Barbie Movie Discussion (Spoilers)

[RobAnybody]

But.... like.... you've been defending it, or been defending other people's use of it, for like 5 pages of this thread now

I have not. Go back & actually read my posts. Count the number of times I used it without scare quotes. Also count how many times I've said I hate that term or using that term.

EDIT: added the quote just 'cause I realized my response went to the next page (at least in my viewing settings)

 

[Zardnaar]

I’m going to respond to you together since you said pretty similar things, namely, that it wouldn’t be woke, but it would still be a bad movie.

So part 2 to this question is what has changed between the original white girlboss movie and the hypothetical white dudes rock movie to make it go from “bad because it’s woke” to “bad because it’s [the writing, the plot, the characters, etc.] bad? Like something changed, so what is it?



I never said anything about achievement in my hypothetical. According to the definition others have provided, the issue is with the characters being flat and 1-dimensional, or the plot being too predictable or simplistic. Nothing about characters achieving or not achieving things in the movie, though it is really funny that in your mind the genderswap of girlboss is male layabout

When I was hashing out what a white dudes rock movie I initially had in mind like Master and Commander or Fast & the Furious, but the “bad” version would be like 300.

Vin Diesals ego has kind of robbed the series of the charm it had. They're written him like superman now.

Rambo a bit over the top but he's an ex military vet. If Bob from accounting picked up and started using those weapons without a decent explanation it would be huh? Compare Sarah Connor in T1 and 2 she's been training.

If Rey was a Jedi padawan or whatever what she's doing would be reasonably fine although RoS was kinda stupid. The Force Awakens became a throw away line in the movie but that was another interesting concept.

Fenale Jedi protagonists would have been interesting but Rey essentially recycled Luke's story (desert Orphan) dresses like him etc so her character development was poor.

Ahsoka did get good development but it was over 15 years, different format and 3 soon to be 4 shows.

 

[Narz]

Fast and Furious(at least the first one) has pretty terrible car technobabble in it. It's sort of jarring to put it next to Master and Commander, which seems to have gotten much of the technical and historical stuff close to the bone.

Meh it's all the same. Beavis & Butthead, Saving Private Ryan, all a bunch of white boy ****, when are they gonna make a movie about a platoon of bisexual Midwestern housewives storming the coast of Normandy while their husbands back home learn the true meaning of sisterhood during a late night pillowfight @ the munitions factory.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Meh it's all the same. Beavis & Butthead, Saving Private Ryan, all a bunch of white boy ****, when are they gonna make a movie about a platoon of bisexual Midwestern housewives storming the coast of Normandy while their husbands back home learn the true meaning of sisterhood during a late night pillowfight @ the munitions factory.

That's the sort of challenge some fanfiction writer (not me!) would probably take on, just for the hell of it.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Variety, 14 August 2023 - "‘Barbie’s’ Big Payday: Margot Robbie Will Earn $50 Million in Salary and Box Office Bonuses"

Margot Robbie is being richly rewarded for her key role in bringing “Barbie” to the big screen. The star and producer behind the summer’s biggest hit stands to make roughly $50 million in salary and box office bonuses, according to three individuals with knowledge of her deal.

In addition to bringing the popular children’s toy to glittering life, Robbie produced the film through her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, which she founded in 2014 with her now-husband, Tom Ackerley, and friends Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr.

 

[Kyriakos]

Variety, 14 August 2023 - "‘Barbie’s’ Big Payday: Margot Robbie Will Earn $50 Million in Salary and Box Office Bonuses"

Up to now I was indifferent about the Barbie movie thing, but it annoys me that she got a lifetime-lasting fortune just for investing/playing in some pos film.
Not that it's the most egregious case of such; at least she had to work to get to this point and cash in. I recall that kid who got paid a quarter of a billion dollars for tv network slander against him.

 

[schlaufuchs]

white man holds irrational contempt for female-targeted film he has never seen. More at eleven.

 

[Kyriakos]

^That's just too cringe.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Up to now I was indifferent about the Barbie movie thing, but it annoys me that she got a lifetime-lasting fortune just for investing/playing in some pos film.
Not that it's the most egregious case of such; at least she had to work to get to this point and cash in. I recall that kid who got paid a quarter of a billion dollars for tv network slander against him.

She helped make 100 million people happy for a few hours.


It could easily have been a flop.

Capitalism rewards the risk takers who make the good stuff people want.


Who knew Barbie would be a huge hit?

 

[Lexicus]

^That's just too cringe.

Not really just an objective description of the sitchyation, what you said on the other hand is the cringest thing i have read lo these many years

 

[Zardnaar]

^That's just too cringe.

Have you seen it though?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Have you seen it though?

Can't speak for @Kyriakos, but for me, when it comes to the point where the discussion ends up being about The Money and it becomes politicized, and the advertising never stops...

...that's when the marketing works in reverse on me. There's a reason why I'm 20 years late to Harry Potter fandom. The relentless marketing when it first came out made me decide to never touch it. If memory serves, that was around the time that Harry Potter toilet paper came out.

The only reasons I ever got into Harry Potter were because A. It was a long weekend and I was bored, Space was running a Harry Potter marathon, and B. Maggie Smith played both Minerva McGonagall and my favorite character in Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess Violet. I was curious to see what kind of character she played in HP.

