Truly, Truly, Truly, Outraged.

Generally speaking, I don’t like to voice my full opinion on things like books, games and movies. I feel like there’s a special kind of place that warrants stuff like that and I usually leave it for essays, because it’s become difficult to find someone who will agree to disagree when you voice your opinion on just about anything.

That being said, when I saw this, I just had to put my thoughts somewhere.

I’m trying to understand why this happens, I really am. I just can’t figure out how people justify taking original work and supposedly “remaking it” into something completely different while keeping the name. It happens with books, comics, and games all the time. Usually, I don’t get so upset about it but so far no one has ruined something that was so close to my heart.

I may not have grown up in the 80’s but Jem was a part of my childhood, as most of my friends would know. I used to sing the songs, I used to put my dolls in a Rockin’ Roadster, and I would rent the tapes at blockbuster. Heck, I dressed up as Jem a couple of times for a costume —partly because I found hot pink pointed pumps. So naturally, I made it a point to follow the status of the Jem movie when they announced it a few years ago. Today, I watched the trailer and I can’t even tell you how much my heart hurt.

I’m all for the crazy colors, the outrageous costume changes, the music, and Molly Ringwald but from what I can tell this is not the Jem that I grew up with. Where are the holograms? The Misfits and their homicidal tendencies? Jerrica’s backbone? I don’t see any of that in this trailer and I cannot help but be severely disappointed that I’m about to witness some serious destruction. Especially, since it seems that Jerrica isn’t as empowered or confident as she was in the original series. Seriously, that girl thought she could do anything and she flippin’ did.

I get the appeal of a person’s rise in the time of self-doubt along with all the other generic struggles this character will be going through, but that’s not what Jem was about. Jem was about a girl who struggles with: keeping her different identities separate (and secret), keeping everything her powerful father left her out of the hands of horrible people, supporting and running a foster home (not being in one), stopping the Misfits from killing people (literally), and this awkward love-triangle that included both her identities. Therefore, I think it’s okay for me to feel like they just disrespected something that so many people loved watching.

Still, I’m hoping that Jem saying “it’s showtime Synergy” in the trailer might mean that there is something that they aren’t telling us. I guess we’ll see what happens in October. In the meanwhile, I’m going to cry for my dead childhood while I binge-watch this show on Netflix.

Anyway, here are some videos:

Jem fanvid: