New ‘Jem and the Holograms’ Trailer Brings Us Closer to Showtime

I’m not ashamed to say it; I watched Jem as a I kid. I dug it. It wasn’t so much the glamour and glitter that appealed to me (ditto the fashion and fame). But the idea of this rock star with a superhero-style secret identity seemed really cool, as did some of the details of the rock-and-roll lifestyle, which I assumed (at the age of five years old) was basically like a documentary.

The first trailer for the new live-action Jem and the Holograms didn’t give me any of that stuff, but this one comes a little closer to the Jem concept I remember. True, Jem still doesn’t have any magic change-o earrings (at least that we see onscreen), but at least there’s a Synergy, a little robot her dad invented when Jerrica (Aubrey Peeples) was younger. All the stuff about the evil record company and the scheming executive (Juliette Lewis) who wants to turn Jem against her bandmates looks more like a Josie and the Pussycats reboot than Jem to me, but what are you gonna do?

Jem is directed by Jon M. Chu (Step Up 2, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and co-produced by Jason Blum, and the cast also includes Stefanie Scott, Haley Kiyoko, Ryan Guzman, and ’80s icon Molly Ringwald. But where are the Misfits?!? Jem without the Misfits is like the X-Men without Wolverine. Jem and the Holograms opens in theaters on October 23.