Heavy handed and preachy with some laughs

Saw this today. There is a lot to unpack (unbox?) here. Some parts worked for me but some elements I had issues with. First the positives. The film looks great. I enjoyed the colours and sets and costumes in Barbieland. The performances are mostly good. Margot Robbie does a great job. Ryan Gosling does the best he can with Ken, although I really didn't like the way the character was written. Helen Mirren is good as the narrator. For the most part, I liked America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt as a mother and daughter that Barbie meets in the real world. There are some fun moments early on and a few laughs. The problem is that the film is very heavy handed at key moments and becomes entirely too preachy in the second half. The lecturing takes away from the enjoyment of the film. I didn't like parts of the story that focused and talked repeatedly about the patriarchy. The movie pits Ken against Barbie in a way that doesn't feel genuine and is not convincing and Ken comes across as an ass. There are moments where this film feels incredibly dishonest, which is a shame because this could have been a really fun and entertaining adventure. In spite of the winning performance of Margot Robbie and some amusing early scenes, Barbie is a preachy, heavy handed disappointment. 6/10