featured image via Barbie trailer on Warner Bros/YouTube 

More Barbie stories recommended by this writer:

• Barbie finally premiered, so here’s everything iconic that went down

• Meet the ridiculously star-studded cast of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie

• Cafés, consoles, and cruises: All 25 iconic ways that the Barbie movie is being promoted