Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Jem and the Holograms Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 19, 2016

Popular toy manufacturer Hasbro has enjoyed a revitalization in recent years thanks to its most popular 80s toy lines -- Transformers and G.I. Joe -- receiving big-budget, live action cinematic event films, dominated by the high grossing Michael bay Transformers films and the less successful, but nevertheless popular, G.I. Joe pictures. While all the films in those franchises raked in big bucks for both Hasbro and Paramount, most of them received tepid-at-best critical response. Hasbro's latest film sourced from an 80s cartoon is Jem and the Holograms, yet another live-action adaptation that promised to rekindle the franchise by introducing new audiences to a reimagined character and return adults to the days of their Saturday morning youths. Jem is one key way much like its fellow Hasbro films and completely dissimilar in another. Like its peers, Jem earned faint, if any, critical praise. But unlike its fellow Hasbro films, it failed to dominate the box office and, shockingly, couldn't even recoup half of its, by Hollywood standards, pittance of a $5,000,000 budget. Ouch. Don't look for a sequel anytime soon.

Rockers.

Jerrica (Aubrey Peeples), or Jem as her late father called her, is a super talented, but extremely shy, California teenager who has the whole world in front of her -- if she would just open the door. She lives with a patchwork family consisting of her Aunt Bailey (Molly Ringwald), her blood sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott), and Bailey's foster children Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau). All of them are supremely gifted musicians. With the family in financial crisis, the house about to be taken away, and the family sure to be split apart, all hope seems lost. Jerrica performs a song for the camera but, before it can be deleted, Kimber slyly uploads it to the Internet and credits "Jem" with the performance. "Jem" becomes an Internet sensation and attracts the attention of a high power music executive named Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis) and her son Rio (Ryan Guzman). Erica makes Jem and her sisters a hit, but all along has her eyes only on Jem to score big in the industry. But with the help of clues left behind by her father, clues secretly tucked away in an advanced robot called "51N3RG.Y," Jem discovers her real voice and sets the path for her own future.

Jem's central storyline isn't about rags-to-riches or the rise to stardom but instead the way the shining spotlight leads the title character to reexamine her life and discover who she really is, with a little help from her late father and a robot that, when it was made, was well ahead of its time. Add in the obligatory band break-up, a conniving executive, and more self-reflection than one would find in a mirror store and the movie may as well be retitled Jem and the Clichés. There may not be a more derivative movie on the planet. It means well, yes, and it speaks to some positive ideals on self-identity, inspiration, and so on and so forth, but unlike its character or themes the movie never finds its own voice or identity. Writer Ryan Landels scrapes the bottom of the barrel to ensure that Jem is a full-service, leave-none-behind, well-oiled machine of hackneyed characters, themes, and platitudes. There's literally not an original, creative beat to be found in the film. For something so lively on its surface, it's ridiculously dull where it counts.

Jem may be a stumbling pile of grossly overlong two-hour cliché, but it finds a mild charm under the guidance of lead Aubrey Peeples in the title role. Sure, all she has to work with are stale pickings, but she infuses the part with just enough charm and personality to keep the movie afloat in its darkest dramatic holes, which is practically the entire picture. The rest of the cast largely falls in-line, doing what it can with a completely uninspired character roster. Whatever shortcomings there are in terms of performance details can be laid at the feet of the script, not the actors. The movie picks up, a hair, when it begins unraveling Jem's past by way of a robot companion that mysteriously springs to life when she and the band enter L.A. proper, though the end result is just another trail of fortune cookie platitudes that help Jem to realize that she should be her own person, and that she can be, thanks to a convenient turn of events inside the Starlight power structure. The movie's tunes are sufficiently catchy and believably popular, but otherwise Jem and the Holograms amounts to nothing more than a lazily scripted but adequately assembled snoozer of a movie that champions some good values and toys with solid enough characters, all of which is lost under the nonstop deluge of trite writing and generic storytelling.

Jem and the Holograms Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jem and the Holograms was photographed, primarily, on the Red Epic digital system, and even considering the digital roots the movie practically passes for film. What it lacks in absolute sharpness it more than makes up for in an attractively film-like veneer. Textures are healthy and detailed, particularly glittery makeup but also more generalized skin and clothing lines and background environmental elements both inside and out. Raw clarity is a strength and, even as the image often travels to some darker concert backdrops and low-light exteriors, critical definition never falters. Colors never truly explode off the screen despite the movie's dazzling array of pinks, greens, blues, and other flashy shades. They're mildly subdued under the film's technical constraints but still offer a lively contrast against skin and various backdrops, particularly in lower-light concert venues. Black levels are appropriately deep and detailed. Skin tones appear neutral. Minor noise interferes in some darker scenes, but banding, aliasing, and macroblocking are never an issue. Jem looks quite nice on Blu-ray.

Jem and the Holograms Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jem and the Holograms soars onto Blu-ray with a fantastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music is, obviously, the key factor in the film. Pop-Rock songs explode out of the speakers, spilling every note with incredible detail and depth of field. Bass is prodigious but balanced, never overwhelming surrounding details. Spread across the front and well back into the rears is constant. Lyrical details are crisply defined, too, always blending with instrumentals to create a naturally defined toe-tapping good time. Ambient effects occasionally linger across the front with only cursory surround support, but more aggressive elements, like rolling waves in chapter eight or crowd noise inside and outside various concert venues, are detailed and immersive. General dialogue presents with natural frontal placement, excellent prioritization, and lifelike clarity.

Jem and the Holograms Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Jem and the Holograms contains a commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel, a music video, and a featurette. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy code are included with purchase.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Girls Watch Erica on TV (1:46), Girls Leave Pineview (1:56), Ariana Grande at Starlight (0:45), Lurking Around the Pier (1:31), Backstage Before "Youngblood" (3:08), Girls in Dressing Room Before the Fight (2:26), Rio Tells Jerrica, "This Isn't About You" (0:49), Rio Pep Talk/Jerrica Realizes Earrings (2:32), Rio Picks Up Jerrica/Erica and Scooter Braun (1:21), Rio and Jerrica on the Ledge at Starlight (2:02), Zipper Finds Jem, Tells Erica (0:42), and Little Girl Tells Gem She's Not Scared (1:22).
• Gag Reel (1080p, 4:55).
• Music Video (1080p, 2:36): "Youngblood" by Jem.
• Glam, Glitter, Fashion and Fame: The Reinvention of Jem (1080p, 10:30): A basic overview that looks at capturing the right feel for the movie, evolving it from the cartoon, a famous cameo in the movie, Director Jon M. Chu's work on the film, casting and performances, music and choreography, costumes, makeup, and the end product.
• Audio Commentary: Producer/Director Jon M. Chu speaks on casting, the picture's themes, updating the film for the social media world, casting and performances, shooting locations, crafting an origins story and hopes for evolving the franchise in the future, music, winks and nods to the cartoon, and more.

Jem and the Holograms Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jem and the Holograms is hardly the worst movie ever made. It has solid enough production values, decent acting, catchy tunes, and an identifiable plot. But it may be the most generic movie ever made. Constructed around tired themes that are scripted and executed with a fair bit of enthusiasm from the cast but no dramatic spark, the film is content to just roll over its source material into a parade of trite quips and exhausted dramatic themes that audiences have been bludgeoned with for decades. Yet it's a mild surprise the movie performed as poorly as it did at the box office. One would think it could break even just by accident, but maybe it'll teach studio executives that audiences are done with grossly overdone dramatic drivel. Then again, probably not. Universal's Blu-ray is, at least, well worth the investment for fans. Excellent picture, top level sound, and a fair array of bonus features round out an impressive technical release.