When I found out there was going to be a musical version of the most iconic movie ever, I was very excited. The movie has come a long way. From the first one released in 2003, then the broadway musical in 2018 and now finally a movie musical released Jan. 12, 2024. There’s a lot of pressure to remake a movie like “Mean Girls,” and when I watched the musical I did not know what to think. Did the music flow well enough? Was the casting right? This might be tough to read, but I was slightly disappointed in this musical remake.
I loved seeing original characters from the first movie in this musical like Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows) and Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey). However the rest of the movie just didn’t feel right without all of the originals. Don’t get me wrong, I highly appreciated the new casting and I noticed how they added more people of color. The inclusion was thoughtful, I just missed the old characters.
Just like the original, Janis (Auli’i Cravalho, who was also the voice actor for Moana) and Damien (Jaquel Spivey) were the highlight of the whole movie. They arguably had the best lines, and they were perfect for their roles. Not only because they embodied Janis and Damien so well, but because they were great at acting together as best friends. Their chemistry was insane and I loved seeing them on screen together.
Although some actors were excellent, others were not. For example, Reneé Rapp might have been an iconic person to reenact Regina George, but it was too obvious she had little acting experience. She used all the right expressions, however you could still see how inexperienced she was. It looked forced and abrupt in a way.
In the musical, they also went more in depth with a lot of the character’s background. For example, Damien explained how exactly Regina and Janis split. There was a whole backstory and everyone in my theater laughed out loud when Damien whipped out the bratz dolls for a visual demonstration. I also liked how they added a scene of Regina and Cady (Angourie Rice) in the bathroom at the end. It gave us more closure than in the original.
I am also not a musical kind of person, so I didn’t really like most of the songs in the movie. The only ones I enjoyed were “Sexy,” “World Burn” and “Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise).” I liked “Sexy” for the beat and the way the words flowed. I liked “World Burn” because of the visuals on the screen. The cinematography was out of this world at the start of the song and it fit the vibe. I liked “Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise)” because of the lyrics. It worked well with what was going on and you could tell Cravalho really put something into it with how she was singing it. The rest of the songs just seemed out of place or random, and even the choreography didn’t seem like a lot of time was put into it.
In the whole movie something was missing. I couldn’t really place what it was but there was just that feeling at the back of my mind the whole time that it made me unable to fully enjoy the movie. The whole thing was mediocre, but I’m glad I got to experience watching the movie in the theater. The audience made me feel connected. If you like musicals, I would say go watch this movie, but don’t expect anything special to come out of it in the end.
“Mean Girls”: ★★★☆☆
