“Mean Girls” Movie Review

The movie-musical adaptation of a Broadway musical adaptation of a beloved movie has hit theaters everywhere, and fans have mixed reviews.

In 2004, the first and original “Mean Girls” was released, and has since become an iconic piece in the film industry. “Mean Girls” the musical then opened on Broadway in 2018, fitting many amazing songs into a pre-existing storyline.

Now, almost 20 years after the release of the original film, “Mean Girls” has taken its musical adaptation to the big screen.

“Mean Girls” follows new student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) as she takes on North Shore High, navigating her new life and dealing with high school drama. She meets Janice (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damien (Jaquel Spivey), who warn her to stay away from The Plastics: Regina George (Reneé Rapp), Karen Shetty (Avantika Vandanapu) and Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood).

The most disappointing part of this movie was the music, which is what Broadway fans were most excited about.

Rice is not a singer, so it was disappointing to see her cast as the main protagonist in a musical. The film altered both of Cady’s songs from the Broadway soundtrack and cut many others.

“Mean Girls” replaced “It Roars” with a brand-new song called “What Ifs”, written by Broadway lyricists and Rapp. The song was good, but compared to the passionate “It Roars” from the original Broadway soundtrack, it was nowhere near as powerful.

Another standout musical issue in “Mean Girls” was the altered production and instrumentals behind “Stupid With Love”.

The Broadway version of the song is fast-paced and encapsulates what it’s like to meet someone and immediately form an unrealistic crush.

But the 2024 version of the song is very slowed down and overly auto-tuned. If this was a stylistic choice, then it was the wrong one.

It felt like the music producers watered down almost every song except for the songs sung by Rapp and Cravalho, who are talented singers outside of acting.

Rapp played Regina George on Broadway from 2019 to 2020, so of course the movie version of “World Burn” was jaw-dropping, and if every other song got this treatment, the whole soundtrack would’ve been the same.

Vandanapu’s adaptation of the song “Sexy” was amazing. This performance proved that they could make a non-singer sound and look great.

The film cut out all of Aaron Samuels’ (Christopher Briney) singing parts from the Broadway show, probably because the actor they cast is not a singer. Damien’s songs, “Where Do You Belong?” and “Stop”, were also both cut from the theater adaptation, leaving Spivey with little to work with.

The costuming in this movie was overall good, except for every single one of Regina George’s outfits. The cast had modernized costumes that felt realistic, but Regina’s outfits were cheap-looking micro-trends.

Not that Rapp could ever look bad, but it's like they wanted her to.

Product placement was huge in this movie, and it was noticed. At different points, Cady directly references an e.l.f. lip product by name and Seat Geek is revealed as the sponsor of the mathlete competition, among other moments.

It’s no secret that product placement is important for revenue, but there is a right and wrong way to go about it, and “Mean Girls” did it wrong.

Aside from everything that was disappointing in this movie, it was overall a fun and fresh take on the iconic original. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows both reprised their roles from the 2004 film as Mrs. Norbury and Principal Duvall.

Ashley Park, who played Gretchen in the original Broadway cast of “Mean Girls,” made a cameo in the movie as a teacher.

The most memorable cameo was Lindsay Lohan as the judge of the mathlete competition, which was a very pleasant and iconic surprise for audiences.

Despite certain expectations not being met and being left disappointed as a Broadway fan, the movie was overall entertaining.

“Mean Girls” was funny, the good musical numbers were outstanding, and it was a feel-good and amusing movie at its core.

It was a modern adaptation of an already iconic film, and musical fan or not, anyone interested in “Mean Girls” should see this movie.

Rating: 3/5

Sarah Gavlak is a second-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact her, email sng5393@psu.edu.