The wait is almost over, the embargo has officially lifted, and the first reviews indicate that Barbie is every bit as good as the nonstop marketing campaign has claimed it to be.
While there are inevitably going to be naysayers given the concept, premise, and execution of the candy-colored blockbuster smuggling a biting social satire in plain sight, a current Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 89 percent from over 100 reviews and counting underlines the assumption that Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling have knocked it clear out of the park.
However, in news that should come as a sliver of salvation to the trolls who’ve been decrying Barbie as the latest in the never-ending line of big budget “woke” movies, a hilariously tongue-in-cheek tweet has pointed out that it still ranks as the Mattel icon’s worst-reviewed big screen outing of all-time.
Of course, Barbie has been the star of countless VOD features that could generously be described as having been cobbled together on a shoestring to make a quick buck, but her sole forays into the realm of wide-release theatrical efforts has been solely restricted to Pixar’s classic Toy Story franchise up until now.
All four of Woody and Buzz’s outings fared better than Gerwig’s toyetic tale among critics, but that’s to be expected when Toy Story is without a doubt one of the greatest multi-film sagas that Hollywood has ever seen, so it’s hardly an embarrassment for Robbie in spite of her recent – and unwanted – reputation for being box office poison.