The new Mean Girls movie
Mean Girls (2024) was officially released in theaters on January 12th , and people have had mixed reactions, to say the least. From changes in the movie plot to song choices, and the fact that it is now a musical, everyone has an opinion. This movie has had people talking since the first trailer dropped back in November, and they have not been silent since.
Much like the original movie, Mean Girls (2024) includes many up-and-coming actors. The cold, hard, and coveted Plastics are portrayed by Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Avantika Vandanapu as Karen Shetty, and Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners. Angourie Rice plays the new girl, Cady Heron, Auli’i Cravalho plays rebellious Janis Sarkisian, Jacquel Spivey is the proud Damian Hubbard, and Chris Briney plays golden boy Aaron Samuels. As for recurring actors that people are very excited about, Tina Fey returns as Ms. Norbury, Tim Meadows as Principal Duval, and Jan Hamm as Coach Carr.
As with many remakes, quite a few things were changed to update the movie for the Gen Z audience.
However, the plot itself stays relatively the same. Cady is a new girl, she becomes one of the Plastics, and everything blows up in her face.
Besides that, Cady’s character is quite boring and judgmental. Regina has a smaller part, which is faithful to the theatrical play but not the original movie. Karen’s character is an airhead to the point where, after a while, it feels like a bad joke. Gretchen’s insecurities are brought to the forefront, and she is reduced to a nervous wreck. On the bright side, Janis is openly gay much to audiences’ pleasure.
When a new remake of a beloved classic is announced, there is always the question of whether it will
live up to the original or not. While it has happened before, the court of public opinion has decided that Mean Girls (2024) is not on that list.
“What often happens in remakes is they try to be a continuation of the original, and when it comes to
something like Mean Girls, there’s too much riding on it. The original will always top the remakes,” said
Deerfield Beach High School senior Natalie Bullard.
It did not help that the movie got some negative buzz after early trailers deliberately hid the fact that
this film was a musical.
“When people see a trailer, they expect to see the baseline of what the movie is. So, if it’s a musical, it
throws off people’s expectations,” said Bullard.
Harmony Edmund, however, thinks the deception was a good idea, saying the musical numbers make
the movie feel somewhat more alive.
Despite its flaws and some viewers not liking this movie, it was still a project that people worked hard
on. Fans mutually agreed that Reneé Rapp was the best part of this movie. This should not be a surprise as she also played Regina in the play. Hopefully, fans will see more work from these young stars in the future.
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