“Mean Girls” was finally brought back, once again, into theaters on Jan. 12 as a modernized musical. The trailers and media coverage heightened the excitement for this comeback, but after watching the movie itself, I felt underwhelmed and slightly disappointed.
Many might not have completely understood the musical nature of the movie before coming into theaters, hence where their disappointment might have come from. But for me, the problem lies in other aspects of the production itself — as I was already well aware that it would be a musical movie, and was actually quite excited after having enjoyed the “Mean Girls” musical.
For those who are unfamiliar with the movie, the general plot follows a new girl named Cady Heron who eventually becomes involved with “the Plastics,” the most popular and meanest girls at Northshore High School; a group consisting of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith.
After finding out Regina George has taken back Aaron Samuels, Cady’s crush from calculus, Cady seeks to throw a “revenge party”. But ultimately, this takes a turn for the worse as the longer Cady stays within their ranks, the more similar to them she becomes.
The 2024 version of “Mean Girls” stays true to the original movie’s plot and themes, but it falls short in numerous ways. But before going into that, I think it is important to highlight the positive parts of this movie.
For me, there is only one true good thing about the movie — that being the music. The powerful ballads hit hard, especially with Renee Rapp’s stellar vocals, and the musical numbers were intertwined skillfully with the rest of the movie itself. Songs such as “Apex Predator” and “World Burn” were some of my favorites. But other than that, everything else weakened the movie’s overall impact and performance.
In my opinion, the biggest issue was how the actors themselves posed a problem to the overall delivery of the message. To clarify, this is not a direct attack on the characters or actors themselves and their performance, but rather, a criticism of the balance between them. This is most notably seen between Regina George (Renee Rapp) and Cady Heron (Angourie Rice).
The “power balance” is what I would like to call it. In this movie, Regina George’s character is undeniably strong, powerful, and the “queen of beasts.” But on the other hand, Cady Heron’s character is sweet, charming, soft, and lovable. So when the time comes for Cady to finally become “mean” like the rest of them, it is hard to believe that her character has actually become that, as her character still holds the same sweet nature.
Furthermore, during the time where Regina George has been supposedly “overthrown,” Renee Rapp still holds a strong presence within the movie, making it hard to believe that Cady Heron has become the new “queen bee.” Overall, this aspect of the movie hinders the success of what the original movie did so well — delivering the message that there is not one “mean girl” but that every girl can be and is mean in some way.
Another small thing to point out is the social media aspect of the movie. The choice to add it is something that is no problem — after all, we are now in 2024 and the musical itself even included social media components within its production. But, for this movie, the social media parts fell flat, coming off as extremely one dimensional and less immersive than what the actual social media experience is — taking away from the success of these visual effects and shot choices.
While this “Mean Girls” movie kept the iconic jokes, lines, and references, I dare say that they did this too well? It is easy to see that many of the film shots and frames are the same as the original, and many of the lines that are not as iconic still remain as practically a carbon copy to the original’s.
Some might say that is because it is a remake. And I would acknowledge that, but at the same time, I feel that there could have been a larger sense of originality brought into this film to allow it to find its own glory and success under the name of “Mean Girls,” rather than trying to steal and borrow what the original movie found for itself.
Overall, while it was obvious that it was Mean Girls, the movie lacked the same attitude, sass, and charisma as the original movie, making its ultimate impact weaker and less notable. If it were me and I wanted to watch something mean and pink again, I would choose either the original movie or the musical, not the 2024 musical movie.
So then comes the question: Can “fetch” still happen? While this movie is certainly not as “fetch” as the original, the very existence of this movie goes to show that “fetch” can still happen and is still happening. The message, themes, and quote-ability of “Mean Girls” has lasted decades, and it is clear that this movie and the iconic trio in pink isn’t going anywhere for some time.
