A poor attempt to pay homage to the original film and Broadway musical.
I watched this movie via Amazon Prime, and let me tell you, it was not worth the $25. This entire film felt rushed as it tried to clamour in both storylines from the original film, and musical numbers that did nothing to progress the film forward.
Let's start with the cast. Star-studded, and yet, not enough to be it's saving grace. The film brought Tina Fey and Tim Meadows back as their original characters from the movie; Ms Norbury and Principal Duvall. Not to mention included icons such as Auli’i Carvalho, aka Moana, Ashley Park (who originated Gretchen Wieners on the Broadway Production) as Madame Park, Jon Hamm as Coach Carr, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, and of course, the queen herself, Renee Rapp as Regina George.
Now, as much as I love seeing Australian actors on screen, getting the recognition they deserve, Angourie Rice was not right for the role of Cady. Her voice was not strong enough for some of the more vocally demanding musical numbers. Don’t get me wrong, Angourie Rice is a phenomenal actress, but she couldn’t BRING the presence to Cady Heron that was needed for the role. In the original Broadway musical, ‘Apex Predator’ was her song, but in the film, not only did she not feature; the entire song was performed by Janis and Damian.
Auli’i Carvalho (Janis ‘Imi’ike) and Jaquel Spivey (Damian Hubbard) gave very good performances. They vocally complimented each other, and overall were an entertaining duo to watch. Avantika Vandanapu (Karen) and Bebe Wood (Gretchen), were most probably the most unlikely match in the whole film, however they managed to do the iconic duo justice. While the song ‘Sexy’ differed from the musical, however she put a likeable spin on the number with her unique voice even though she looked nothing like a mouse(IYKYK). Renee Rapp arguably was the saviour for the whole movie, reprising the iconic roll of Regina George to the fullest. Despite the talent that oozes from Ms. Rapp, her roll felt rather muted, as if they weren't taking full advantage of the vocal powerhouse known as Renee Rapp. (Fun Fact) Renee Rapp actually played Regina George on Broadway and absolutely killed it. However, this watered-down score did not do her rendition justice.
Let's get into the character relationships. This movie focuses on the romantic love triangle between Regina, Aaron Samuels (played by Christopher Briney), and Cady. Honestly, I was not invested in any of these relationships. The character's love plots felt very shallow and inauthentic. I was MORE invested in the two brief glances between Damien and the theatre club guy which can be seen on more than one occasion (Yet another plot point I wish was explored further). Additionally, It was unclear what the intended relationship was between Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall. It felt like a "will they, won't they" situation, in the worst way. Spoiler! turns out they were. But this wasn’t confirmed until over halfway through the film.
Also, Damian and Janis's relationship with literally every other character was super confusing. Are they social rejects who vibe by themselves, or are they secretly the glue that holds North Shore High School together? Another plot loophole was Janis's girlfriend, who seemingly spawned out of nowhere in the later half of the film. - Don’t get me wrong, I am all for LGBTQ+ inclusion, especially in mainstream media, but the girlfriend plot felt like a last-ditch effort to meet a diversity quota.
The budget for this film was a generous $36 million, and it grossed a whopping $103 million. Despite this, some production aspects felt insanely cheap. It felt like they hired one venue, and they STUCK to it, forgoing the iconic mall scene which made the original character development of Regina so ICONIC.
Another after-thought I noticed was the pictures they used for the character's "fictitious" social media accounts; more specifically, literal screenshots from Renee Rapp's real-life Instagram in which she looks NOTHING like Regina George.
It's evident that this film's budget was primarily spent on booking the heavy-hitting cast, AND IT SHOWS. The film suffered in so many other ways, one of which being the wardrobe. It felt like the entire wardrobe was made up of sweat-shop rejects from shine.
For a movie whose main selling point is nostalgia, it felt like every legitimately funny scene from the original was scrapped. I was left yearning for scenes like the iconic trash-can-fall from Cady (IYKYK).
*Also, as a side note, I must confess that I am a bit of a Broadway buff, which is why I was horrified when I heard what they did to the song 'Revenge Party'. The Iconic shouty, loud, and energising song, was mutilated into a dull, pitched-down mess. This "noise" paired with the unfortunate face tracking camera angle which happens to poor Angourie Rice, makes me think this is some kind of joke that I am not "in" on.
This entire movie felt rushed and key moments felt forced. They tried to mesh 2 masterpieces of cinema and theatre together but cut the best parts from both.
‘Mean Girls’ 2024 is goof. Thats it. I spent the whole movie questioning if it would get better at any point. Spoilers, it did not. One aspect where this movie absolutely shines is the cringe factor; you can turn it into a great drinking game with friends which will leave you plastered by the end. It's honestly not worth the 2 hours of your life, and quite honestly that time would be better spent staring at a wall. It does not do justice to the original film nor the Broadway musical. 0 out of 100000, would rather die then watch again.
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