20th and 21st of July 2023 were the 2 days out of very few that I dedicated to visiting a cinema. I've been hyping myself for the Oppenheimer movie for months and oh boy, did it deliver. The Barbie movie proved to be a welcomed dessert.
I've been lucky enough to see the movie in its intended 70mm IMAX format. The director has also recorded a "personal" thanks to the viewers, directly mentioning the name of the cinema and the city where the cinema was. That was a pretty nice thing to see before the movie it self... I think.
I came to the cinema, expecting something different, not something extraordinary. It. Was. Amazing. Just speaking of the format iself, I found myself anticipating, looking for the extremely tall shots to appear on the screen. When your entire vision is filled with the picture, it just hits different. Mind you, I've been hyping myself for this for months...
The movie itself took an unexpected turn during the second half. I didn't expect such a large part of the movie dedicated to the political campaign lead against Oppenheimer and I can honestly see some people getting bored by this part of the movie. For me, it didn't make a damn difference... I got overwhelmed by the visual experience. I kept analyzing the subtle changes in color schemes and concluded that their purpose was to capture the "retrospective" nature of the shots which (to my eyes) looked more... yellow/orange, sometimes just more vivid.
I left the cinema thinking about many of the things implied by the movie and I was certain that every other (non-IMAX-70mm) movie will just be a visual dowgrade at best. Please, if you can, JUST GO SEE THE IMAX 70MM VERSION!
Side note: recently I've found out that the "necessity" argument for deploying the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was (even back then) kinda flawed. I saw someone referring to the words of high-ranking military personnel of the time but I was not in the mood to verify or to read more. Therefore... look it up if you want but don't trust me on this one!
Personally, I perceived the the Barbie movie as a social event. I put my pink polo shirt on and went to the cinema. It was so funny/happy/relaxing to see other people having the same idea, creating a pink-themed audience. For sure more than 80% of the peope wore pink clothes. Some people went for more casual looks - shirts, skirts, etc., while others were not afraid of flashy, glittering stuff like bowties and shoes.
The movie itself was... funny. Some people call it woke. I choose to see the anti-wokeness it evoked in me. I didn't pay too much attention to it while watching though, because I went to see the movie to enjoy it. And I did! I smiled throughout the entire movie and especially enjoyed the satirical bits of the first half.
As said, I see the movie as anti-woke and I find it hilarious that people think otherwise. But it's just a stupid little movie and for all it is, it did its job damn well. Multiple times, I found myself wondering what it must have been like on the set for both the actors and the support staff.
I have more thoughts on the movie itself but I'd like this place to remain as neutral/non-triggering as possible due to... internet reasons...