[CONTAINS SPOILERS]
The elephant in the room is that this movie has been criticized… a lot.
The most prolific criticisms include the change in the style of the instrumentation in the music (compared with the Broadway musical) and the apparent redundancy of another ‘remake’, after the musical adaptation, as well as a (not particularly well received) sequel in 2011. However, we must consider why the movie was made, and what it hoped to achieve.
The movie is largely criticized as a ‘remake’ of the 2004 movie, but this is not the aim of it. It aimed to be a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical. While the Broadway musical is less widely known than the original movie, most of the audience for the 2024 movie could not compare it to the Broadway musical. With this said, the new movie certainly aimed to appeal to fans of the 2004 movie, closely following many of the iconic scene scripts and the outfits from the original movie. I thought this was perhaps done to quite a high degree, but the original movie is such a cult classic that too much change in plot and script would take away the personality of the story.
The next popular criticism comes from fans of the Broadway musical – criticizing the ‘lo-fi’ approach to the songs, making them feel less dramatic and more commercialized. However, again, we must consider what the movie aimed to achieve. The 2024 movie is not a copy of the musical, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s an adaptation of the musical which targets a very broad audience, so naturally it is suited to ‘Gen Z’ trends and ideas, such as the use of social media to develop the plot – the songs ‘A Cautionary Tale’ and ‘Sexy’ being fully or partly framed as a video taken on a phone, and especially during ‘World Burn’ and after Regina is hit by the bus, when there are flashes of comments on social media and popular culture is used to try to imitate a real high school’s reaction to the events in the movie. I appreciated that some people see this sort of thing as too ‘technology-obsessed’ or may think that it was overdone in terms of the focus on social media, but as a member of Gen Z myself, I thought it was entertaining, mostly accurate to real life, and even relatable. It even felt like a mockery of the viciousness of social media, which I found enjoyable and quite lighthearted.
‘A movie adaptation of a musical adaptation of a movie’ sounds like a mouthful. However, the 2004 movie was hugely successful and so was the Broadway musical, so the ultimate question is… why not?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
By Ruby, Yr12
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford
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