Like all good-hearted people, we here at Crave are genuinely excited for the Jem and the Holograms movie. It’s about damned time someone adapted a 1980s nostalgia property into a movie that wasn’t about robot punching or turtle punching. In fact, we are willing to call it a win if any of these reboots finds a way to adapt the heart of what made these popular shows, movies and characters work, instead of just the fists.
So when the first Jem and the Holograms trailer debuted earlier this year, we were just as confused as anybody else, but also optimistic. Fans decried the teaser for Jon M. Chu’s movie as being too dissimilar from the campy, glammy, sci-fi cartoon series, and we missed those elements too, and yet the idea of an adaptation that strips away the metaphor – the “hologram” that is Jerrica’s celebrity persona, versus her genuine personality – and acknowledges the underlying truth behind it is undeniably intriguing.
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If you think about it, the first Jem teaser told us, PhotoShop is functionally the same invention as Synergy, the hologram machine from the cartoon show. So who need Synergy, anyway?
The fans do, obviously. So that’s why, we presume, this new Jem and the Holograms trailer now gives us our first glimpse of Jerrica’s father’s invention. Check it out…
…and now ask yourself if that’s really what you wanted.
Honestly, we were fine without Synergy. We’re kind of okay with this one here, which looks a heck of a lot like something you will really be able to buy in a few years. (And Hasbro, if you’re making these, and they work exactly the way they work in this trailer, we will buy them.) But it plays like something the filmmakers weren’t planning to turn into a big deal, but then had to trot out as prominently as possible to win all the hardcore Jem fans back.
And we’re not sure it’s even going to work, honestly. There is a big difference between this…
…and this…
There are three likely possibilities when it comes to Jem and the Holograms. Either the movie takes itself (mostly) seriously and turns out great, or it takes itself (mostly) seriously and it turns out too generic for its own good, or it takes itself (mostly) serious and then goes ABSOLUTELY INSANE at the end, with Jem and the Holograms using Synergy to create massive holograms that allow them to extricate themselves from a villainous contract, but then the Misfits show up at the last minute and… yeah, that would probably be cool.
We’ll find out either way when Jem and the Holograms finally hits theaters on October 23, 2015.
Images via Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
