The Mean Girls remake was released in theaters on Jan. 12, receiving mostly positive reception as it blended the nostalgia of the original film with updated humor for a contemporary audience. 

The original 2004 film was one of the most iconic movies of the early 2000s, grossing $130.1 million worldwide and leading to Mean Girls the musical opening on Broadway in 2018. The hype of that adaptation contributed to the success of the new movie, which earned over $100 million in the first six weeks after release.

Mean Girls received a 70% Rotten Tomatoes score, demonstrating strong support from the audience. 

The film follows the story of new high school student Cady Heron as she navigates the complexities of a high school social hierarchy. Struggling to find her place amongst her peers, Cady becomes influenced by the laws of popularity that divides her school into tight cliques. 

As she attempts to integrate into multiple friend groups, she inadvertently sets off a chain reaction that challenges the established norms and power dynamics within the student body and more specifically, ‘the Plastics’. 

One notable difference between the classic and the remake is that the remake is a musical. To many viewers, this came as a shock because the trailer for the 2024 film disguised how many songs would be incorporated into the movie. 

“Mean Girls is a strange beast: with a nearly identical screenplay written by Tina Fey (who also resumes her role as the high-school teacher Ms. Norbury), it’s brought down mainly by mediocre musical numbers,” wrote Ann Manov, a critic on Rotten Tomatoes. 

This sentiment was expressed by many viewers who are not fans of musicals and their overly-stylized dramatics. According to a similar review, the addition of songs at many points in the film was awkward and annoying to watch because it disrupts the flow of the storyline. 

Personally, I have no issue with the addition of songs and find some of the original songs humorous. They provide a refreshing contrast with other films premiering this year. I thought that it was wonderful that they were able to get Reneé Rap, who starred as Regina George in the Broadway musical from 2019 to 2020, to reprise her role in the movie. 

However, I noticed that a lot of the songs were forgettable and did not fit the disposition of the characters. For example, Janice was portrayed as an emo and sarcastic character, but some of the songs made her appear much livelier than expected. While the songs were enjoyable, they did not add anything substantial to the storyline or develop the personalities of the main characters in any meaningful way. 

There were also many similarities between the original Mean Girls with and new remake. As a fan of the 2004 film, I noticed that a lot of the dialogue in the remake was word-by-word the same as the original. 

I appreciated that the scriptwriters included a lot of the iconic lines such as “You can’t sit with us” and “Get in, loser”. There was a good balance between introducing changes and recycling material from the original movie, ensuring viewers remain engaged without getting upset that the essence of the original film was lost. 

While some scenes were cut such as the four-way calls, it was replaced by social media (more specifically TikTok) updating an outdated form of communication with a realistic depiction of how teenagers spread information now. In my opinion, this change was necessary to make the film relevant to teenagers seeing the film for the first time. 

Rotten Tomatoes reviewer Paul Salfen was one of many who felt the film struck the right balance between capturing the essence of the original film while reinventing it to resonate better with the younger generation. 

“Although it doesn’t quite touch the original, it has surprisingly been 20 years and so much has changed since then,” he wrote. “This version seems to fit in well with its target audience and hits the right notes for what this generation wants to see.” 

After watching the movie, I strongly recommend it to fans of the original film because it is interesting to compare and contrast the two movies. It resonates with teenage girls of any generation, paying homage to the enduring lessons regarding cliques, fake friends and the structure of high school society. 

Overall, if you want to watch a movie where you can laugh and enjoy yourself, Mean Girls is a great option.