Greetings,
Reviewing something like this is really hard for me. I have a history with the source material, that of the 1980's cartoon, Jem and the Holograms. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I have an emotional attachment to it. When I was a kid, this was one of the things that made me love music. Yes, I know those songs could be very much drenched in 80's cheese, but that was okay. They were still good. The whole show just really was a great escape for my otherwise unhappy childhood, and I am quite grateful for that.
So, I am tasked, in this case, with discussing this film on its merits without getting too distracted by what they changed from the cartoon. Which was a lot. A LOT! And I went in knowing that was going to happen. That first trailer did set us up for the story. It didn't reveal everything, but I think we all knew what to expect. Thus, I will give my account. And I will have to make some comparisons to the show. It's inevitable.
Now be warned. I will be talking more in depth than I normally do, which means I may be giving a few spoilers. As I never want to ruin a movie for anyone, do not read my review if you intend to see this. Go see it, then come back and decide if you agree. However, if you want my basic opinion, scroll down for my final thoughts in the last paragraph. The point is, I need to talk about this, being specific about what I liked, what I didn't and what they changed. And yes, I did like quite a few things. Okay, let's discuss Jem and the Holograms. (Again, SPOILER ALERT!)
We begin with seeing videos of a bunch of people on You Tube. Get used to that. Anyway, the framing device is Jerrica Benton, our heroine, making a video to tell us the story of what will happen in this movie. All of which happens in the span of about a month. Yeah. Jerrica is played by Aubrey Peeples, who I absolutely love and who I think is so adorable. She is a teenager living under the roof of her Aunt Bailey, played by the legendary Molly Ringwald, along with her sister, Kimber, played by Stephanie Scott, and Bailey's two foster daughters, Aja and Shana, played by Hayley Kiyoko and Aurora Perrineau, respectively. Of course, they all just refer to each other as sisters, as you do.
Okay, I'm gonna stop and talk about the "Holograms" for a moment, and what was done with them. I'll get to Aubrey later, individually. First off, these young actresses are great. They had fantastic chemistry with each other, which is very important. As far as matching up with the cartoon, they did give them some similar attributes. Shana does fashion, Aja is a tough girl with a juvie record, which is kind of like the tomboy that I remember...I guess. And then, there's Kimber. Poor, sweet Kimber. She does not get as much love as she should have, from a character standpoint, I mean. They say in passing that she wrote a song, which was her thing on the show, but not so much here. Bottom line, they should have used her more. But, yes, big thumbs up to these young ladies.
So, the girls all sing together, even to the point where Bailey uses it to put a stop to arguments, and they want to make a video. Enter them dressing up in 80's fashion, crazy hair colors included. But Jerrica is painfully shy and keeps backing out. Eventually, she films herself with her guitar and a song, dressed up as "Jem", her dad's nickname for her. Kimber finds it and uploads it where it goes viral, attracting the attention of Starlight Enterprises, which is run by Erica Raymond. Yeah, Eric Raymond is a woman now. We all knew this from the trailer, and some of us were either upset or confused about that choice. Still, as much I will always hear the voice of Charlie Adler in my head when I think of Eric Raymond, Juliette Lewis was pretty awesome as a female counterpart. I mean, of course, she was. But there was no need for this. Especially in a movie that is supposed to be based on a cartoon that had about a 20 to 1 ratio of female to male characters.
Anyway, Jerrica hesitantly takes up Erica on her offer to come to Starlight and get a full on career started, mostly because she can bring her sisters and get some money to help save Bailey's house and business. When the girls get to L.A., they immediately get pushed into creating their image, or re-creating it. Here's where we get some glam and fashion and more crazy hair. Good times. Oh, and we also get Rio, played by Ryan Guzman. He wasn't bad at all, and frankly, I think this Rio is less whiny than cartoon Rio. Probably because Jerrica keeps fewer secrets from him. More on that later. However, there is something about Rio's personal life that will make old school fans say "WHAAAAATTT?!?!?" Again, major spoiler. Rio is Erica's son. Yeah, if you watched the show, this might make you feel weird. Also, no purple hair for him. What the deuce was up with that decision? Moving on.
So, Jerrica, now officially known as Jem, must do three pop-up shows in a month in order to get paid, and here's where I can give the film some credit. First, the music is rather good. Now, of course, I wish they would have used my idea of updating old songs from the show, but whatever. Second, the concert scenes are shot extremely well. I expected that, as the director, Jon Chu, is very skilled and experienced at shooting musical performance scenes for his films. I thoroughly enjoyed those scenes. Props for that.
