'Barbie' Vs 'Oppenheimer': Which one won the battle for reviews?

The critiques have arrived for the summer's most awaited box office competition. Barbie's reviews came in on Tuesday, while Oppenheimer's reviews were published on Wednesday.

As much as cinema goers would like critics to help them decide between the movies, it’s a tie between both when it comes to reviews. Both Oppenheimer and Barbie have received mainly positive reviews. 

As per Rotten Tomatoes, Greta Gerwig’s comedic take on Barbie has an 89 percent positive score, whereas Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer has a slightly higher score of 92 percent.

The competition between them at the box office is predicted to be lopsided. Barbie is anticipated to earn between $90 to $110 million during its opening weekend, while Oppenheimer, due in part to its lengthy three-hour runtime, is projected to make approximately $40 to $49 million.

As both movies prepare to impress audiences on July 21, lets take a look at their reviews.

Review highlights for Barbie:

The Hollywood Reporter: “Gerwig delights in the richness and weirdness of her material in this clever send-up of Barbie dolls and their fraught legacy. It’s impressive how much the director, known for her shrewd and narratively precise dramas, has fit into a corporate movie… The muddied politics and flat emotional landing of Barbie are signs that the picture ultimately serves a brand”

BBC: “It’s not just a genuinely funny and warm-hearted live-action comedy — and there aren’t many of those around these days — but an art-house passion project so bold, inventive and politically charged that it is sure to be nominated for all sorts of awards. Barbie as a best picture nominee at the 2024 Oscars? I wouldn’t bet against it.”

Vulture: “It has worthwhile aspects, like Robbie, who in addition to looking the part, is as capable of heartbreaking earnestness as humor, and who sometimes effortlessly achieves both at once. Gosling comes close to stealing the movie as a Ken who lacks any sense of purpose outside of his mandated devotion to Barbie; he’s a floppy himbo whose every posture is an act of physical comedy… But the trouble with trying to sneak subversive ideas into a project so inherently compromised is that, rather than get away with something, you might just create a new way for a brand to sell itself.”

L.A. Times: “Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, an exuberant, sometimes exhaustingly clever piece of Mattelian neorealism. … Gerwig has conceived Barbie as a bubble-gum emulsion of silliness and sophistication, a picture that both promotes and deconstructs its own brand. It doesn’t just mean to renew the endless ‘Barbie: good or bad?’ debate. It wants to enact that debate, to vigorously argue both positions for the better part of two fast-moving, furiously multitasking hours.”

NPR: “Barbie isn’t just a movie that could never fully escape out from under the weight of its artistic compromises. It’s a hoot, a feast for the eyes and ears. Sarah Greenwood’s production design is sensorially astounding… you can’t not think about how its aims may be at odds with its execution. But that’s also part of what makes it such an interesting oddity to witness. It’s a Barbie world you’ll be more than happy to have visited, even as it confounds.”

IndieWire: "Gerwig and Baumbach's venture into the Real World is absolutely necessary — it unlocks the film's thesis after besieging us with diverting fun, gives us the darling Greenblatt and her Barbie-obsessed mom Gloria (America Ferrera, who runs off with the film's last act), and allows Will Ferrell to go nuts as the wacky (male!) CEO of Mattel."

Reviews highlights for Oppenheimer:

The Hollywood Reporter: “Both a probing character study and a sweeping account of history, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a brainy, brawny thriller about the man who led the Manhattan Project to build the bomb that ended World War II… it’s more slow-burn than explosive. But perhaps the most surprising element of this audacious epic is that the scramble for atomic armament ends up secondary to the scathing depiction of political gamesmanship, as one of the most brilliant scientific minds of the 20th century is vilified for voicing learned opinions that go against America’s arms-race thinking.”

AV Club: “Oppenheimer deserves the title of masterpiece. It’s Christopher Nolan’s best film so far, a step up to a new level for one of our finest filmmakers and a movie that burns itself into your brain. … It’s a remarkable exercise in narrative balance, and it’s made all the more impressive by the sheer mythic quality of the story of a man who took command of primal, incomprehensibly destructive forces, then spent the rest of his life collapsing under the weight of what he’d unleashed.”

Mashable: For Nolan devotees, there’s plenty in Oppenheimer to marvel over, from its incredible ensemble’s crackling chemistry to Ludwig Göransson’s immersive and disturbing score, to a corner of modern history that challenges audiences with complex moral questions and unapologetic dread. But after a year’s worth of anticipation — and a rivalry with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie — can Oppenheimer live up to the hype as Nolan’s best film yet? From where I stand, no.”

BBC: “Murphy keeps us with him even when the character seems a bit opaque. Nolan based his film on the magisterial biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin and captures just what that title suggests: a tragic and profoundly American hero who helped shaped the modern world and became a victim of Washington politics.”

The Guardian: “Christopher Nolan’s account of the physicist who led the Manhattan Project captures the most agonising of success stories.”