When I saw Mean Girls (2024) on Thursday night the 11th of January, I was enthralled by the musical numbers and the energy in the main teen cast. And though some of the original film's stuff got rehashed in a good way along with the music, it should've cut down on the old humor after a while and put in some new material.
The plot's pretty much the same as the original film: After years of homeschooling in Africa, Cady Heron, played by Angourie Rice, who played Betty Brant in Marvel Studios' Spider-Man films, transfers to North Shore High School in America. But it's still a jungle adventure and misadventure when she must outwit the school's unscrupulous social hierarchy, dominated by The Plastics trio clique, led by Regina George, played by Reneé Rapp, who is beautiful yet barbaric. She gets help and guidance in the form of Janis 'Imi'ike and Damian Hubbard, played by Auli'i Cravalho from Moana and Jaquel Spivey, respectively.
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| How to cut through The Plastics: With Cady Heron, Janis 'Imi'ike and Damian Hubbard. Courtesy of Paramount. |
I enjoyed the musical number sequences from the main teens. From "What-Ifs" to the end, it was like combining the tale of high school with Wicked and Frozen.
Now for the nit-picking. There should've been more screen time for Karen Shetty, Gretchen Wieners, and Aaron Samuels, played by Avantika, Bebe Wood, and Christopher Briney, respectively. To specify, Karen and Gretchen wanted to be more than just Regina's cronies or your typical sexy girls, but they each got one solo song and that was it. As for Aaron, they should've discussed some more about him away from being an object of desire for either Cady or Regina. Some other things the film should've done: Discuss why Regina had such mean behavior, all the teens' goals for after high school, and show more encouraging teachers besides math teacher Ms. Norbury, played by Tina Fey.
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| Meet The Plastics: Gretchen Wieners, Regina George (leader), and Karen Shetty. Courtesy of Paramount. |
Back to the positives, Mean Girls did get me hooked on a lot of music, specifically "Meet The Plastics". The music segments helped tell the tale of high school in a fun way, even during the torturous moments. Recycling old film motifs aside, the film can still teach you that you are beautiful in every way you are and words can't bring you down. And if words do bring you down, you have friends, teachers and parents to get you back up again.
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| People like Ms. Norbury can make high school truly less trouble if you let her push you. Courtesy of Paramount. |
Rapp as Regina was practically the highlight of the show with her high soprano voice, and her character's bewitching costume changes and crafty behavior. Quite "fetch", if I say so myself.
I give the film a 6.5/10. Great music and energy, just should've told a different story and made more room for some other people. Back to the story part, if the story were different, maybe it would top the original film.
Great job to the cast and crew. #burnbooknotgrool. And for the most part, Mean Girls (2024) was #grool and #fetch!
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