The Forgotten Musical From Wicked: For Good's Director That Bombed At The Box Office

Into every generation, a young woman with a double life as a pop star is born. If you came of age in the 2000s, that prophesied heroine was Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus). But, if you were a child of the 1980s, that folkloric figure was Jerrica Benton, who transformed herself onstage into the bodacious (to use the period-accurate vernacular) pink-haired lead vocalist Jem of Jem and the Holograms.

Developed by Hasbro, Sunbow Productions, and Marvel Productions, the animated "Jem and the Holograms" series was quick to find a fanbase, much like the companies' "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" properties around the same time. (It's true: "G.I. Joe" is technically a Marvel brand.) Across three seasons released from 1985-1988, Jem (Samantha Newark, with Britta Phillips and Joelle Dunn handling her singing) and her bandmates warded off greedy executives and jealous rival music groups, all the while bringing down the house onstage. Along the way, Jem also oversaw a foster home for girls and used Synergy, the hologram-projecting computer created by her late father, and her super-earrings to hide her identity.

With the original cartoon being a flamboyant amalgam of music, melodrama, and plain ol' silliness, it's not hard to understand how Jon M. Chu — who's directed everything from "Wicked" and "Wicked: For Good" to "Crazy Rich Asians" and even "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" — wound up helming a live-action "Jem and the Holograms" movie. What's peculiar, however, is that the film wound up taking the form of a Blumhouse project that only cost $5 million to make and, unfortunately, looks it, as opposed to the sweeping spectacle you'd expect Chu to deliver. But that's not the only reason it barely made a blip at the box office (taking in less than half its budget) after being dismissed by critics in 2015.

Like "Hannah Montana," the "Jem and the Holograms" cartoon focuses on its namesake's struggle to lead dual lives, setting the stage for both hijinks and earnest reflections on identity. Chu's movie, on the other hand, is a wholly different animal. Here, Jem/Jerrica (Aubrey Peeples) and her band are young, modern-day sisters who become famous after uploading a video of Jem singing to YouTube. Meanwhile, the original show's Big Bad, the scheming music producer Eric Raymond, is re-imagined as Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis, seemingly enjoying her heel turn), whereas Synergy is re-envisioned as 51N3RG.Y, a small, cutesy robot who leads Jem and her siblings on a hunt for clues left by Jem's dad.

The problem with "Jem and the Holograms" (written by Chu's "The LXD: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers" collaborator Ryan Landels) isn't necessarily that it strays from its, forgive the wording, more animated source material. No, the real issue is that it swaps out the wilder aspects that actually make this property distinctive for something much more banal (in this case, a contrived rise to fame storyline full of harmless but hollow messages about family and being true to yourself). It's also, in all fairness, one of several prequel-y reboots from the 2010s guilty of this particular sin. (I'm looking at you, "Oz the Great and Powerful.")

Unfortunately, the movie's musical numbers aren't nearly electrifying enough to make up the difference. Chu and his crew take an effective but standard approach to coverage, and it's often obvious they're relying on dim lighting to hide just how small the crowds at Jem's concerts actually are. And while that wouldn't be a deal-breaker if the songs themselves were bonafide bops ... well, let's just say, "KPop Demon Hunters," this is not.

Rather than allowing Jem and her sisters' artistry to speak for itself, Chu's "Jem and the Holograms" devotes a good deal of its runtime to clips of YouTube videos featuring Jem's fans talking about how much they love her in suspiciously vague terms. There's a reason for that: These testimonials were made by real-life "Jem and the Holograms" cartoon fans as part of an audition process turned contest to appear in the film (via IndieWire). Most of these fans are actually talking about their affection for the original animated series, seeing as they made the videos before the movie came out. These clips were then re-edited to make it appear as though the folks onscreen are referring to the live-action Jem. Hence, many of them are dressed more like the cartoon iterations of Jem and her fam than their flesh-and-blood counterparts.

Couple that with the ultra-low-budget and the property's creator, Christy Marx, being mostly frozen out of the project's development, and the whole thing can't help but feel like a cynical attempt to tap into the demand for a live-action "Jem and the Holograms" film without actually delivering a quality product. And yet, Chu has a sincere passion for the material (having grown up on the original cartoon and spent years getting his adaptation off the ground), which comes through in the way he handles the whole thing, from the movie's pleasant color palette to the completely straight-faced manner in which it dishes out its clichés. Marx even praised Chu while publicly addressing her frustrations with the film's creative process.

Does that make "Jem and the Holograms" good? No, but compared to other Hasbro adaptations from the decade (cough, Michael Bay's "Transformers" sequels), it could've been worse.