Superman has his glasses. Jem has Synergy.
In the original Jem animated television series, candy-colored pop tartlet Jem was really Starlight Music owner and manager Jerrica Benton, an otherwise normal (well, “normal” beyond “owns a record label and an orphanage before she even enters her mid-20s”) young woman that no one suspected of being a secret musical star. Jerrica became Jem through the assistance of Synergy, a holographic computer invented by her father that allowed her to change her appearance through the use of what are essentially magic earrings. It’s kind of silly, but it’s certainly a better disguise than a pair of glasses and an especially neat hairdo.
The new Jem And The Holograms movie, directed by Jon M. Chu, doesn’t sound too concerned with holograms or earrings or anything of that ilk, because it’s more worried about social media.
USA Today sat down with Chu to chat Jem, and some of the information the director shared about his latest project are probably not going to be—so sorry for this—music to the ears of Jem’s most dedicated fans. Chu told the outlet that his new live-action film will address the issue of staying true to yourself in the modern world, saying, “It’s actually about a group of young people who are going to be inundated with this idea of fame and fortune and products and stuff, and within all that, how do you stay true to who you really are?...That’s the real soul of the movie.”
Moreover, Jem, Jerrica, and all the related Holograms will have to contend with revealing their real selves (or not) while dealing with a social media-driven world, as he explained, “How can you even have a secret identity with all this social media? But then it dawned on us: Wait, everybody has a secret identity. The idea of ‘Who are you really?’ is more relevant today than ever. That’s what inspired me to say, ‘Let’s roll the dice and try to make this movie.’”
How do you have a secret identity? Dunno, maybe with a magic hologram machine or similar? Just guessing here.
The new film stars Aubrey Peeples as Jem/Jerrica, newly heartbroken by the death of her father and terrified of expressing herself and her emotions through the power of song. But Jerrica still belts it out, and is eventually discovered by the music industry. (We’re picturing her making some kind of YouTube video as her alter ego, the kind of thing that spreads like ill-contained wildfire.) Although Jerrica is reticent to sing and to be Jem, she “is forced to embrace the over-the-top Jem alter ego in order to take care of her family and bandmates.” There are other jobs out there, but sure.
The film doesn’t sound dark exactly, but it does sound like it’s more about the struggle between identities, whereas the original series was much more about fun and pizzazz and zip and zing and great outfits and better hair and the looming issue that maybe someone would unmask the Holograms, though never making it into some kind of existential crisis. This new film just doesn’t sound like that much fun, and that is truly, truly outrageous.