Will the live-action film surprise leery fans of the animated ’80s series?
By Brandon Voss
You can’t judge a book by its cover. However, as we all learned from the disappointment that was Stonewall, it’s completely acceptable to judge a movie by its trailer. Sight unseen save for two minutes of footage, Stonewall was swiftly criticized for whitewashing gay history. Likewise, the Jem and the Holograms movie has already been accused of ruining our childhoods.
Based on the ’80s Saturday morning staple about a famous and fashion-forward girl band, the highly anticipated live-action Jem and the Holograms remake is finally in theaters October 23. When the trailer first dropped in April, public outcry came fast and furious. Badass pop-rock frontwoman Jem/Jerrica Benton, here played by Nashville’s Aubrey Peeples, had been reinvented as a mousey, whiny overnight teen YouTube sensation and trending Twitter topic. The iconic show’s glamour and glitter had been replaced by angsty drama about selling out and losing one’s identity with Jem being pressured to go solo. It looked like director Jon M. Chu, who helmed a couple of Step Up movies, had not stepped up to this challenge.
Where were the Misfits, Jem’s punky rivals? Where was Synergy, the maternal computer with holographic powers? Not only was she outrageous, the original Jem was empowering and fun! Based solely on the trailer, Huffington Post called the movie “Hollywood’s worst cartoon-based flick.”
Some of the cast and crew rushed to the film’s defense. “I think that they have to see the movie to understand that things that they think are missing are in there,” Stefanie Scott, who plays Jem’s lil’ sis, told HitFix. “Why would we put all of that in the trailer when you get to discover it through the movie?” Speaking to Topless Robot, producer Jason Blum also assured irate fans, “It is 100 percent true to the spirit of Jem… and I think that people will be very pleasantly surprised. So in that way it’s good — maybe lowering expectations is good.” Maybe, but that’s a strange and risky marketing strategy.
Beloved cartoons have been turned into terrible movies for decades. Remember Speed Racer and The Smurfs? But if the trailer is viewed objectively, ignorant of the cartoon, Jem and the Holograms doesn’t look half bad. Jem’s featured song, “Youngblood,” is still stuck in my head. Juliette Lewis as a ball-busting music exec? Yes, please. And while he doesn’t have purple hair, The Boy Next Door’s Ryan Guzman makes a hot Rio.
Truly, I’m going to watch the shit out of this. If it does suck, I can always go home and dust off my Jem and the Holograms: The Truly Outrageous Complete Series DVD box set.
Showtime, Synergy.
Next, October 2015.