I felt the exact same way. Great style. The actors nailed it… the first act felt like it had a solid direction… and then they forgot where they were going for the rest of the movie.

Why was Barbie being in the real world an extreme crisis just for it to be no problem at the end of the movie?

The mother daughter relationship felt shallow and forced.

Why were the Barbies intelligent but also immediately brainwashed?

They could have cut Will Ferrell and the entire board by the end of the movie as they added virtually nothing to the plot except Will Ferrell jokes. Why did they even go to Barbieland? What did they accomplish? Why were they chasing them just to leave them alone? Did I miss major parts of this movie or something?