Fans, Journalists Attack G.I. Joe Director's Live-Action Jem Reboot

MovieBob

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Fans, Journalists Attack G.I. Joe Director's Live-Action Jem Reboot

Plans for a new movie based on the doll/cartoon icon have drawn an unexpected explosion of criticism from fans, critics, bloggers and more.

Last week, G.I. Joe: Retaliation director John Chu, horror movie producer Jason Blum and Scooter Braun (the man who "discovered" Justin Beiber) launched a YouTube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVnNVrunAE] announcing their intentions to crowd-source input and talent for their new project: A live-action reboot of 1980s all-girl rock-band/adventure cartoon Jem. But instead of the fandom joy-eruption they might've expected, the filmmakers have instead been met with apprehension and outrage (truly.)

First, Badass Digest's Meredith Borders [http://news.moviefone.com/2014/03/21/jem-creator-christy-marx-movie/] joined the chorus of dissenting fans; arguing that a character considered to be a rare positive female role-model of the era deserved better than what seems to be planned for her.

Running 65 episodes from 1985 to 1988 and based on a line of dolls from Hasbro, Jem was a unique animated hybrid of soap-opera, rock music and superheroics noted for being one of the few "girls cartoons" of the era with a focus on action and mystery stories. The lead character was a young female record executive who used holograms generated by a sentient supercomputer to masquerade as her own most popular act, the flamboyant musician/adventurer "Jem" (so, Iron Man meets Hannah Montana.) Chu, Blum and Braun have promised a 21st century "reimagining" involving a teenaged orphan who becomes an internet musical-sensation.

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Vault101

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Sep 26, 2010
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this is shitty...I mean you know her not being a part and all

also before anyone starts lamenting this as the worst thing since twilight (as well all know pre teen and teen girls are the literal heralds of the apocolypse)....tell me GI joe, transformers or TMNT is any less dumb with a straight face...c'mon
 

Casual Shinji

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Vault101 said:
also before anyone starts lamenting this as the worst thing since twilight (as well all know pre teen and teen girls are the literal heralds of the apocolypse)....tell me GI joe, transformers or TMNT is any less dumb with a straight face...c'mon
Yeah, but that had action. Which too is shallow, but at least entertaining. What did Jem have?

All I remember from this show was that stupid groupie girl that kept getting captured by the Misfits. Just as with Beverly Hills Teens, it was a show where the good guys always won and the bad guys always lost, and nothing happened in between.
 

Doclector

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Well, I did not see this one coming. Neither a film deal on this particular thing nor the outrage about it. True, I never watched the cartoon, but honestly, the GI joe films were about as good as you're gonna get from a load of eighties toys/PSA sources, I mean, it was brilliantly stupid, if nothing else, it shouldn't be completely unbeara-

Chu, Blum and Braun have promised a 21st century "reimagining" involving a teenaged orphan who becomes an internet musical-sensation.
My god.

CALL THE UN, CALL NATO, CALL FUCKING GI JOE, CALL EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE ABLE TO STOP THIS HAPPENING.
 

Vault101

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Casual Shinji said:
Yeah, but that had action. Which too is shallow, but at least entertaining. What did Jem have?
it was....entertaining?

[quote/]All I remember from this show was that stupid groupie girl that kept getting captured by the Misfits. Just as with Beverly Hills Teens, it was a show where the good guys always won and the bad guys always lost, and nothing happened in between.[/quote]

...pretty much every kids show ever

I'm not defending the inherent quality of the source material, I am saying that people will sneer at this kind of thing but looking back at the [i/]source material[/i] of their childhood fixations...its pot kettle black


Doclector said:
CALL THE UN, CALL NATO, CALL FUCKING GI JOE, CALL EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE ABLE TO STOP THIS HAPPENING.
see? see there it is....I knew someone would do it....
 

Doclector

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Vault101 said:
Doclector said:
CALL THE UN, CALL NATO, CALL FUCKING GI JOE, CALL EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE ABLE TO STOP THIS HAPPENING.
see? see there it is....I knew someone would do it....
Hey, that's out of context. I was just about ready to let it happen, until they basically revealed it as a gender-switched justin beiber biopic. Hell, GI joe isn't even really part of MY childhood, that was action man. I only watched the movie because I was bored and it was on netflix.
 

Nimcha

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Chu, Blum and Braun have promised a 21st century "reimagining" involving a teenaged orphan who becomes an internet musical-sensation.
Well, that explains it. They had this idea and just looked for something that already existed so they could call it a reboot. How very modern.
 

Geekeric

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I remember that cartoon really well. I used to watch it in the '80's because it was so amazingly bad. The animation was horrible, the dialogue and plot were idiotic, and the fashion was, well, 1980's. I thought at the time that it had been written by a twelve year old. I find it equally amusing that anyone would think it deserved this remake, and that people are upset about it's "treatment". I think if the movie ends up as a stinking pile of dung, it'll do Jem justice.
 

Casual Shinji

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Vault101 said:
Casual Shinji said:
Yeah, but that had action. Which too is shallow, but at least entertaining. What did Jem have?
it was....entertaining?

