Space Jam: A New Legacy

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Space Jam: A New Legacy is a soft reboot to 1996 cult classic, Space Jam. In this film we see LeBron James as an overbearing father who isn't open to the avenues of fun his son pursues. However, when a rogue artificial intelligence kidnaps Dom, LeBron is forced to play a virtual basketball tournament with some unlikely allies to get him back. The film does manage to match the tone of the original Space Jam feature with an overtly serious basketball player stumbling around cartoon antics and learning how to find fun through the game. Beyond that I liked watching the Looney Tunes animations and some of the editing and transitions that pay homage right back to the original feature. There were elements of this feature that actually managed to come across as a love letter to the late 90s family films.

 

Sonequa Martin-Green, who played Kamiyah James, is stunning as this fierce and protective matriarch; Martin-Green has this strong presence that makes her a role you don't want to mess with and a convincing backbone for her onscreen family. Rosario Dawson, who voiced Wonder Woman, is perfect as this bold heroine; Dawson delivers this cameo with sincerity and compassion making for one of the best scenes in the film.

 

However the best performance came from Jeff Bergman, Zendaya, Gabriel Iglesias, Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Bob Bergen and Fred Tatasciore, who voiced all of the Looney Tunes. These roles are the dependable light aspects of the feature, comedic and full of energy. I think any moments with heart that feel real are the ones in which these cartoon characters are at the centre. Watching the crazy antics of these roles, seeing familiar rivalries and friendships make for a nice nostalgia trip.

 

Space Jam was never really a good fun, it became a cult because of how quirky and camp the late 90s film actually was. Space Jam: A New Legacy is harder to see as a future success at this point because it matches the original for a lot of its goofs and narrative moments. Yet worse than this is just how much gratuitous self-indulgent praise there is for LeBron James and Warner Bros. The entire film places LeBron on a sort of pedestal, only really taking the time to critique his parenting skills as a fictional spin for the sake of the main narrative. Warner Bros. as a movie studio is treated as a setting and entity that is akin to the lifeblood of the film; weirdly the main bad guy is a sentient computer programme who works for Warner Bros. directly. The main story is very simple: LeBron is a bad Dad who doesn't like his son making computer games, the pair get sucked into a virtual world and LeBron has to play basketball to get his kid back. This simple theme around placing family first is extremely basic and never handled in a way that is deeply explored. More than that placing the entire film around a big sports star who stumbles as a protagonist makes this feature difficult to watch from start to finish. The cinematography is extremely blocky, leaning on big wides rather than trying anything too creative. The special effects for the film are rather poor; the Goon squad in particular have lousy designs and the Looney Tunes being made CGI figures wasn't a great move. The score for the film is not something worth remembering and the soundtrack is a compilation of hype pop and hip hop that does little to boost the quality of the film.

LeBron James, who played himself, does have the ability or experience to lead a film like this; James isn't able to dig deeper for those big emotional scenes that the film depends on. Don Cheadle, who played Al G. Rhythm, really pushes things far over the top for this antagonist role; it's a confusing performance because sometimes it feels like he takes things seriously and at other times the complete opposite. Cedric Joe, who played Dom James, plays that rather typical kid in his father's shadow character; yet Joe plays it in a thin way so that when he flips back to his Dad's side it isn't this big impactful moment. Khris Davis, who played Malik, seems to have been written as some sort of background comic relief; but Davis really does not have the comedic ability to make this role land. Ceyair J. Wright, who played Darius James, is a background supporting figure in the fictional James family; kind of pushed into a position of propping up his onscreen Dad and brother but achieving little else.

 

As camp and corny as the first film with more of a self-congratulatory message both for LeBron James and Warner Brothers. I would give Space Jam: A New Legacy a 1.5/10.