So I gave it a try. It took another year or so to really hook me, but it eventually worked. And to this day the only HP stuff I own are the DVDs of the movies and a boxed set of the novels (not one of the expensive sets). I've got a lot of screenshots and some fan art, but since I snagged those from various websites, they cost nothing. Ditto the fanfiction. There are millions of Harry Potter stories out there.


Now for Barbie... As mentioned previously, I still have the first Barbie I got, as a Christmas present in 1969. That's over 50 years ago. Does this mean I'll pay $$ to watch the movie?

Nope.

 

[Kyriakos]

She helped make 100 million people happy for a few hours.


It could easily have been a flop.

Capitalism rewards the risk takers who make the good stuff people want.


Who knew Barbie would be a huge hit?

Sure ^^ If the Ken actor made as much money, it's equally annoying. I think that with so many people not making ends meet, it's a sign of disorientation to cheer for such fortune making by a forgettable pop-bubble.
Maybe there are some who seriously argue the Barbie movie is important etc, but that's a bit too crazy a position to take into account imo.

 

[Zardnaar]

Can't speak for @Kyriakos, but for me, when it comes to the point where the discussion ends up being about The Money and it becomes politicized, and the advertising never stops...

...that's when the marketing works in reverse on me. There's a reason why I'm 20 years late to Harry Potter fandom. The relentless marketing when it first came out made me decide to never touch it. If memory serves, that was around the time that Harry Potter toilet paper came out.

The only reasons I ever got into Harry Potter were because A. It was a long weekend and I was bored, Space was running a Harry Potter marathon, and B. Maggie Smith played both Minerva McGonagall and my favorite character in Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess Violet. I was curious to see what kind of character she played in HP.

So I gave it a try. It took another year or so to really hook me, but it eventually worked. And to this day the only HP stuff I own are the DVDs of the movies and a boxed set of the novels (not one of the expensive sets). I've got a lot of screenshots and some fan art, but since I snagged those from various websites, they cost nothing. Ditto the fanfiction. There are millions of Harry Potter stories out there.


Now for Barbie... As mentioned previously, I still have the first Barbie I got, as a Christmas present in 1969. That's over 50 years ago. Does this mean I'll pay $$ to watch the movie?

Nope.

You're not really insulting it though. Doesn't interest you fair enough.

 

[Gorbles]

I feel like being annoyed that a massively-successful film leads to silly money for the main person who made the movie happen (AFAIK) is a few decades too late?

Like even if you're approaching this from an uneven distribution of profits, you're again a few decades too late. This isn't a thing to single out Barbie for.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You're not really insulting it though. Doesn't interest you fair enough.

Am I supposed to insult it?

Okay, let's put it another way. At the current amount of disability benefit I get each month and am expected to live on (significant rent increase is coming and probably electricity as well, though the benefit doesn't increase), guess how many YEARS this actress' pay for this one movie would support me (or anyone else in my situation):

2475.24752475

That's nearly 2500 YEARS. Or to put it another way, this many people for one year.

I don't feel like helping put food on her table, thankyouverymuch. Not when the situation is what it is here.

 

[Zardnaar]

Am I supposed to insult it?

Okay, let's put it another way. At the current amount of disability benefit I get each month and am expected to live on (significant rent increase is coming and probably electricity as well, though the benefit doesn't increase), guess how many YEARS this actress' pay for this one movie would support me (or anyone else in my situation):

2475.24752475

That's nearly 2500 YEARS. Or to put it another way, this many people for one year.

I don't feel like helping put food on her table, thankyouverymuch. Not when the situation is what it is here.

Different issue from the film being good or whatever though.

She's not the first acto to get s oatday that size. Eg Jack Nicolson in Batman (1989) or MCU stars.

 

[Narz]

Can't speak for @Kyriakos, but for me, when it comes to the point where the discussion ends up being about The Money and it becomes politicized, and the advertising never stops...

The capitalist machine must eat.

The fact that it's eating money out of the pocketbooks of self proclaimed commies is quite funny.

 

[Kyriakos]

I feel like being annoyed that a massively-successful film leads to silly money for the main person who made the movie happen (AFAIK) is a few decades too late?

Like even if you're approaching this from an uneven distribution of profits, you're again a few decades too late. This isn't a thing to single out Barbie for.

Isn't that a reverse what-aboutism? ^^ Naturally the same grievances on different films, aren't as tied to the topic of the specific thread.
Though if we are to momentarily refer on the tangent of other basic fun/dumb movies, indeed lots of clowns make bank with millions, but 50 mil for one movie is still rare as google tells me.

And while you personally wouldn't need this to be spelled out, of course I am equally annoyed with making 15-20 million for such. This ridiculous star system for actors/celebrities is a bane, and even manages to gain drones to support it.

 

[Gorbles]

Isn't that a reverse what-aboutism?

A what what now?

$50m is rare, and so is a movie like Barbie making as much money as it is. They correlate. If you want to get mad at the system, that system is capitalism

Not Margot Robbie, and not the Barbie movie. If you want to describe a problem, you'll find that it's a symptom. There are other symptoms.