The Internet’s response to the cutesy, squeaky-clean first trailer for Universal and Blumhouse’s Jem and the Holograms was a collective “BOO,” so now it has apparently fallen to Blumhouse chief Jason Blum to do some damage control.
While speaking with Collider about this fall’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Blum was asked about the backlash against the trailer by fans of the original animated series, which had a much more fantastical bent. When questioned as to whether the response worried him or if he felt the need to simply stand by director Jon M. Chu’s end product, Blum said:
Well, the answer to both of those is yes. It makes me worried for sure, but the movie’s done so we’re not changing the movie. The reason I’m not as worried is because I think it’s people reacting off the trailer. A trailer is 2 minutes, a movie is 90, so you can’t show the whole movie in 2 minutes, so a lot of the things that people feel are not in the trailer and were in Jem and the Holograms are actually in the movie, so the only thing I hope is that the people who are passionate Jem fans, which I really understand, just put their judgment until they see the movie. If they see the movie and feel the same way then let us have it, but I just have to say, watch the movie first and then judge. Don’t judge a book by its cover, I guess I’m saying.
He followed that up by firmly stating, “It’s a great movie.” I really want to believe Blum here, as disappointing as the first trailer was, because he’s a very smart guy who has delivered some killer films in recent years, from horror classics (Paranormal Activity) to Best Picture nominees (Whiplash), but he is, at the end of the day, a businessman, so there’s no reason to put much stock into his trumping up his own movie.
Anyway, Jem and the Holograms opens October 23. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for it.
