The First Trailer for ‘Jem and the Holograms’ is Here

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Jem and the Holograms
As the upcoming streaming video revival of Full House, and recent big budget film versions of Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suggest, the 80s childhood memories of Generation Y are well and surely grist for the contemporary pop culture mill.

The latest slab of millennial nostalgia to be making its way to cinemas is Jem and the Holograms; a big screen, live action adaptation of the animated sci-fi/fantasy/musical program which first came to television syndication in 1985. To paraphrase the show’s theme song, folks on the internet seem truly, truly, truly outraged by the first trailer that’s been released.

The original program told the story of a woman named Jerrica Benton who employed a holographic supercomputer, invented by her deceased father, to assume a pop star alter-ego named Jem, leader of the series’ titular group. All of this was done to raise money to support her 12 foster children. Jem/Jerrica also had to deal with those who were trying to steal her father’s technology for ill purpose, and a competing, evil musical group called The Misfits (no relation to the actual band with that name). And no, we are not making this up, this is what the show was about.

The trailer, which you can see below, and at BuzzFeed here, suggests that the film adaptation will contain virtually NONE of the above elements apart from the character names. Instead, the film seems to tell the story of a teenaged girl who becomes a viral video singing sensation, gets plucked from obscurity, and winds up chewed up and spit out by the teen idol machine; without a single element of fantasy, and nary a supercomputer or hologram in sight.

Sorely disappointed commenters numbering in the seeming hundreds if not even thousands, have come out of the woodwork, wherever the trailer has been posted, to voice their disdain. It’s very nearly impossible, in fact, to find one positive comment attached to it.

The flick has been directed by Jon M. Chu; the helmer behind G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Justin Bieber’s Believe documentary. And starring as Jem/Jerrica is Aubrey Peeples of TV’s Nashville.

Check it out below. Are your hopes dashed? Do you think it actually looks good? Do you feel confused and ambivalent, as maybe we do? Let us know!