All the while that the music stuff is going on, we have a subplot involving Synergy...ish. Okay, as old school fans will know, Synergy is the computer built by Jerrica's and Kimber's dad, which makes holograms, transforming Jerrrica into Jem. Here, she is a little robot person that kind of looks like...Remember that movie, Wall_E? She looks kinda like Wall_E's girlfriend. Turns out, that the father left them clues to find pieces which will complete Synergy, pieces that include the infamous Jem Star earrings...which are now pink. Not red, as they should be. Pink! I'm sorry, but I must give a thumbs down on that. Point is, they are basically scavenger hunting, and that actually seems like something they would do on the cartoon. Sort of. And Rio is involved here. So, he knows about Synergy the whole time. Well, that's a little different from the show, and the reason why Jerrica is keeping fewer secrets, as I mentioned.
But as the story progresses, it becomes a little predictable. Many people are comparing this to the plot of Josie & the Pussycats, and...yeah. It is quite similar, and the conflict we come across is resolved way too fast. So, sadly, that is my major complaint. The story could have been a stronger one, but unfortunately, that is where I find the film is at its weakest. Oh, except for one more thing. Remember how I said to get used to seeing YouTube videos? Well, they did this thing where they cut them into the movie. Like, you're watching a scene in the film and then you see a You Tube video. Okay, I think they were trying to integrate the music from them into scenes that had no dialogue, and THAT aspect worked, the audio, I mean. But the video being put in is completely jarring. And they do this in other areas as well. I understand what they were trying to do, especially using this to hit home their message in some places, but it did not work for me. I mean, we get it. Jem got famous because of You Tube. Next.
So, anything else that I liked about this movie? Why, yes, there is! As I said, I love Aubrey Peeples, and I thought she was wonderful. She almost reminds me of a more talented and WAAAAYYY nicer version of Kristen Stewart. I say "almost" because she truly is something special. Between the singing and the acting, I think Aubrey has a promising future ahead of her. So long as she stays on track and behaves! Let's see. What else? Well, even though I thought I would roll my eyes at it, I kind of chuckled at them throwing rather infamous lines from the show into the dialogue. It was cute. Also, Zipper was there, who we know as one of Eric Raymond's henchmen. I liked the guy in the movie, but I wish he was a little more...vicious. Amusingly vicious, actually. And I wish he used that voice we heard in the cartoon as well. What can you do though? I liked what they did with the Starlight logo. Nice throwback. Oh, and they had some great cameos, the funniest of which was Ryan Hansen, who we all remember as Dick Casablancas from Veronica Mars. He was HILARIOUS! And we get to see some women who I love dearly: Samantha Newark, original talking voice of Jem, Britta Phillips, original singing voice of Jem, and Christy Marx. Yeah, let's talk about her for a moment.
For those of you who don't know, Christy Marx is pretty much the person who made Jem. Now, granted, the initial idea and concept came from Hasbro, since the dolls came first, and she has made it clear that she does not own the property known as Jem. That is owned, still, by Hasbro. But Christy Marx is the one who wrote the characters into life. She was the one who fleshed them out and gave them backstories and personalities. She took names and images and brought them to life. Think of it this way. You know how Michael Jackson, now his estate, technically owns the Lennon-McCartney catalog, but we all know who really created those songs? It's kind of like that. So, they let her have a cameo, but she had nothing to do with the creation of this film. From what I heard, someone didn't want her to be a part of it, even though she was the one who had been trying for years to bring the show to the big screen. Even though the whole thing is her baby. Yes, why would we want the woman who knows these characters backwards and forwards to have anything to do with this? I just hope she felt all the love from the original fans, because it was and is out there. Let me blunt when I say that, if Christy Marx had been involved in this...oh, heck, in charge of this, we would have had a very different film. One that would have appealed to the new fans, as well as giving the older fans their fix of nostalgia. We didn't get exactly that. In fact, a lot of this movie was straight up insulting to the fans.
Look, I've talked about this enough, so I will wrap up now. As a movie, in and of itself and the "Jem" aspect aside, it is not that bad. And as I said, what's good about it, like the music and the acting, is pretty good, I think. But one must keep in mind who the demographic was that they were aiming at. That demographic is clearly "tweens". Specifically, "tweens" of today. Yes, even though I can give this credit where it's due, this was not made for me or any of the older fans. They did give us a little something here and there, but that's the word - little. I think we deserved more, and that's kind of sad, because this could have been something special for everyone. It really could have, but I feel like maybe someone didn't care enough about the people who have been waiting years, even decades, for this. I'm not saying they didn't care at all; I'm saying they didn't care enough. This seems like something I would see on the Disney Channel, which, again, isn't bad for the "tween" market. I can definitely see some youngsters really loving this, and happily, there is nothing offensive or inappropriate, so parents can relax. By the way, parents, if you were a Jem fan in your youth and you have little ones, they might like this movie. Just promise me that you will expose them, any way you can, to the cartoon show. Let them know things. Bottom line, I do wish that the Jem and the Holograms movie had more of the Jem and the Holograms that I know and love.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
