Brett Wiley

I honestly enjoy musicals and don't have anything against adapting them to film. I also enjoyed the Mean Girls stage musical and went into the theatre coming in knowing that this movie was going to be based off the musical, not the 2004 movie, so it wouldn't be fair to compare it to the 2004 movie. But, the main problem with the movie is that they omitted a lot of the best songs and the ones they did include were either introduced too awkwardly or were trying to appeal to younger audience members too much to the point of being cringey. The acting was a bit too awkward for the characters to be believable, especially Cady. I don't have anything against the actress, but Cady seemed too accustomed and mature to come across as the "naive innocent new girl" in the first half of the movie, while her transition to the "mean popular girl" in the second half felt too rushed. Other characters, like Aaron, Janis, and Karen felt too little like their actual selves to be believable. Aaron was a little too stiff in this, Janis was way too toxic, and Karen's ignorance was pumped up too much. Gretchen's actress was really good at portraying Gretchen's emotional turmoil in the first half and conviction in the second half of the movie. Regina's actress was FANTASTIC, especially in "World Burn." The songs they included (apart from World Burn) were changed a bit too much to be impactful and seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Stupid with Love and Apex Predator just made me cringe. Cady's singing was also a bit rough, and it just fits in with the problems with the rest of her portrayal. As usual, we see the portrayal of social media through the eyes of 30/40-year-olds who don't use anything but Facebook. The song and evil edits were too cringey and abrupt and not the sort of stuff you'd find on social media, especially with teenagers. This WOULD have been a good opportunity to have a modern spin on the movie and showcase the negative aspects of social media (like cancel culture) and why people participate in it, but that opportunity wasn't taken. The sexualization of the teenage characters was also pretty bad in this. Opening song and everyone is kissing or trying to kiss, and the Jingle Bell Rock song was more sexual than it should be (this was also a thing in the stage musical, though). It's also weird that everyone is hyping Cady up after the talent show because her dance moves weren't all that remarkable or eye-catching. She mostly just stayed in the background and my eyes were on Regina the whole time. On the positive side, I LOVED that they got some of the original cast to come back (Mr. Duvall, Ms. Norbury, and Cady's original actress). They all portrayed their roles perfectly as adults and gave off a more mature, adult energy compared to the younger roles. Damian's actor was also really funny and enjoyable to watch. He really gave off a lot of the humorous energy that 2004 and stage Damian had, which especially contrasts with Janis's behavior. Overall, I do think this movie was good but could have been better. Some of the scenes and songs were good, and some of the acting was pretty funny. Renee Rapp was the saving grace of this movie, since she looked the closest to Regina and played the character perfectly! I wouldn't recommend it to Mean Girls fans if they want to see the musical on stage adapted to film or if they want a modern spin on the original movie, but I would share it with my friends for a bad movie night or if they want more recent Mean Girls content. Watch if you're really interested.