the frustrating failure of the Mean Girls musical movie (rant review)

I just saw the new Mean Girls musical movie and I have so many thoughts many of them are bad if you've watched some of my videos before this is going to be a little bit different because I do not have a script I'm literally reading off of bullet points from my notes app that I wrote down on the bus ride home after leaving the theater so let's just cut to the chase okay was this movie terrible no it was fine so this not like the worst movie of the year but was this movie disappointing absolutely I think if I had a thesis to say in this video it would be that the people making the Mean Girls musical movie just didn't understand the movie they were making the Mean Girls musical movie is an adaptation of the Mean Girls Broadway musical which is an adaptation off of the 2004 Mean Girls movie which is an adaptation of the book queen bees and wannab bees now I have not seen the musical so I can't tell you if it's a faithful adaptation but I did listen to most of the soundtrack before for going to see this movie so why don't we just start with the music ver the good it's not all bad I really think one of the most enjoyable parts of this movie were some of the musical visual sequences I thought the choreography was pretty well done for the most part and the cinematography is quite creative for example I really loved Regina's someone gets hurt song in the Halloween scene the lighting is dark and ominous and Regina is just like slinking around the background and I love how the aners react to her touch I also really love the visuals of world burn there's this intense red light just bathing Regina and then all of the flashing lights that go down the hallway later on in the school it definitely visually matched the power and intensity of Regina and the song and I also appreciated how I think in Janice's song rather be me it was done mostly in one take which I appreciate there are several actors who have a really good voice Renee rap her voice is stunning she also did Play Regina George on Broadway in the Mean Girls musical she can really sing these songs so effortlessly Janice and Daman both have strong voices too they do have musical trainings so thankfully we have some very strong singers in this movie because unfortunately Katie does not have the strongest vocal performance she's a really sweet person I've seen her in interviews and she just seems so lovely but it is a problem to make a musical movie and not have one of your main cast members have a strong voice broadway songs are hard to sing especially this Mean Girl soundtrack is hard I don't think that she was the right casting choice for this movie I'm going to talk about these songs a little bit more when I go through the characters and I'll talk about the specific songs that I don't think they should have cut or changed now the costume design I know so many people have already weighed in on their thoughts on this I know this team is getting a lot of backlash for the decisions they made with the costumes in this movie and I feel so bad to add to that criticism but I am going to add to it hopefully we can take this as a learning lesson for our next movie but I'm looking at my notes right now and I'm so harsh I don't even want to say any of this but it's the truth really because I just saw this movie I literally just saw it and I'm thinking back on it and I really can't tell you a single outfit that I thought was either memorable or that I really liked the only one that I thought that was good was Regina's world burn outfit and even then it was really only the top half which is basically a recreation of the original movie anyway but she's wearing these leather pants it sounds so bad to say but that already feels dated I think that was the main problem with this costume design is it tried too hard to lean into current trends rather than making its own Trend I think more than anything this approach not only just doesn't look very good this styling really shows to me misunderstanding of what these characters actually represent especially for Regina and the Plastics Regina is supposed to be an idealized version of Barbie even Rachel McAdams in the original Mean Girls she had to wear a blonde wig so that she looked like Barbie right Regina is supposed to look like a high school celebrity she's Rich she lives in a mansion she gets everything she wants this is what her style is supposed to represents she isn't supposed to dress like a typical popular high school girl that you would see walking down the hallway today she isn't following the trends she's setting them Regina would not shop on Tik Tok or Instagram which is where these costume designers said that they Source a lot of their clothing from and I'll see if I can find the interviews and either put them in the description or somewhere on the screen so you can go read them yourself but because they sourced their items from these social media stores The Outfits tend to to look generic and I guess realistic but the problem with doing that is that Regina isn't supposed to be realistic she's supposed to be aspirational and so all of these outfits that she wears don't really convey any of her character traits I also read in one of the articles that they didn't want this High School to look like euphoria's high school or Gossip Girls High School and I just thought to myself why why not Euphoria and Gossip Girl are some of the most influential TV shows for fashion I know everyone