[quote/]All I remember from this show was that stupid groupie girl that kept getting captured by the Misfits. Just as with Beverly Hills Teens, it was a show where the good guys always won and the bad guys always lost, and nothing happened in between.
...pretty much every kids show ever

I'm not defending the inherent quality of the source material, I am saying that people will sneer at this kind of thing but looking back at the [i/]source material[/i] of their childhood fixations...its pot kettle black.[/quote]Well, it depends which ones you watched. Shows like Mask, Dinobots, and Bravestar were exactly that; uneventful shit. But TMNT had nice character, humor, and adventure to it. And with many of these shows it was generally the concept that spoke to your imagination the most, like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors or Thunder Cats. Even if the episodes themselves were kinda eh, just the idea of the show was enough to draw you in.

This is why I think people are more behind the idea of a movie version of those shows, than one about a glamy girl band that does... something.
 

ISeeColours

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Doclector said:
Vault101 said:
Doclector said:
CALL THE UN, CALL NATO, CALL FUCKING GI JOE, CALL EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE ABLE TO STOP THIS HAPPENING.
see? see there it is....I knew someone would do it....
Hey, that's out of context. I was just about ready to let it happen, until they basically revealed it as a gender-switched justin beiber biopic. Hell, GI joe isn't even really part of MY childhood, that was action man. I only watched the movie because I was bored and it was on netflix.
Action man was the greatest hero of them all.
 

JackyG

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I can see the quirky hipster best friend giving a nod to the show now... peering over her thick framed sunglasses she says: "Well that is TRULY outrageous!"

tbh this is the sort of source material that I think would be great if they went 100% wacky with it like a scott pilgrim kind of approach.

This sounds like it could almost be a drama.
 

Savryc

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Casual Shinji said:
it was a show where the good guys always won and the bad guys always lost, and nothing happened in between.
So it's basically the same as every kids cartoon from the era? Vault just said that! You have a funny way of agreeing with people.

OT: It's pretty shitty of them to block out the creator like that and going by the "re-imagining blah blah orphan blah" they're set to take the usual Hollywood dump on it.
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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I briefly remember a Jem trailer being on the beginning of one of my Transformers VHS' (VHS!!!!) and I skipped through it then. Something about being a six year old boy and seeing lots of pink and big hair didn't quite cement the show into my interest pile.

Than again, I've never watched the show, I don't know anything about the show, this is the first I've heard of this show since I watched said Transformers VHS. If they make a movie then I'll just not go and see it, like I do with all the other movies that don't grab my attention.
 

Therumancer

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Ummm, well I can understand the outrage. Seems to me that they wanted to liberalize the entire idea, after all especially nowadays you can't have an "Corporate CEO" especially from the music industry (a favorite target) being a hero. Having Jem be an orphan/internet celebrity kind of defeats the purpose since a big part of the idea was the scale she operated on. Jem as a somewhat less violent alternative to Iron Man or perhaps Batman (given the level of villains and the occasional focus on Batman being "The world's greatest detective"). Indeed the whole point of her brother, the show's main villain and her equivalent to "The Joker" or "Lex Luthor", was that he was after her business, and ultimately control of "Synergy" which was the super-computer Jem drew her holographic/illusion based powers from.

*THAT* said, doing a reboot of Jem nowadays would be difficult simply because Holographic technology isn't quite as "outrageous" as it once was, even if this show took it to a whole new level. To really stand out you'd have to bring it to the level of say "Star Trek: Voyager" at least. What's more the whole "Glam Rock" thing isn't as big anymore and that makes that sort of stage persona difficult to pull off, really it seems Horrorcore like "Gwar", or "Lordi" and a few throwbacks like "KISS" are the only places you really see the elaborate costuming and makeup (and with an entirely different intent).

A "Jem" reboot isn't entirely out of the question, but it would take a lot of work since it was pretty much a product of the times. What's more it would need to be done respectfully, if your going to say have it be some orphan on the internet, what's the point of even using the Jem license?

My suggestion if they were doing this would be to actually set the movie in the mid-late 80s (retro), or in the near future with updated technology and a hypothetical resurgence of "old school" Glam Rock and Punk, which wouldn't be as hard a sell for the near future since "Cyberpunk" is already popular and battling corporations fit right into it.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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I had the misfortune of watching the Spice Girls movie. Google it if you must, but don't watch it. It was essentially a 90 minute music video. I don't recall if it was actually 90 minutes, it was impossible to maintain any level of concentration. I was going somewhere with this. The Jem movie will be like the Speed Racer movie, but with pastel colours instead of the strong reds and blues, and no doubt be just as compelling.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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I don't remember much about Jem, but I don't think the director of GI Joe Retribution and a guy who produces horror films are the most qualified to reboot it. Also shutting out the original creator is never a good sign.
 

Burnouts3s3

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It wouldn't surprise me of Hasbro screwed this up like they have with their other properties (Transformers, Bratz, G.I. Joe is debatable). To me, this is only something you can set in the 80's. Bringing it to modern times would just be a replica of Hannah Montana. Besides, I need all that glorious 80's cheese.