This is not the adaptation fans were hoping for.
Jem and the Holograms is a coming-of-age movie set in the age of YouTube. It’s an inspirational story about how family, not fame, is what is important in life. It’s an analysis of the positive ways musicians can affect their audiences. What it’s not, though, is a Jem and the Holograms movie.
Sure, there are plenty of nods to the ’80s cartoon: the characters’ names, the star earrings, the hologram-producing Synergy (yes, Synergy is in the movie) and even, in one fan-service scene, Jerrica’s (Aubrey Peeples) jealousy of Rio’s (Ryan Guzman) affection for her Jem persona. But at its core, this movie is a coming-of-age movie with Jem and the Hologram packaging and not the other way around, and it’s the worse for it.
We want to hear it.
This telling of Jem’s story swaps out the TV show’s magical technology for more recognizable ones: Jerrica rises to fame after her younger sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott) uploads a video of her singing as “Jem” to YouTube, and it goes viral overnight. This quickly draws the attention of Starlight Music head Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis), who wants “Jem” as a mysterious solo act.
For Jerrica, her family is non-negotiable, and she only agrees to join forces with Starlight and travel from her small town to Los Angeles if her sisters — Kimber, Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau) — go with her as her band. Once they perform three secret shows in Los Angeles, Jerrica will be delivered a check that can help save her Aunt Bailey’s (Molly Ringwald) home from foreclosure.
With that timetable in place, the movie promises that things will get bad before they get better for Jerrica and her family. As she notes in her vlog-style narration, things get “weird” along the way when Jerrica’s deceased father’s gift to her, a robot named Synergy, comes to life and sends them on a scavenger hunt to reveal a final message. And of course there is the budding romance between Jerrica and Rio, the college-aged son of Erica.
We want to hear it.
It’s unclear how much time exactly passes between when Jem’s song goes viral and when the final of the three shows is performed. That’s a fault of the movie’s, particularly when one emotional scene is followed up with a happy resolution only minutes later, and it feels as though no time has passed within the story to warrant such a change of heart. But regardless of how much time has elapsed, it’s been long enough for Jem to make an impact on her fans.
One of Jem and the Holograms’ strengths is the way it peers into the effect musicians — particularly musicians who have risen to fame on YouTube — have on the people who idolize them. In many ways this film feels more inspired by director Jon M. Chu’s documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never than it does the Jem and the Holograms cartoon. His directing style mirrors that documentary as it cuts to personal videos shot by the sisters, Instagram reactions of fans to Jem and the small town-to-Hollywood parallels between Jem and Bieber.
It’s in the movie’s optimistic analysis of how YouTube personalities can positively influence their fans, and offers a look into why these figures can be so important to teens, that Jem and the Holograms transcends the Disney Channel-esque makeover of the cartoon’s plot. Even when Jerrica comes to the somewhat cheesy conclusion that Jem is everyone, it’s a revelation that will have more meaning and impact for the YouTube audience than it will Jem and the Holograms’ original set of fans. It helps that the music, which is pretty decent by pop music standards, feels like it could have come from an up-and-coming artist on YouTube.
We want to hear it.
Ryan Landels’ script has its weak moments, but the acting of the four lead sisters is so sincere that it’s hard to fault Jem and the Holograms for its big heart. Chu clearly set out to continue the examination of YouTube-driven musical success that he began in Never Say Never, and it’s just a shame that he had to do so in Jem and the Holograms packaging. The need to service that brand held Jem and the Holograms back from what otherwise is a relevant coming-of-age film.
If Jem and the Holograms had been an original movie with a similar plot, it would have been the stronger for it, but taking a recognizable and beloved brand and reappropriating its iconic components to service a different story works against Chu’s new movie. Jem and the Holograms’ strengths lie in its attempt to analyze YouTube fame and the positive effects it can have on people. That’s not going to be enough to appease die-hard fans of the Jem and the Holograms cartoon.
