REVIEW: “Jem and the Holograms” disappoints viewers

Caption: (From left to right) Aja (Hayley Kiyoko), Shana (Aurora Perrineau), Jem (Aubrey Peeples), and Kimber (Stefanie Scott) during one of their performances.  Photo courtesy of jemthemovie.com
From left to right: Aja (Hayley Kiyoko), Shana (Aurora Perrineau), Jem (Aubrey Peeples) and Kimber (Stefanie Scott) star in “Jem and the Holograms.” (Courtesy photo: jemthemovie.com)

By Claire Alongi,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

“Jem and the Holograms” is many things–disjointed, forced, riddled with plot holes and filled with story threads that dead end–but a good movie is not one of them.

“Jem” is based on an ’80s cartoon of the same name, but fails on all levels to live up to the cult animated series. The new movie, directed by John Chu, follows teen Jerrica “Jem” Benton (Aubrey Peeples) and her sisters Kimber (Stefanie Scott), Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau) as they rise from the suburbs of Pineview, Calif.–where they live with Aunt Bailey (Molly Ringwald)–to internet stardom, playing L.A. clubs and inspiring the world.

That’s a bare bones summary of the film. Looking at just that synopsis, the film reads like a feel-good mid-2000s made-for-TV Disney movie. “Jem” wishes it was even that good.

The film strives for an aura of girl power where family comes first, but the message gets lost in the film’s forced nature. Instead of showing the audience that the sisters love each other, and that Jem’s music supposedly inspires thousands, characters explicitly state these facts over and over until the sentiments are run into the ground.

Then there’s 5YN3RGY, pronounced Synergy, a robot that Jem’s father made and left for her before he died. Synergy is dormant until the girls get to L.A.; then it activates and leads them on a wild chase to gather parts that will make it fully functional.

The robot may be the movie’s biggest problem. It is so out of place with the rest of the story that the audience cannot even accept that it’s there and move on. Instead of focusing on (the rather poor) rest of the movie one is left wondering, “Why this robot? Why?”

Molly Ringwald is underutilized as Aunt Bailey, while Academy Award nominee Juliette Lewis is totally one-dimensional as the power hungry record label head Erica Raymond. Even customary-eye-candy-boy Rio (Ryan Guzman) can’t save “Jem” from it’s haphazard explosion of colorful wigs and poor plot line.

The one aspect of the film that at least adds a little uniqueness is the use of internet clips interspersed throughout, ranging from drum battles to water skiing squirrels. But even this tactic gets stale as the movie goes on, and it is used over and over.

“Jem” could have been good. It had the ingredients of a musical girl power movie for the generations too young to indulge in the adult humor of “Pitch Perfect.” Instead, like a novice singer, “Jem’s” voice falls flat. Very, very flat.

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