“Mean Girls” is a classic film made in 2004 that’s loosely based off of the 2002 book “Queen Bees and Wannabes”. The original film highlights the style and stereotypes of high school in the 2000s. In 2018, it was turned into a broadway musical with catchy songs and updated scenes. More recently, Tina Fey directed and created the “Mean Girls” musical movie, which is based off of the musical… which is based off of the original movie… that is based off of a book. With all of these adaptations, the newest musical movie simply is not necessary.
The “Mean Girls” musical stars mostly unfamiliar faces, with Angourie Rice as Cady, Christopher Briney as Aaron, her love interest, and of course the plastics: Avantika Vandanapu as Karen, Bebe Wood as Gretchen, and Reneè Rapp as Regina George.
The film follows the same plot as its predecessors, following Cady Heron as she moves from being homeschooled in Africa to going straight to a high school in Illinois. Throughout the film we see Cady struggle with choosing between the less popular, but more genuine friends she’s made, and the three most popular girls in school, who are less caring towards Cady’s feelings.
This movie incorporates the more memorable scenes from the original “Mean Girls” movie and musical, such as Gretchen referring to outfits as fetch, and of course the iconic burn book. The film also incorporates spins on the original pieces, like the new and improved winter talent show dance.
To sum up this musical movie I would say it’s unnecessary. Remakes of older, classic movies never end up being as good as the originals. The broadway musical contains amazingly well-sung songs and scenes that simply don’t work as well on screen. Not only that, but most of the actresses chosen were made for acting, not singing. Aside from Reneè Rapp, the actresses had to lower the keys from the original songs and they even ended up getting rid of Gretchen and Karen’s verses in “Meet the Plastics” all together.
On a positive note, the acting was great and this movie did an amazing job at making most of the characters well-rounded. I enjoyed seeing how mean and rude the characters can get, while also showing the nicer and positive side of them. The only exception to this is Karen, who is so stupid that it isn’t even realistic. While the musical did portray Karen in a dumber way than the original, the newest movie doesn’t add any depth to Karen except for her being stupid.
The film also has a wider range of diversity in its characters, including Janis being a lesbian and Polynesian, Damian being Black, Gretchen being Latina and Karen being Indian. I enjoyed the change of Janis actually being LGBTQ+ and the story between her and Regina had more depth.
Overall, this movie isn’t worth watching. By itself it isn’t that bad, but compared to the musical and original movie, this film doesn’t come close to being good. The awkward singing and romantic attempts throughout the movie make it hard to watch. I would not recommend seeing this movie.
