Nothing quite matches the distinguished nature of the movie “Mean Girls,” so with the announcement of the “Mean Girls” musical movie, fans were ecstatic. Despite the initial enthusiasm for this release, there has been a wave of disappointment with the final product of the movie.
“As a lover of musicals, there were things I disliked about the new Mean Girls movie,” said senior Alleigh Callison. “Things like the changing of words to appeal to a different crowd or cutting very crucial songs from the original musical really didn’t let me enjoy it as much as others might.”
A problem for many moviegoers was the difference from the stage to the screen. The leaving out of important songs from the original soundtrack, along with key scenes, set back a lot of character development that was found in both the musical and the original movie. Such as the absence of the popular song “Meet the Plastics,” which sets the tone for the rest of the movie to move forward.
“There were many changes, but also many recognizable and funny takeaways from the original movie,” said Callison. “Overall, I think this movie was done well for a certain crowd, but it doesn’t touch the original movie or the soundtrack of the musical’s popularity.”
Another problem that many people struggled with was the actual acting in the movie. It wasn’t what you’d expect from someone who has never had any experience with theater acting, as it was very dramatized and against the grain of typical movie acting.
“I’ve been in theater classes,” said junior Bryanna Dickens. “So I understand why they chose to make the acting more similar to what you’d expect from a musical, but it wasn’t their best choice, personally.”
Apart from all of the hate this movie has received, there’s also lots of excitement that has come from it. The movie was able to differentiate itself from both the original movie and the stage version, allowing it to stand alone as its own movie.
I honestly loved it because it was its own movie,” said Dickens. “It had parts of the original movie, it had parts of the Broadway show, and it had its own parts too. No matter what version you watched, or if you haven’t, you were able to find parts that you enjoyed.”
