Space Jam: A New Legacy
A deeply consumeristic advert for Warner Bros IP, vaguely shrouded in what looks like a film, but which fails to capture the magic of the original.
Lebron James (Lebron James) is struggling to connect with his son Dom (Cedric Joe), too often forcing him to train hard in basketball and not recognising his true passions in computer game design. Lebron takes Dom along to a meeting at Warner Bros, where Sarah Silverman and Tony Yeung (for some reason) are trying to sell him on signing up to a digitised version of himself being in every movie ever. Lebron takes off, not happy with the idea, but he and Dom wind up stumbling across Al G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle), a algorithm that runs the Warner Bros ServerVerse. Al G. digitises them into his world, intent on having Lebron increase Al G.’s profile in the mortal world, and when he doesn’t, challenging him to a game of basketball - if Lebron wins, he and Dom go home, but if he doesn’t he and the rest of humanity will stay digitised in the ServerVerse for ever. Now it falls to Lebron, and Bugs Bunny, to assemble a team that can compete with Al G. and his own son.
The original Space Jam was a wild concept, effectively advertising decades old WB characters utilising the greatest sports star of all time. It also wasn’t great - despite it’s cultural phenomena status and the fact that it inspired and lives in the hearts of an entire generation, it’s objectively a middling film. This reboot, ostensibly held back until a basketball star of similar stature existed (which it certainly does in Lebron), misses some of the magic of that first film, and comes off instead as silly and cynical.
Lebron struggles through the material, undoubtedly better when he is dealing with real actors around him, but succumbing to the plight so many actors have before of performing to a green room. The jokes frequently fall flat, and the family dynamics just don’t play. From a performance perspective, only Cheadle stands out - delivering a frankly insane performance that at times delights, and at others makes you sink into your seat with cringe.
What also doesn’t play is the actual basketball, which isn’t set in space and is played in Dom’s new style video game Dom Ball - which makes the competition element almost completely absent.
In fact, the only thing that really works is the oldest element of this whole piece; the Looney Tunes. The Tunes are a welcome on screen addition, bringing back a sense of nostalgia and having a handful of actually funny jokes (also one incredible cameo towards the end). Even when they visit other WarnerBros IP worlds, they bring some enjoyment - the DC world working well, and even the Matrix, Casablanca and other worlds bringing the laughs.
In the end, Space Jam: A New Legacy claims in its title the very thing it winds up not delivering; anything worth remembering as a legacy. Oh, and also anything in space..
