In late July of this past summer, the latest pop phenomenon, “Barbenheimer” came to a head. Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” released in theaters on July 21, having young children and history buffs racing to see their favorite figureheads on the big screen. Within a few weeks, “Barbie” broke records for the year set by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and grossed approximately $1.38 billion in revenue. Although dwarfed by “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” was still a success, generating $900 million as of Sept. 18, according to People.com.
“Oppenheimer” is director Christopher Nolan’s third most successful movie to date, following “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” Mrs. Jane Kelley, an avid Christopher Nolan fan, yet also someone who prefers “ridiculous comedy,” envisioned what her experience of watching Oppenheimer would be.
“I think I would like [‘Oppenheimer’]. Well, I might not like it in the moment, but then I might like it afterwards; the more I watch a Nolan movie, the more I pick up on things,” Mrs. Kelley said.
While Mrs. Kelley vouches for Oppenheimer, she chose “Maybe ‘Barbie’?” as the movie she’d rather see, blaming it mostly on Oppenheimer’s three-hour runtime. To some, a light-hearted comedy is just more their speed.
Junior Jaxen Marsden had similar thoughts on the two movies. After seeing both, he found that he’d choose “Barbie” as the winner.
“I could watch [‘Barbie’] a lot more than ‘Oppenheimer.’ ‘Oppenheimer’ is like a one-time thing for me, but I could watch ‘Barbie’ repeatedly,” Marsden said.
Contrary to the expectations of Mrs. Kelley, Marsden thought that for the two movies,
“All of [‘Oppenheimer’s’] value is there at the surface”, whereas after rewatching “Barbie”, one could “pick out different details you didn’t see before”.
“Barbie,” as it seems, would typically be what people choose when asked to pick between either side of “Barbenheimer.” Not only does it last for less than three hours, it also contains various bits of nuance for the moviegoer to pick up on– something the movie has been praised and criticized for. On the surface, it is a playful kids movie about a make-believe world, but to adults, it includes multiple feminist themes. FHC Math teacher Trisha Morrow took her young daughter to see it, and was pleasantly surprised by the experience.
“I found out that it wasn’t quite as kid-oriented as I expected. But personally, I liked it. I thought that there were definitely some funny parts, even though a lot of it was pretty silly.” Most people who picked up on the side jokes and references still enjoyed the movie.
“I think it could be entertaining to both kids and adults,” Marsden says. “A lot of the jokes tend to hit regardless of what your age is.”
As a whole, Barbie seems to delight children as well as satisfy adults, making it a movie for the whole family. In the debate of “Barbenheimer,” it seems that the victor’s movie is just as pink and sparkly as her famed dreamhouse.