makes fun of euphoria high and how none of the outfits look realistic but you can't deny that it had such an impact on jenzy fashion and jenzy culture sometimes it's not supposed to be realistic to help tell the story or for like some sort of artistic Choice the 2004 version of Mean Girls is so influential for fashion that you should want it to be something like a Gossip Girl or Euphoria in its own way so that it can also impact fashion in the same way that it did back in the 2000s I also noticed that the Plastics and Regina don't wear heels in this version and to me that just felt like the costume design team saw a statistic or a survey that genz don't wear heels which I think is true I think genes are very much into the sneaker aesthetic but in their head they said oh well that means we should put the Plastics in sneakers but this does not make sense for the Plastics cuz the Plastics are supposed to convey some sort of conventional structured idea of what a girl has to conform to right if you're a girl you should wear pink if you're a girl you should wear heels if you're a girl you should wear Minik skirts and dresses heels were not chosen in 2004 because it was realistic for 2000s high schoolers to wear heels to school they were chosen because it's believable that the Plastics would the Plastics are supposed to show Katie that this is what she has to be like to be a girl and to be accepted also for Katie I actually didn't even notice her costuming in this movie The only thing that I can remember is that she starts wearing more blue I think when she turns plastic or takes Regina's place but she's supposed to have this major visual transformation and I can't even remember it to be fair I don't like the costuming in the musical at least what I've seen of it but even still this was a chance to write that wrong another thing that defines Mean Girls is the humor I did enjoy some of the new jokes in this movie and I loved Karen she was so perfectly cast I think her name is avona she was fantastic but there were so many forced callbacks to the original which I think make those jokes less funny it's the same thing with Kevin G's rap that rap doesn't really work as well in this musical movie because we only see Kevin G one other time he has like two lines in this movie which was so disappointing cuz I love Kevin G and he has a lot of CPS in the original with so you don't see him that much but you kind of get the sense of his character and his Vibe so the rap is sort of this funny scene given all that other context but in the musical movie it just happens out of nowhere so it really just feels like a call back to the original rather than adding something that actually makes sense for the story The Last storytelling element I want to just touch on before we get into the characters is the pacing this movie is so fast and it's crazy because it's longer than the original movie and it has half the songs that the musical has and I think this is a major reason why the movie doesn't work that well because you can't really get to know the characters I don't really know who Katie is I don't really know who Regina is really and the music they chose doesn't do enough to move the story forward so they have to catch all up in the talking scenes but the talking scenes are so fast-paced and just like call backs to the original movie that it doesn't even make sense it feels so disjointed I think a really good example of this is Regina 's interrogation scene in the original movie this is so well done and you really get the sense that Regina is calculating and manipulative as soon as she meets Katie and there's this whole long conversation where you see Katie being so clueless and awkward and she doesn't even understand what reg is saying in this new version I don't really get the sense that Katie is socially awkward and that Regina has all of this power in the school because we don't really get to sit with these characters and like let them marinate we just introduce them and then we go on to the next thing the other problem with this fast pace is that so many times in this movie it tells us the story without actually spending the time to show it so the first example of this it's not that bad but it's just to elaborate on my point it's at Katie's house party and Katie walks into her room and Aaron is there and he's looking at a photo of her on her elephant or something and so Aaron looks up and he goes oh I've been looking for you and I was like when we did not see you look for anyone we just saw you in this room and then you're telling us that you were looking for Katie like in the original you see Aaron go through the house party and try to look for Katie so that's showing us that Aaron is looking for Katie right in this version I didn't even know Aaron was at the party he's just randomly there already in her room he doesn't go into her room to escape the noise it doesn't make us invested in the story as much but I think the worst example of this is in the Jingle Bell Rock scene okay I have a whole video on why that scene is so great this is the most pivotal scene in the movie and maybe it's different the musical I'm not sure but in the movie This is the scene that catapults Katie to becoming like Regina it's very important scene so in the musical movie Regina is embarrassed because the choreography is messed up and afterwards there is this whole Tik Tok Montage of all of the people being mean to Regina but then saying Katie was so amazing but the problem is