“On Wednesdays we wear pink.”
Mean Girls is an iconic movie about the savagery of “girl world”. How friends can turn their backs on you and how people can get so caught up in drama that it changes a person.
Recently the remake was released, adding components from the Broadway musical and featuring its music in a quality movie production.
There has been some controversy around the movie that was about a musical that was about a movie called Mean Girls. Many claim that the new movie doesn’t meet the standards set by its predecessors, however, is the movie really as awful as people make it out to be?
A Review of the Music
One of the main reasons people dislike the movie is because of the poor covers of the iconic songs.
In the original Musical, the songs were very extravagant and emotional, this was to account for the fact that not everyone will be able to see the actors on the stage so they need to have large overexaggerated performances so that everyone will be able to understand the emotions of the characters. Many theater enthusiasts loved the musical for this reason, so when the movie was released and the scenes were toned down, it came across as bland and unemotional.
The main reason that so many people dislike the movie is that Angourie Rice doesn’t share the same vocal range as the people cast in the musical, the directors had to change some of the most impactful songs in order to fit her range on top of adding an excessive amount autotune onto her voice.
Casting Cast-Offs
In my personal opinion, I don’t agree with some of the casting decisions that the directors made. Most of the actors looked much too old to be a believable high schooler. The actresses of Cady, the main character, and Karen, one of the plastics, didn’t fit the characters they were assigned.
Avantika Vandanapu, the actress of Karen, wasn’t the right choice for the role. She couldn’t truly embody the personality of Karen. When she would try to express Karen’s more intelligent moments, she would make a face, this made it look like Karen was fake and hiding something when she wasn’t.
Cady, on the other hand, was very unexpressive. When Angourie Rice, the actress of Cady, would deliver a scene that is supposed to be very emotional and exaggerated, she seemed indifferent.
Casting Kudos
Although I don’t agree with most of the casting, there were some characters that truly shined during the movie. The actors that played Janis and Damian were perfect for their characters. They were able to encapsulate the personalities of their characters and keep their personalities even while they made creative choices for them.
Modern Twist Controversy
Another reason why people hate the movie is because of the “modern twist” they added to it.
They changed some aspects of the story to account for the girls having smartphones. For example, when Cady was trying to prove that Regina was cheating, in the original, it took a long time because she needed him to catch Regina cheating, however, in the remake, Cady was able to record Gretchen confessing that Regina was cheating on him and then play it back to him.
Many people didn’t like them straying away from the original, while others stated that they were fine with it since it was able to progress the story faster.
I would say that I enjoy how they had changed it in small ways like how information was spread on social media, because it made it more realistic and more relatable to the younger generation.
Although I didn’t care for the TikTok videos that they showed on screen. I felt that they took away from the overall energy of the movie. When the videos came on it drew me out of the movie, the people in the TikToks felt very fake and they couldn’t act to save their lives.
Overall Review
There is a lot to consider while watching the remake, many people have different opinions about the movie. The movie may have many downfalls, however, it still has many great features. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from watching the movie, I think that anyone who isn’t a huge Mean Girls musical connoisseur, that don’t mind the differences that the remake added, could find the enjoyable.
In conclusion, the movie was mid.
