It’s complicated
So last night, I saw the new Mean Girls movie, and I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty pumped. Even with all of the hate I’ve seen online, I was still so excited because 1) I knew that it was a musical, and 2) I love the Broadway show it’s based on.
So, I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a while, probably since I heard Renee Rapp was gonna reprise her role as Regina George. Renee being on Broadway was the first time that I had heard of her. I then listened to almost every YouTube video that she sang in. Also, her solo music that she has released is gold.
Anyway, I was excited about the movie but a little wary because a lot of people online have been talking about how much they hate it. But, despite this online hate, I decided to see for myself.
So, it starts with Janis, played by Auli’i Cravalho, and Damian, played by Jaquel Spivey, singing the song “Cautionary Tale” in a garage. From that moment, I could tell that it was going to be different from both the Broadway show and the original movie. Not bad, just different.
One change, though, that was a big loss was “Stupid With Love”. It was sung by Cady Heron, played by Angourie Rice, who did a really good job playing the iconic character. On Broadway, “Stupid With Love” is an upbeat, cheesy, really fun song. In the movie, though, it was slowed down and made into a ballad version. While I still enjoyed the song, I couldn’t help but wonder what the song could’ve been if they’d kept it upbeat, especially with the movie production they had access to.
They also replaced “It Roars” with a song called “What Ifs”. I’m not sure why they did this, because like with “Stupid With Love”, this song is slower, and I would’ve liked to see how it would’ve looked with Hollywood production. I wonder if they changed these songs to fit the actress’s voice, or if they just thought they would work better in the movie format. She did a great job singing them, I was just disappointed about the loss of the originals.
On the acting side of things, I think all of the actors and actresses did an amazing job. I LOVED Bebe Wood as Gretchen Weiners and Avantika Vandanapu perfected the “no thought behind her eyes” look that encapsulates Karen Shetty. I wasn’t sold when I saw that Christopher Briney, most known as Conrad on The Summer I Turned Pretty, was going to play Aaron Samuels, but I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. And Renee Rapp was the perfect amount of terrifying, and of course, she killed “Somebody Gets Hurt” and “World Burn”.
I think what it really comes down to is what mindset you were going into the movie with. I never really loved the original Mean Girls. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that it’s iconic and has had a huge impact on pop culture, but I still went in with the Broadway show in mind. And in turn, I ended up comparing the two. So, I noticed the differences, but I also liked it more because I know and love the songs. But I also know someone who doesn’t know the Broadway show, so she was comparing it to the 2004 film. And she didn’t like this one very much.
I think most of the hate comes from people who either didn’t know it was a musical and thought it was a simple remake (because for some reason it was marketed that way), or they loved the original Mean Girls movie and wanted it to be the same. So, honestly, I don’t think the movie deserves the hate it’s getting.
What I can say is that I would have liked a few things done differently, but all in all, I really enjoyed seeing these songs come to life on the big screen, while also being able to see new life brought to an iconic movie.
Featured photo via Paramount Movies
