When a movie fails, it’s easy to focus on all the marks the movie itself didn’t hit — it wasn’t funny enough, it wasn’t sad enough, it should have been casted differently — but very rarely do critiques focus on how production houses cheapen strong female-centric films.
Jem and the Holograms was supposed to appeal to the fan base that grew up with the show, and it was meant to showcase a powerful female lead who embraced her strengths. Instead it portrayed, “a toned-down, muted, and overly patronizing ‘young girl gets in over her head due to fame and artistic success and forgets what matters’ fable that basically penalized its young heroes for wanting and achieving success and power,” as Forbes writes.
The film did not get the same financial backing that a film like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got. According to Forbes, Jem got a $5 million budget, while TMNT got a $125+ budget. The lack of resources and the angle with which the movie was approached proves that Hollywood has a long way to go on the backend of production as well.
The question is, what can be done about these discrepancies?
Cover image courtesy of IGN.
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