Welcome to part 2 of the movie article. You should probably read the first one before this one but honestly it doesn’t really matter. Do whatever you feel is right <3

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I kind of despise even having to bring this up, but the whole “Barbenheimer” sensation is something that unfortunately needs to be discussed if we’re talking about movies of 2023. For the sake of my own sanity, we’re not going to be dwelling on this for too long, but bear with me. If SOMEHOW you do not know what the accursèd “Barbenheimer” brief (but incessantly pervasive) cultural zeitgeist of summer 2023 is, let me explain: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023), a film about Mattel’s beloved blonde (revenue-generating) belle, and underground indie director Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023), a zesty biopic depicting the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the head of WWII’s Manhattan project, were BOTH set to hit theatres on July 21st of this year. Since the two films differ drastically in tone and aesthetic, the internet thought it was quite humorous that both films were releasing on the same day. Hence, the disgusting birth of “Barbenheimer,” with the idea being that you must see both movies on the same day as a double feature. This really exploded online–it became a massive marketing campaign as well, particularly for Barbie. For a while it felt like every brand and company under the sun was hopping on the Barbie train and doing some sort of collaboration or partnership. It was truly inescapable for the months of July and August, which is where a lot of my distaste for it comes from (but I am primarily just a hater). Having something like that being shoved down your throat doesn’t really seem like the best way to generate excitement and enthusiasm, but maybe that’s just my negative outlook talking. With all this highly-fabricated hype, Barbie absolutely demolished the previous record for highest grossing live-action comedy film of all time, with box office sales reaching $1.430 billion worldwide.

Anyway, yeah, that’s Barbenheimer. Back to the second point of my clearly-laid out thesis: movieverses based on existing IPs. Barbie (2023) is not a movie that uses Barbie herself as a character that goes on a fun adventure (like previous installments in the BCU, or Barbie Cinematic Universe), and is instead a movie that focuses on the Barbie franchise itself. It’s supposed to be meta, self-referential, tongue-in-cheek, whatever, blah blah blah. The entire movie basically boils down to one giant advertisement for the Barbie brand–a Western viewer’s consumerist wet dream. 

Things are bleak right now. Mattel has confirmed that they intend on bringing way more of their IPs to the silver screen, too. This is only the beginning. Now, this information naturally raises the question of…

What the heck are we doing???

Is this what mainstream cinema is going to be like from now on?

I have a dreadful feeling that this is, unfortunately, the direction that things are heading in. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) that came out earlier this year is another example of this new phenomenon. Nintendo wants to make more movies based on their games, naturally, so I feel like our fate as movie viewers has already been sealed. We can probably expect to see a lot of these movies in the near future. 

What a year it has been…with only a few months left to go, I can’t really say what the last releases of 2023 will be like, but you better believe I’ll be paying attention.