This year’s new adaptation of the 2004 film, Mean Girls, is not what was expected by audiences. With new and rising stars like Reneé Rapp, Avantika Vandanapu, Angourie Rice, Ashley Park and more, this film allows new audiences to experience the excitement the original film sparked. Some old talent reprise their roles once again like Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury and Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall.

     Many reviews seen online have had poor experiences with the movie. The movie currently has a rating of 6.3 stars out of ten on IMDb. Some reviews complain about lyric changes, the fact that this movie is a musical unlike the original and many other critiques. 

     This film can somewhat be compared to the broadway version of Mean Girls. There are very similar songs that reappear like, “Watch the World Burn”, “Stupid with Love”, “Meet the Plastics”, “Apex Predator” and others. 

     I believe that the way that the new actresses for the main plastics perfectly represent what Mean Girls is about. Having an experienced musical actress like Reneé Rapp play Regina George was exactly what the film needed. 

     However, the music backing the vocals was lacking throughout the movie. Comparing the upbeat instrumentals in the broadway version people were expecting, to get a seemingly lofi-version was disappointing. I fully believe that this was an artistic error, not on the actors themselves, but on the directing team who chose to let this happen.

     Additionally, I have seen the hate that has been spreading about the actress who played Cady Heron, Angourie Rice. I do not think that it is fair to blame her for her singing. She is an Australian actress trying to sing songs out of her range and also in a different accent entirely. This fault is onto the casting directors who did not understand the effect this would have on the actresses reputation.

     With the controversy surrounding the movie, it hurt the movie before it even was released in theaters. Even if it is currently number one in the box offices, the movie cost twice as much to make as its predecessor according to Rotten Tomatoes. Originally costing around eighteen million dollars, the new adaptation cost nearly twenty-four million dollars to make. Although the movie has grossed nearly fifty million dollars after a ten day run, it was projected to earn upwards of eighty million dollars.

     Even considering all of these negative effects, Reneé Rapp’s career has been better than ever. Her music is being popularized and she was even asked to play on Saturday Night Live with Jacob Elordi hosting it. 

     Many other actors and actresses involved with the show have started to receive praise for their renditions in the new movie. 

     Avantika Vandanapu has been praised for her amazing performance of  “Sexy” for being such a young actor at only the age of eighteen.

     Overall, the movie is practically the same as the Broadway performance in my own opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed it and being able to see returning actors throughout the movie was enjoyable,

     The singing was very fun to listen to, even if the instrumentals were not on par with the talent. Each actor was able to put a modernized spin on the personalities of each character and I enjoyed that they were not trying to make a carbon copy of the original movie.

     If I had to rate this movie I would give it a solid 6.5 or 7 out of ten due to a few of the director’s choices. This movie was an enjoyable watch in theaters, but I do not know how many times I would watch it outside of the first time.