The infamous life of J. Robert Oppenheimer could not be any less related to the Barbie franchise; however, this is why the internet phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” gained so much appeal. On July 21st, 2023, the world changed. The anticipation for the release of both the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer took the internet by storm, with the intense juxtaposition between Barbie and Oppenheimer becoming grounds for Gen-Z to make memes with their “absurdist” humor.
After all this build-up, I fell victim to the publicity and spent 6 straight hours of my life binging both Barbie and Oppenheimer to see if they could live up to the hype they garnered. Although harsh critics would like to incorporate their own personal bias in their reviews, or even try to compare these two dissimilar movies, both movies had their own story or message to tell, and both movies could tell them in their own beautiful way.
Despite all the irony that painted Oppenheimer in a lighthearted manner, this movie couldn’t have been any more different. Firstly, Oppenheimer’s nonlinear storytelling and mathematically accurate rhetoric not only manage to add complexity without confusion but also help to put the viewer in Oppenheimer’s shoes. I was initially skeptical that this movie would actually make J. Robert Oppenheimer the star of the show, but his romance, friendships, and enemies were all able to mimic the same feeling as when the Atomic Bomb was counting down. These feelings also could not have been fully portrayed without Hans Zimmer, who did an excellent job with his soundtrack for the movie which really added depth to the life of Oppenheimer.
Barbie was a completely different story. With a linear story and humor characteristic of a standard PG movie, Barbie was a palette cleanser after the intensity of Oppenheimer. Even so, Barbie had its own message to tell. While it was marketed for children, the movie made clear references to more complex issues and topics which aligned with many teenagers and adults but also sparked controversy. Regardless of the controversy, however, the baseline message about identity and equality is something that everyone around the world could learn from. Additionally, unfortunately for Hans Zimmer, it was only songs from the Barbie soundtrack that made it onto my personal playlist. While his compositions were good, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Dua Lipa, and even Ryan Gosling (in my opinion) did it better.
In the end, Barbie and Oppenheimer are each great in their own right. Both effectively portrayed multiple feelings, a great story, and multiple meaningful messages. Whether it was Cillian Murphy who played Ken or Ryan Gosling who played Oppenheimer, the amazing workers behind these two movies would have no doubt managed to recreate these movies with the same production value and appeal.