is we don't actually see Katie be amazing in this performance in the first half of the dance she's behind the other Plastics and we see one shot of her doing a dance move this is another example of telling us that Katie was amazing but not actually showing it in the original movie we see Katie takes initiative and she sings the rest of the song and we see the audience being one over by her okay that's a great example of showing us how Katie is capable of being a leader so this is a really important example of they didn't understand the story they were telling they didn't understand the importance of this scene or what this actually means for Katie and Regina's characters like I said I think this scene's also a bit different in the musical but my point is not that this scene or this whole movie should be exactly like the 2004 original movie my point is that the original does a much better job at this storytelling element they do a much better job of showing you the story rather than telling it to you so let's talk about Katie as a character I really found Katie in this musical movie to be rather unlikable because I think her main personality trait is that she just likes Aaron Samuels I don't feel like Katie learns that much about girlhood and friendship and social etiquette and I don't feel her slowly becoming her worst enemy there's no internal dialogue in this movie because it's narrated by Janice and Daman and I don't mind that change I'm pretty sure this is how the musical is but it does limit us relating to and understanding Katie's awkwardness and this is so Central to her character even though I haven't seen the musical I can tell that they do this a lot better for example I was so surprised that they cut the song Roar because it totally sets the stage for Katie's mindset she is wondering about teenagers in America and she wants to experience Western High School and she's trying to fit in with all of these other teenagers who are so much different than her and have such a different experience and background and instead of giving us that song which is so important to letting us into Katie's head they switched it out for a new song called what ifs and this song is so generic it really just says that Katie wants more in life and it's not at all specific at what she wants more of the whole point of having Katie move to norchar high from Kenya is to have a character who is clueless about the complexities of high school and social culture and girl worlds and at least I think the musical seems to understand that but in the movie musical Katie really just gets to Northshore and she's a little confused but then she immediately just becomes boy crazy for Aaron and that becomes her entire character Aaron Samuels is a big part of Katie's story for sure but Aaron is supposed to be a byproduct of her relationship with Janice and the Plastics and how her getting Aon in the end is a result of her navigating through those problems but in this movie he's just the main thing all of the time so it feels so disjointed from the thing that really defines her which is trying to navigate this new Western girl world I also found Katie's switch to be like Regina so sudden there's almost no time spent on it really that I was like confused when it happens whereas in the movie there's this slow buildup and you can really see it through the change in her outfits and the way she acts which is a lot more believable I was also surprised that they cut the song More is better that song I feel like really defines Katie's mindset shift because what she's saying in that song is like oh I have more shoes and I look cuter so more is always better and it she sings this when she's with Aaron in her bedroom at her house party so it shows that she's become materialistic but then there's also a line in the song where she sings about the fact that what she had more of in Kenya was that she had more stars in the sky and she misses that and this is a really cute moment in the musical I feel like even though I haven't seen the musical but I just know the music because in the end the final song is I see stars and so she's looking out into the crowd in high school and she says I See Stars I see so many shining beautiful stars and it's this nice little poetic call back to how she misses the stars in Kenya it's really cute cuz she's found the beauty in her new Homeland and it just makes the moment so much more impactful and meaningful I want to talk about Regina so Regina I think is the strongest part in this movie Renee rap obviously I've talked about her she's amazing I love L her she's perfect casting for Regina I really think that Renee and who was it vona both of them did I think the best job at really understanding their characters but Reinventing it in a really natural way but it still very much felt like Regina and Karen if that makes any sense but I do still think that there was something missing about Regina I think it's two things I think the first thing is that Regina isn't mean enough I don't think any of these characters are actually mean enough and so again it misses the point of do you really understand the character of Regina she's supposed to be backhanded and super manipulative and calculating and I don't really see that in this movie the second thing is I didn't have much of an emotional connection to Regina weirdly like when she is embarrassed on stage like I didn't really care in a way whereas in the original movie when Regina wears those sweatpants and she says