Review of Mean Girls 2 (2011) by Mikah T — 30 Sep 2015

Mean Girls, released in 2004 and directed by Mark Waters, was a well composed, comical high school story about a new girl from Africa battling her newest challenge, the clique. Mean Girls 2, a so called sequel, only adjusts a few details of the Mean Girls plot. This movie lacks its true purpose of continuing on the story. Mean Girls 2 should go back to middle school because this high school comedy needs some serious education due to its childish acting and an unoriginal plot.

Jo Mitchell (Meghan Martin) starts her senior year of high school at a new school because her dad (Linden Ashby), NASCAR mechanic, needs to travel often. She plays a tomboyish, confident teenager who befriends Abby (Jennifer Stone) in exchange for college tuition from Abby's wealthy father. Just as she is starting to find friends, the plastics come along. These are the most popular girls, but not necessarily the most kind or bright, including an easy blonde, an insecure brunette and their stuck up leader: Chastity (Claire Holt), Hope (Nicole Gale Anderson) and Mandi (Maiara Walsh). Jo and Abby become closer friends as they form a clan called the "anti-plastics" to plot against the mean girls. Along the way there's conflict when the two clans try to tear each other apart. But hey, that's just high school.

The actors' performances do little to enhance this film. Besides Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows), all of the actors are different from Mean Girls. Melanie Mayron, director, attempts to use Disney Channel stars to perform as well as Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan did in the first film. That is pretty tough to beat. Meghan Martin's acting of a teenage girl should only be shown on the Disney Channel. This may be due to the script, but Martin's character seems nothing like a senior in high school. She does not worry about anything a normal student would, like homework, but only the social aspect. Her poor acting is revealed through her sarcastic demeanor and emotionless connections with her surrounding characters. The "clique" displays acting through pre-planned facial expression and staged actions which lack reality as well. Claire Holt, Nicole Gale Anderson and Maiara Walsh are all unacquainted actresses that could have seen this movie as a breakthrough, but clearly that wasn't the case. The cast never quite sold their parts to the audience because they demonstration no true value or meaning in friendship.

Not that the actors make or break a movie, but an unoriginal plot sure can. Melanie Mayron may have watched the first Mean Girls too many times, because this plot is almost identical to its previous movie. To me, only adjusting roles of several characters and the use of different actors does not qualify as a sequel. They both have the new girl at a high school with a set of the popular girls that want to cause drama. Mean Girls at least has entertaining twists added in the normal high school scene with cafeteria fights, prom drama, and fashion nightmares. Melanie Mayron tried to recreate this scene with poorly rated actresses, average cinematography and indistinguishable score, which strikingly wasn't very engrossing. The audience, teenage girls, expected something new yet failed to receive that. Why even write a sequel if there's no continuation of the plot?

Melanie Mayron has previously directed television series such a Thirtysomething and the film The Babysitters Club. This film might have been a chance for the starring actors and the director to prove themselves better than the previous Mean Girls, but Melanie Mayron may want to stick with directing ABC television series.