Review of Jem and the Holograms (2015) by Sylvester E — 21 Oct 2015

Truly Outrageous? HA! How about Truly an Outrage!

You would think that in 2015 we would get a worthy up date to the series that obviously had a following worthy of a movie or new show creation, but no. We get this mess.

Okay, this story follows Jerrica Benton, her blood sister Kimber and their adopted sisters Aja and Shana living with their aunt who runs a clothing store. They are not doing well financially and are in need of money to save the house. They are all musicians and singers and are trying to find out what to do stay afloat. Jerrica decides to sing a song (which was not that great) in private on camera where she creates the persona Jem as she sings about her woes. Kimber spies on her and decides to take the camera after she was done to upload it to YouTube. All of a sudden she becomes super popular over night where thousands of people are trying to find out who Jem is. The producer Eric Raymond of a music company called Starlight Records reaches out to her on the internet to get her to respond to her inbox so that she can give her the opportunity to sign with her company. She eventually does it in hopes to get enough money to save her families house with the stipulation that her sisters are signed too. As she packs away her things to leave, she finds one of her deceased father's inventions called Synergy and decides to take it with her. After they are signed they meet Rio who is Erica's son and he is given the responsibility of watching over them in the Starlight Mansion. Synergy somehow turns on in the middle of the night, shoots a home video on the wall as well as a gps location and they decide to follow it to find out what's going on. It leads them to robot parts for the machine which when put inside the robot seems to project more home videos that are clues left by her father for some unknown reason. This then starts the full adventure of the band.

Boy this was a mess! This was no way a true Jem and the Holograms movie and should be called something else entirely, so I'll call it "That Girl and The Imitations".Ã,Ã, .

Of course since it's done by John Chu he's going to have his LXDÃ,Ã, (League of Extraordinary Dancers) and Ryan Guzman from Step Up in it. You'll see a few make cameos as Ryan continues to seriously pursue acting and others just seem to be along for the ride since only one dance number was in this movie.Ã,Ã, .

Kimber played by Stephanie Scott was actually the best and most interesting character of this imitation of Jem and the Holograms. She had the look and charisma that kept your attention on her versus everyone else.

Juliette Lewis as Erica Raymond puts on this persona like she is taking the place of the Misfits seeing that they aren't in this debacle. She has the attitude of Pizzazz and the attitude of Eric Raymond, the real character from the show. She also owns Starlight Mansion which in the show was the Starlight Foundation for foster girls. They also add extra unnecessaries like Rio being her son? What the?Ã,Ã, .

Synergy was some blasted stupid home video showing robot instead of being an image of her mother that had a much better reason for existing in the show and her life. The movie goes from them trying to get a grasp of their newfound life as musicians to some scavenger hunt for missing robot parts put on by the robot (wannabe Android) and her deceased dad.Ã,Ã, It was cool to see them paying respects to Samantha Newark and Britta Phillips the voices of the real Jem and Jerrica from the show and Christy Marx the creator in this as they all showed up as cameos.

It has some alright music in it at times but NOTHING from the show or ANYTHING that sounds close to what Jem and the Holograms sound like.Ã,Ã, Some of the makeup and wardrobe at times made them look like the characters from the show but it just was not enough to make this a Jem and the Holograms movie. The movie of course has a fast paced story seeing that the story is so weak. She all of a sudden is a bigger star after what seems to be a few appearances, goes solo and as the trailer suggests she now has a typical Destiny's Child/Dreamgirls episode. She goes through all the typical motions, has a solo song that's the best of the movie, cries over her sisters and of course starts her come back to being in their good graces.

The acting of course was not great and typical of a teeny bopper girl band movie but not bad.

It did have its uniqueness to where during sequences they would feature people demonstrating their musical talent while on camera for background music.

As the movie concludes, it gives you a lame explanation from her father shown to her by the blasted robot (he calls a she) about why he created it and how he had her do the scavenger hunt to help her become who she is. They try to make it touching and authentic by including personal videos of those who may experience hardships in their life through whatever and how they somehow overcome through her songs. She also gets on stage and tries to encourage everyone by saying some lame slogan that "we are all Jem because being Jem is anyone who dreams". Girl sit down!

This movie was just one big mess that should have never been done and has very little impact even though it tries soooo hard to inspire. It's heart was in the right place but was just GAHBAGE! The plot was so flimsy, the characters were uninteresting with no development, the continuity was off and I found myself rolling my eyes more often then I thought I would.

Oh yeah the Misfits as anyone would suspect showed up at the beginning of the end crawl credits as some weird group that Erica dropped before "That Girl and The Imitations" and is now back with Erica to team up and "destroy" Jerrica and her sisters band if there was a sequel. Lets hope not!

Let me tell you how it's suppose to go...

Jerrica is suppose to be the adult owner of Starlight Music and the Starlight House/Mansion/Foundation because it was left to her by her father. The Starlight House is an orphanage for young underprivileged girls. Jerrica, Kimber, Aja and Shana help run the organization. When money got tight they were trying to figure out how to raise enough money. This is when they found out about a Battle of the Bands contest that had a nice hefty price that would more than help out for the foundation. They discover an invention left by her father named Synergy who is an artificial intelligent device that is able to project Holograms anywhere in theÃ,Ã, vicinity of the girls because the remote sensor is in the Star earrings given to Jerrica by her father. Synergy is also a hologram who is a virtual representation of her mother that provides comfort, support and mentoring. It is also an ultimate audio/visual entertainment synthesizer that they use for their music. They decide to come up with a band with outrageous outfits produced by Synergy and have Jerrica become the lead singer of the group known as Jem and the Holograms. The secret is kept between the girls so that they could protect Synergy. Rio is a sound guy that has been Jerrica's friend for a long time who works at Starlight Music assisting Jem and the Holograms all the whileÃ,Ã, unbeknown-st to the real identity of Jem. Eric Raymond is the manager over a band called the Misfits who become the rivals of Jem and the Holograms hellbent on stopping them at all cost so that they can become #1 anywhere. They first meet at the Battle of the Bands and are introduced to their dirty tricks and schemes which then starts the adventures of Jem and the Holograms.

The great thing about the Jem and the Holograms show is that it was a multicultural show that had a great message every episode about believing in yourself, fair play, equality, following your dreams, friendship and other things that provides a good standard to live by. The music was also engaging from every band, catchy and relevant to the episode. The focus on why Jem and the Holograms was created was the foundation of what kept the show going. Focusing on the girls at Starlight House and their well being as well as each others wasÃ,Ã, pivotal to the story and the characters development. This movie is just pale imitation of what Jem was truly about and what made it so great back then and how it still resonates with the fans now. It wasn't for any specific group, gender, organization or belief system but for everyone who watched it. Ã,Ã, .

Burn this!!!!