Matt

On the basis that I cringed most of the way through the film, it would be wrong of me to rate it any higher than 3 stars. Though undeniably a fun, nostalgic, star-studded film, I'm not going to overlook the weak plot and dialogue, filled with nonsense, melodrama, and plot holes. Well acted but poorly thought through.

I'm sure there was a plot somewhere among the exposition, but towards the end of the film it really falls apart, leaning heavily on weak special effects, perhaps to distract from the fact that they ran out of AI cliches to use.

A disappointing claim to the legacy of the 2004 film, Mean Girls 2 lacks all of the components which made its predecessor a success. The clunky, unnatural script, poor filming and editing, and unoriginal plot are accompanied by none of the comedy or charm of the original. There are no quotable moments or meme-able content, the characters are all uninteresting and vapid, and even manages some pretty problematic moments. Where attempts at jokes are made it feels like it was written by teenage girls. Teen films are meant to be aspirational but this feels regressive and weak. I hope someone makes another Mean Girls 2 so we can forget about this.

In summary, the film is silly but fun, and visually stunning. The film lacks an emotional core, the script is quite simple and formulaic, the characters are quite basic. I'd definitely have enjoyed it when I was younger, but some aspects of the film are particularly frustrating to someone who cares whether or not character decisions are logical. Furthermore, despite 2 hours of runtime, the film manages to only give one character any history or insight into their motivations, despite having 3 other young adult characters the audience could potentially relate to. Plus they didn't kiss at the end, what a letdown.

Given the palpable sexual tension between the two male characters and the story arc of their relationship in the first half, it's very disappointing that they didn't get together. The quality of the film might be acceptable if there were some gay action. Instead, we have a movie which is mediocre at best in which the characters are developed little beyond cliches we've seen too many times before. Casting attractive actors cannot make up for the wooden performances. The narrative non-sequiturs, clunky and vague scripting, and poor editing are often standard for independent films, but the religious aspect is particularly bizarre and misplaced. The anticlimactic ending is disappointing. Overall, it is difficult to identify anything the film does successfully, and I would therefore not recommend it.

Poor acting (some of the worst I've ever seen), plot (one-dimensional, predictable, and uninteresting), and overall message (preachy and definitely not empowering). Dated, conceptually flawed, unfunny. There's a speech around 1:08 which epitomises everything wrong with this movie. Women do not need a man to tell them what they need, and the message of the speech is frankly incorrect: women should be able to choose for themselves whether they want to hook up, or date; and some women DO want NSA. The movie is incorrect: dating does happen. The concept of the hookup app is also flawed: in the real world women (in general) are not desperate enough, nor men (in general) seedy enough, for such an app to take off. The message of the movie is not to use apps, yet this is bizarre also: an increasing number of long-term relationships are built off matches made online. It decreases the chances of a great match if you limit your dating pool, and there's no reason why anyone should rule out apps based off an arbitrary ideal. Also, people were having a lot more sex in the 50s and 60s than this movie makes out. Some studies actually suggest they were having MORE sex than young people today. The comedy in the movie is very poor, particularly in delivery. I get that it's an American teen movie, but it's lacking wit or any kind of depth to the jokes. All characters are one-dimensional and lacking depth. All follow established, over-used cliches.