these are all that fit me right now I kind of feel a little sad for her you know even though she's an awful person I kind of felt like a bit emotional towards her and I feel like that's very similar with a lot of these characters and again it just goes back to the fact that it's such a fast-paced movie that we can't really get invested in any of them there was also the bathroom scene and I was so excited when I saw that happen because I thought it was going to be a call back to the deleted scene from the 2004 movie where Regina talks about throwing her dollhouse down the stairs if you haven't seen that deleted scene definitely go check it out cuz I love that scene I wish it was still in the movie but instead we get this really confusing scene where Regina is saying to Katie oh you know I actually like you Katie but I'm also on drugs and it could be the drugs talking I don't know so it's really confusing like what are we supposed to think about Regina is Regina just super mean or is she not like I don't know it's a very confusing message to end the character of Regina on also with Regina's Mom I thought Regina's mom was so greatly cast as well in the musical her mom has this part where well she's singing It's a song but she's in her parenting because raising girls is so hard and you learn that she's actually a really insecure mom I think that would have been so cool to see in the movie because Mean Girls originally was based off of a book called queen bees and wannabes which is a selfhelp book for parents dealing with teenage daughters because then it makes so much more sense that why her mom is always trying to be her friends and always trying to please her and then in that same song This is actually Gretchen's song as well the what's wrong with me song this same insecure thought process manifests in Gretchen and when I first listened to this Musical soundtrack that was like my favorite part in the music because it added a deeper Dimension and layer to Gretchen and Regina's mom that we don't get in the movie so let's talk about Gretchen Gretchen has kind of the same problems as Regina I don't think there's enough time to emotionally connect with her also her outfits are just so bad I feel like Gretchen should be wearing Argyle prints and bbery or something like she's the daughter of the toaster strudel business Empire man you know and I'm not sure why the meet the plastic song was cut to not include Gretchen or Karen's introduction verses because that really gets across the characters of Gretchen and Karen Gretchen is super frantic and trying to get Regina to like her and validate her and do everything for Regina and Karen is just like I have a cute skirt and my hair is shiny I'm really glad they kept the what's wrong with me song that's just Gretchen's part in the movie but again it doesn't really have that much of an impact because it's just there there's nothing else surrounding the song nothing else comes back around to Gretchen's character and the ends where does Gretchen end in this movie like what is her character Arc I don't even know I also really like how in the musical she has a repre of this what's wrong with me song and it's when Katie becomes the leader and she says I have a different boss and the same problems what's wrong with me so she's really starting to learn am I the problem is it the people I surround myself with are they the problem I feel like a lot of teenage girls think like that and it would have been so cool to see that element in this movie it's also a lot more blatant in the original how Regina treats Gretchen and how it's all these like slow compounding little Digs at her that morph into this crazy chaotic downward spiral and you don't really get that same buildup in the musical movie with Karen um I loved Karen I think Karen was like my favorite part of this whole movie I just love avansa I've said that like five times but I really do like her she's so funny again I just wish her outfits were better okay so what about Aaron all I really have to think about him in this movie is that he's cute but Aaron in the original has a little bit of charm and you can see why Katie or Regina would fall for him but in this version he's just there there's not much that he has to work with I don't know if this was just a casting decision or a story decision I can't tell but I do think that regardless he needed more of something the last characters are Janice and Daman I haven't talked about them at all really in this video but Damian I thought was good I really liked what's his name I don't remember the actor's name but I really liked his rendition of Daman again it was something new did his own little spin on it and I thought he was funny I think he had some funny moments so I quite liked Damen Janice on the other hand her char character did not make any sense she felt a lot more soft in this movie she didn't have the same Edge because Janice is supposed to be another mean girl she's one of the meanest in the whole movie She's the entire Mastermind behind sabotaging rega and when she sings her Rather Be Me song I did like the way it was shot but again it kind of comes out of nowhere because am I supposed to root for her I mean she should be herself but she's mean so like like why am I rooting for her and of course her outfits again I keep saying this but her outfits were not what I would Envision Janice to be in however I did really like that they were creative with her makeup I really appreciated that hi this is me