Space Jam: A New Legacy

Space Jam: A New Legacy
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***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching!  Space Jam:  Cashing in on Nostalgia.

Space Jam:  A New Legacy – 2 out of 5

Okay…so, full disclosure, I’m not the biggest fan of Space Jam.  I never saw it growing up and only recently checked it out for the first time in 2019.  I actually gave it a good review (read it here) but I do admit that while I found the product entertaining and charming, I did admit that the story is really sloppy and poorly constructed.  Now, this last part and saying I’m not the biggest fan might lead the 90s Kids to think that this means I hate the movie.  Far from it.  I’m just not nostalgic for it, nor do I really feel a desire to watch it again.  I watched it, had fun with it, but the fun was enough for a one-time viewing and I carry no real connection to it.  So, needless to say, I wasn’t hankering for a sequel, but I had to hear about a supposed one arriving for over a decade.  It honestly got to the point where I wrote off all news about a sequel happening as a We Got This Covered style made up news story.  I just didn’t believe it would happen…but it did.  Space Jam:  A New Legacy was indeed made with LeBron James and I decided to check it out on HBO Max.  I was not a fan.

Never forget that men on the internet literally complained that Lola
Bunny wasn't sexy enough in this sequel.

I can relate to this kid just wanting to ignore the
world and play video games.

Basketball icon LeBron James (himself) is having trouble with his son Dom (Cedric Joe).  James wants his boys to follow in his footsteps, but Dom has an interest in designing video games.  One day, LeBron takes a meeting with Warner Bros. and they show him a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence called Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle).  After LeBron declines the offer from the WB, Al-G Rhythm takes Dom prisoner and pulls James into the serververse, a shared universe where WB properties like The Matrix, Mad Max, Game of Thrones, DC Comics, The Wizard of Oz and more exist.  Al-G Rhythm then challenges James to a game of basketball and the only way to get his son back and escape this virtual world is if he wins.  However, Al-G has convinced Dom to go against his father and used his programming skills to create a nearly unbeatable team.  Meanwhile, James is left with the Looney Tunes as his teammates.  Now, James, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Lola Bunny (Zendaya) and more must come together as a team and beat Al-G’s villainous Goon Squad.

Yeah, I looked both of these ways during the movie.

So, I said I’m not the biggest fan of Space Jam but this sequel I am absolutely not a fan of at all.  While the movie is colorful and looks gorgeous and even has some core elements that are undeniably great, it is totally destroyed by the hollow commercialism of it all.  Essentially, Space Jam:  A New Legacy is a two hour long commercial for Warner Bros. and all of its properties.  It never really feels like a sports film with the Looney Tunes but rather just Warner Bros. talking about how great they are.  And when you add in another element that stemmed from this obvious vanity project that I found incredibly distracting and annoying, I was left with a film that is all noise and no fun.

Porky raps in the film because this film is clearly just a bunch of ideas
thrown against the wall and going with whatever sticks.

At the end of it all, Space Jam:  A New Legacy just felt like full-blown narcissism from Warner Bros.  And when you consider the quality of their decision making as of late, this level of ego feels wholly unwarranted.  Additionally, creating this serververse where all their properties are their own worlds and all these characters come and watch the game feels like it is taking time away from the Looney Tunes.  Never did this film feel like a project for LeBron James and Bugs and his crew but rather it felt like naval gazing on the part of Warner Bros.  And this hubris only made the film overloaded, bloated, and threatening the audience with too much stimuli.  Never is this more evident than when the crowd of Warner Bros. IP come rampaging out to watch the game.

Forget doing justice to the Looney Tunes, instead take a whole load of
references to other properties!

I kinda feel like Adam West's Batman would have
 a little more dignity and not cheer for a basketball
game like he is hopped up on cocaine.

This element is probably the most annoying and distracting part of the entire film.  I found it difficult to pay attention to the action that was taking place on the digital court because I was too busy watching all these background characters…and not because I was having a blast trying to figure who they were or where they were from but rather because of how strange they all appeared.  The actions of these characters were very odd as, no matter what is happening on the court, they are all either dancing (for some reason), engaging in very over-the-top reactions to each other and mugging like they are trying to make their skin rip off, or are raucously cheering—even when nothing is happening.  It was very distracting as you are in the middle of a scene where LeBron and the Tunes are in a timeout and you see Batman from the 60s television series spinning around in circles or a man who is supposed to be Mr. Freeze from the 1997 film Batman & Robin doing everything he can so the camera sees him.  

Yes, yes.  We all see you, actor playing Mr. Freeze.

And then, to make this an even bigger distraction, a lot of the characters have their line of sight in the wrong direction.  There were numerous times where I spotted background characters looking off where nothing was happening and ignoring the action in front of them.  Maybe they were too busy watching the White Walkers furiously pumping their fists over the most basic bit of basketball fundamentals like I was.  Finally, you can see that all these characters are on a loop too and it doesn’t take long to notice that…and, once you do, you can’t stop watching this very strange and extremely distracting part of the movie.

Um, is The Mask waving a fart out of his butt in the background?

Despite these problems, A New Legacy isn’t entirely bad.  One thing the movie does incredibly well is the family element with LeBron and his son.  In the story, LeBron wants to see Dom take up basketball but ignores the fact Dom wants to get into video game design.  The story even goes a little further and shows that LeBron has some support for this endeavor but still would rather see his son chase his own dream rather than a dream that is entirely unique to his child.  It is definitely an endearing part of the film and something the product got right.  Additionally, LeBron is pretty good in the movie.  Getting someone who isn’t an actor in a movie or TV show is always a gamble because it is uncharted waters for them, but LeBron did fairly well. The movie even makes a joke about athletes trying to be actors and I really appreciated that bit of self-deprecation.  Finally, the animation of the Looney Tunes looks terrific, both in their standard 2D format and later when they go 3D for the big game.  They are also brought to life fantastically by the voice acting cast of Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, and more.

Seriously though, LeBron was legit good in the film.
This wasn't a Brett Favre in There's Something About Mary situation.

So, Space Jam:  A New Legacy isn’t doing everything wrong.  It has some elements that it is doing very right and, if these were the focus, it could have made this a far better movie.  However, Warner Bros. instead pumped out a shrine to their properties and something that looked and felt like the company was smelling and enjoying its own farts.  What is even more impressive is by creating this serververse, the WB has once again showed they do not have what it takes to create and maintain a shared universe.  Maybe, like LeBron says at one point in the film, this one should have just focused on the fundamentals and just made a movie about a guy playing a sport with some cartoons.  A retread of what we saw before would have been infinitely preferable to the hot mess that they delivered.