What Do We Do About Jem And Her Holograms?
In the 80s there was a cartoon called "Jem And The Holograms." This show involved science fiction, fantastical inventions and crazy adventures lead by Jem who hid her secret identity with holograms projected by her earrings. Then the trailer was released and all the aforementioned elements had been stripped away and replaced with a rip off of the Dakota Fanning movie "The Runaways" as if it had been run through another Disney bastardization filter. Gone are all of the fun fantastical elements and hello an inspirational story about talent, friendship and the power of YouTube. Needless to say people are pretty pissed off about this, so what now? In the 90s, the Batman franchise was handed over to director Joel Schumacher. What resulted was "Batman Forever" and "Batman + Robin", movies filled with ridiculous plots, horrible casting, set pieces specifically designed to sell toys and nipples on the suits. In those days the Internet was still in its early html stages and the little that was written, posted and shared was easily ignored by studios and other consumers. More recently, the Spiderman franchise experienced two reboots after the studios made the same mistakes over and over, driving the films in directions that resulted in a large amount of fan backlash. Fans not only demanded to have a new version of Spiderman, they wanted Spiderman in the Avengers. After much online debate and fan support, the studios decided to listen to the fans and negotiate. Spiderman will soon be joining the Avengers. Currently studios seem to be under the impression that movies involving female leads must be designed and marketed directly to teenage girls. I could easily go on about sexism in Hollywood, but someone else can tackle that one. When I see a concept that could be the musical rock version of Wonder Woman being turned into a teenager boosted to American Idol level fame due to a video secretly uploaded to YouTube (a modern plot point invention that's quickly running dry), all I see is a message directly from the studios to the audience. That message is simply "you're all stupid and will buy anything" and they're not wrong. When we allow movies like "Transformers", "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "Ouija" to be successful while movies like "Whiplash", "Birdman" and "Foxcatcher" hardly make back their budget, what can we expect them to think of us? Paying for a movie ticket is like voting. By purchasing a ticket you're telling a studio that this is something you paid for once and will likely pay for again, it doesn't matter if you liked it or not. You paid for it so don't be surprised when the rushed sequel comes out next year. But we're talking about "Jem and the Holograms" here. How do we get the Jem movie that we want? It's easy, we boycott "Jem and the Holograms" by not seeing it. If we all choose to not pay for what the studio wants us to buy while still supporting a real Jem movie on social media, when the movie bombs the studio will have to reevaluate where they should go from there. It's truly the most bizarre form of indirect negotiation but if you want to see the Jem movie you've always wanted then this is what needs to happen. There's also the terrible memory of "The Last Airbender" which received extreme backlash from fans and critics but it was financially successful. The backlash killed any chance of the series progressing from the first film but rather than reboot the franchise with a new and more honest direction, Nickelodeon straight up abandoned it. There's a chance you might never get the Jem movie you want but we can make an example of this one. Remember the complete shift in creative direction that occurred in movies when "Twilight" came out? Same for what happened after "The Dark Knight". Something was successful so it must be repeated because audiences just seem to want the same thing over and over. If Jem is allowed to be successful, studios will decide that it's okay to do whatever they want. Imagine a "Scooby Doo" reboot where Scooby is actually a cat who gets his studious owner Norville in trouble with a trio of students at Coolsville High. Hurts doesn't it? It's okay, there's hope. If "Godzilla" fans can get a good movie after GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) then maybe one day fans of "Jem and the Holograms" can get a real movie after JINO. #BoycottJem