from editing because I realized I forgot to talk about this Janice's backstory is updated in this version this is similar to a lot of other jokes and elements in the movie that are updated or removed which as much as I love the original Mean Girls I think makes sense in a lot of areas but with Janice I actually think this is a little bit more complicated in the musical movie people avoid her because they think that she lights things on fire and I think this is R she also is a lesbian in this version and on its own I really do not have a problem with this but I do think that the reason for this change does show a misunderstanding of this element in the original movie let me explain in the 2004 version Janice and Regina used to be best friends Regina assumes and starts a rumor that Janice is a lesbian because Janice wants to spend more time with her but Regina wants to spend time with her boyfriends Regina is also not very bright Because by the end of the movie there's a joke where Janice says that she's a Lebanese and so the joke is that Regina just didn't know what that meant or thought it was similar to lesbian on a broad level their relationship shows how willfully girls might cast aside their best friend for a boy and it shows the negative effect that false rumors can have on somebody even someone as strong as as Janice while his reaction from people wouldn't be as accurate now this situation just shows how much power rumors can have and this is the power Regina wields in the original it's actually quite important that Janice is straights to show that this was a false rumor and Janice dresses in an androgynous anti-conformation way so there's an underlying Point don't stereotype someone based on their looks it's also quite nice that she gets with Kevin G because they're from two separate Social Circles so in the end and you have an athlete and an art freak together in a relationship and it's so nice because they're not defined by their labels her coming to the dance with a girl that isn't even in the movie I don't even know who this girl is it's a nice message but it's not really relevant to the story it's as if they made her character about finding empowerment to be herself but this has nothing to do with the original Janice Janice's story is about being the center of a false rumor and it hurting her so bad that she wants revenge and it's about disproving stereotypes in this version people avoid her because they think she lights things on fire she'd probably want revenge for a rumor like that but no stereotypes are broken which is really important for a movie about high school where stereotypes can run rampant at the very least her costume design should have had elements of singed hair or charred clothing and then maybe the reason she actually looks like that is because she does metal work art you could have even had a joke about her being an Aries and Regina mistaking that for AR because Aries is a fire sign or something like that I don't know how I would have fixed this because I guess this is a problem in the musical too I'm assuming and I've heard a lot of back and forth about Janice's character so I would love to know what you think before I wrap this really long rant up I just want to go over why is the original Mean Girls so great because Mean Girls is not iconic for The Outfits and the humor and the cute boy absolutely all of these things they add to the movie but the reason the reaction is so strong is because there is a really high quality story underneath all of that that has something to say the problem with this musical movie is that it does not understand the original message Mean Girls is about all the toxic ways girls are vicious to each other and how there is this unrealistic standard for girls to live up to and that encompassing all of that parenting Girls is really hard but in this version the girls aren't that mean so we don't get the same impactful message about a story with vicious girls the Plastics are meant to be fake and in the end all of that is stripped away so the girls can breathe life is so much better when you're yourself I do see a common criticism for people that are critical of this movie because people say well it's just a fun movie don't take it so seriously but the best types of these fun campy stories they all have an element of seriousness to them and have a clear message and it uses the humor and the fun and the camp and the girliness to help tell it it's the same thing with Legally Blonde for example yes it's pink and blonde and shopping and love but it has something to say right you shouldn't judge a book by its cover same thing with 10 Things I Hate About You there's cute boys and feminism but it's about two sisters learning from each other and balancing each other out in the end so that they can have better relationship with the boys that's really what I want this channel to be about to appreciate the art of these movies and characters that may seem so simple or not taken seriously I'd love to know what you thought of this movie especially if you've seen the musical is there anything you think the musical does better thank you so much for making it this far in the video if you did have a good night and thank you so much for watching

Channel: art at midnight

Views: 548,525

Keywords: art at midnight, mean girls, mean girls musical, review, mean girls musical movie, regina george, cady heron

Id: o7S2qXVBwAM

Length: 27min 1sec (1621 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024