First Image: 'Jem And The Holograms' Movie

Here at ComicsAlliance, we have done our best to provide you with the most needlessly thorough coverage of the upcoming live-action Jem and the Holograms movie, but to be honest, that's been pretty difficult since there hasn't really been a whole lot of information. Other than the news that the sinister Eric Raymond had been recast as Erica Raymond and would be played by Juliette Lewis (which sounds awesome) and the news that it finished filming something like three days after it was announced (which sounds... less awesome), there hasn't been much. Until now.

This week, Universal Pictures released the first, and so far only, image of the upcoming film, which means that it's time once again for our expert in-depth analysis.

Before we get to the image itself, though, it's worth noting that the screenshot was also accompanied by the official summary of the film, as reported by The Dissolve:

“As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a one-in-a-million journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden. In Universal Pictures’ Jem And The Holograms, four aspiring musicians will take the world by storm when they see that the key to creating your own destiny lies in finding your own voice.”

It's certainly a different setup from what we see in the cartoon, where Jerrica Benton is from Los Angeles and discovers that the key to creating her own destiny is in a sentient supercomputer with a piano keyboard that can project realistic holograms from a pair of earrings. Also, the lack of mentioning the Holograms' rivals seems to confirm what we've already suspected from the cast listing at IMDB; that the Misfits won't be appearing.

That's a little disappointing, since there is nothing I want to see more than the guy who directed the cliffside ninja fight scene in G.I. Joe 2 doing a take on that episode where the Misfits try to murder Kimber in a volcano, but, well, here we are. It seems some things have been lost in the transition to film.

As for the picture itself, we've got, left to right, Hayley Kiyoko as Aja, Aubrey Peeples as Jem, and Stefanie Scott as Kimber on keytar. This, of course, raises the obvious question of just where the heck is Shana (Aurora Perrineau). I suspect the answer is as simple as "on drums." Still, it's pretty weird that the image they picked to be the first shot of the movie released to the public only features three of the four main cast members, especially given that all four of them were on the teaser poster released last year. How difficult would it have been to just, you know, move the camera over a little bit so we could see all of them? It is, to say the least, disappointing, and pretty mystifying.

I will say that I do like what we see here, with straight up neon lazer portrait backgrounds and ridiculously over-the-top costuming that's kept Jem's' signature sash from her original look (albeit without the pink dress that usually goes with it). Kimber in particular is notable, if only because she seems to have a similar hairstyle to the one that Ross Campbell, artist of the upcoming Jem comics, gave to her in the redesigns he did a few years ago as a fan:

It's not quite as extreme as Campbell's take, but it's definitely along the same lines, which is a positive sign. Also: Keytar. Everything is better with keytar.

Jem and the Holograms is currently set for release on October 23.