In the 80’s, Jem and The Holograms was an animated staple for girls everywhere, during an era dominated by male influenced animation. In 2015, “Jem and The Holograms” gets a big screen adaptation, in an age dominated by Youtube. Singer Jerrica Benton (Aubrey Peeples), her sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott), and her friends Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau), aspiring musicians, embark on a quest to become superstars. When Jerrica’s video is posted online, it creates a pop star phenomenon overnight. Together, the four girls move to Hollywood and discover the music business isn’t quite the dream they believed it to be. “Jem and The Holograms” is a walking talking two hour delivery of inspirational cliche, one after another. It’s an uninspiring decade piece that will absolve itself of what little fans this film will have, in ten years when a new form of technology takes place.

The movie ignores it’s source material, and never ever truly feels like a movie based on it’s 80’s content. When i first heard that this franchise was getting a big screen adaptation, i had my doubts, but i was willing to give it a shot. Where the film failed for me right off the bat before i ever saw it, was in the lighting and the big feel atmosphere. These were rocking women in a band by day, and solved crimes by night. The movie has none of that, in fact, it has such little conflict for our characters that it has to create something in the final half hour of the film. The Misfits are nowhere to be found, instead we get Juliette Lewis as an arrogant music executive who tries to change the girls. The ironic thing about the film is that Hollywood is bad for forcing these girls to be someone they aren’t, when in reality, the movie embraces this fact by the end of the film. The moral compass of the film is broken during the first act, when Kimber tells her Sisters that being internet famous is almost as great as being famous. This does more damage than help for our generation of bright minds. The movie tries to be hip by incorporating Youtube into it’s scheme. It’s believable because we live in an age where everyone is getting famous, but fails because Jem’s music is no different from any other artist with an accoustic guitar out there.

On the subject of perhaps the biggest liberties that this film takes, none of the songs from the show are presented in this movie. It’s almost a violent slap to the fans who looked forward to catching a nostalgic glimpse of such hits. Instead, we are treated to pop music related to any other artist dominating the Top 40 charts today. That’s where this film really lost me; in the believability that this group is the biggest thing going in the world. Their sound is status quo, and their mystery is unbelievable during an age where the paparazzi are paid millions to discover everything from bra size to credit card info. On top of it, every club that Jem plays at has no more than 100 people per event. This is the biggest artist in the world during an age where artists sellout 20,000 seats a night?? The performances also reveal why this film is nearly two hours. There are six different performances in the movie, and i get that this is a film that centers around music, but it is far too many in a script that is trying to juggle too many storylines and not enough character development.

Those supporting characters are left in the dark here. It’s almost like writer Ryan Landels literally believed the storyline of his own movie and thought that people only care about the voice. Perhaps his attitude and disrespect to the supporting cast is the only truly believable thing about this movie. Kimber has some decent sentimental moments with her Sister, but Aja and Shana are reduced to table dressing in a hard to digest meal. Molly Ringwald as the girl’s aunt is perhaps the only decent performance of the movie, but is virtually forgotten about after the first act of the movie. She is the only parental figure for the film, as Jem’s parents are both sadly deceased. Which brings me to another problem i had. Her Dad sends her on a mystery to find three seperate pieces to unlock a video message left by him on a robot that he left Jerrica. He hides these in three random spots around the city, forcing her to break the law just to attain them. My question is wasn’t there an easier way for her to gain these pieces? Couldn’t he have given them to Molly Ringwald to give to her on 16th Birthday? This is what we call conflict?? What a joke. Two things i did find enjoyable about the film had to do in the presentation of the music and transitional scenes both using a creative spin on today’s technology. The transitional scenes where something is happening across town, uses Google Maps to animate the transition to the next scene. Also, the music backgrounds for each scene are played by Youtube posted videos of people who presented their own creative sounds. This gives a nice originality for the movie that had anything but it.

“Jem and The Holograms” lacks the kind of visual and musical symmetry of the original that took place nearly thirty years ago. It’s a step backwards for any fan who counted down the days till the return of one of their childhood’s strongest female presences. At the very least, you wonder why Director Jon Chu couldn’t have at least made the movie visually appealing, in the same lively animated backgrounds as say “Scott Pilgrim Vs The World” or “Speed Racer”. There is just no excuse for something so dead inside. With the exception of some transitional elements, the movie was a complete failure to me. There were times during the film where the script felt like something entirely different, with the producers deciding to add a beloved character name to the script to give it a little more intake at the box office. This is the sneakiest kind of film making, and i can only hope that you the readers will see through it’s hollow structure and overdone message.

3/10