Though the Plastics are back on the big screen for the first time in decades, most are left to wonder whether this new remake shapes up to the original cult classic. In short, no.

Based on the 2018 Broadway musical based on the original 2004 movie, 2024 Mean Girls had a lot to live up to. However, the transfer from film to stage to film left a lost translation feeling to the entire movie that failed to appease audiences of either fanbase. 

The story follows the same, relatively unchanged, cast of characters, each making their way through life in high school. The main protagonist, Cady Heron, spent most of her life being homeschooled in Africa, but once she’s sent to public high school for the first time she quickly realizes that things are much different than what she’s used to. Having difficulty adjusting to it all, she befriends two outcasts, Janis and Damian, and learns the inside drama of their socially primal high school. Most notably, Cady learns about the Plastics, a group of popular girls who run the school and ruin the lives of everyone else in it. When she is invited to join the Plastics, it seems like the perfect opportunity to deconstruct the Plastics from the inside. However, to join the Plastics, Cady herself would need to become plastic, no matter the costs.

The two main critiques of the 2024 film are that lovers of the original film hated the musical theater elements, and lovers of the Broadway musical hated that it wasn’t musical theater enough. Admittedly, one major flaw in the remake is that in a movie that is so audaciously theatrical, they didn’t advertise any of the musical aspects at all. So, in hiding the fact that it’s a musical the film successfully drew in and deceived audiences that wouldn’t usually have gone out to see a movie musical, and ignored advertising to the audiences that might enjoy the film. 

However, the choice in advertising wasn’t the only flaw in balancing the two sides of what the film attempted to be. In terms of the musical numbers, they all were either overly campy and theatrical or boring and dull, the latter being especially prevalent with Cady’s songs. In trying to appeal to non-musical theater audiences they changed emotionally dynamic songs like, “Stupid With Love,” to washed-up pop versions that, in turn, lost the musical theater audience they were making this movie for in the first place.   

Yet another weak point in the film that drew away audiences was the atrocious amount of product placements throughout its entirety. Often forced, the sheer number of e.l.f. advertisements only added to the cheap and tacky feeling of the film as a whole.

Though the remake had several clear shortcomings, there was also one major way in which the film exceeded the original. That being said, the original story was well overdue for a remake, and in that sense, this film succeeded. From the clever portrayal of social media to the reimagined comedic and scenic elements, the 2024 remake successfully remade the film to pallet to today’s audiences.