Space Jam: A New Legacy (Movie) Review

STOP TRYING TO MAKE LEBRON JAMES INTO MICHAEL JORDAN!!

Seriously, people need to stop with this “who is the real G.O.A.T.?” debate that compares LeBron James with Michael Jordan. Both are great Basketball players on great championship teams, but LeBron is not Jordan. Never will be, no matter how much you try to put LeBron into every scenario that Jordan has done, and now that includes acting… Or at least their attempts at acting. Hell, if Space Jam: A New Legacy proves anything for one over the other, it’s that Jordan is the better actor than LeBron could ever hope to be.

Title: Space Jam: A New Legacy
Production Company: Warner Animation Group, Proximity Media, & The SpringHill Company
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee
Produced by: Ryan Coogler, LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Duncan Henderson
Written by: Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, & Terence Nance
Starring: LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Khris Davis, Sonequa Martin-Green, Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, & Zendaya
Based on: Space Jam by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, & Herschel Weingrod
Release dates: July 16, 2021 (WorldWide/Streaming)
Running time: 115 minutes
Rating: PG

This Sounds Very Familiar Doc

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A popular NBA star gets pulled into a cartoon world and has to face off against a group of monsters to not only save himself but the lives of the cartoon characters themselves. If you say that is the plot of Space Jam, then you’d be both correct and incorrect at the same time. Space Jam: A New Legacy takes 99% of the plot from Space Jam, and adds in one extra twist: LeBron has to save one of his kids who… GASP!… Like video games over Basketball!

Basically, Space Jam: A New Legacy takes LeBron James and his son Dom, a child who would rather make video games than play Basketball, and has the two have a falling out over that very subject matter: Video Games. Meanwhile, at Warner Bros Studios, an algorithm that decides what is popular and tries to create more of that, notices that LeBron James would be the perfect addition to everything Warner Bros, making LeBron the face of the company. After tricking an executive to invite LeBron to a pitch meeting, which LeBron calls a “dumb idea”, the algorithm (aka Al-G Rythem) gets angry and decides to use LeBron’s son Dom to force LeBron into doing what he wants regardless, trapping them both in the “Warner Bros Server-verse, and gives LeBron a choice: Defeat him in a Basketball game or be trapped in the server-verse forever.

LeBron takes the bait and agrees, with Al-G deciding to use Dom’s Basketball game, an NBA JAM style game, to cheat to win, also turning Dom against his father. Al-G also sends LeBron to the Looney Tunes world, setting him up with “the losers”. When LeBron arrives in Tune World, complete in Toon form, he finds that Bugs Bunny is the only one left in the world, with everyone else being given other roles on other Warner Bros film/TV based worlds. So the usual happens here: LeBron and Bugs go to other worlds, reunites the Tune Squad, and faces off against Al-G and Dom in the “Basketball event of a lifetime”. Insert tropes of the good guys being outmatched, inspiring speeches, main character realization that his job can be fun, and a last-minute move that only just grasps victory from that hands of defeat against a foe who cheats to win.

Sounds like Space Jam to a degree huh? That’s because it pretty much is.

A Thousands Worlds of Possibility…

You’d think that with the gigantic back catalog of Warner Bros properties at their disposal, you’d think that we wouldn’t need to go back to the well with the Looney Tunes. While it was great to see the gang back together playing ball, but when you see some of the characters that are standing courtside you can’t help but think that there would be more choices used in the team. Imagine seeing LeBron on the court with the Warner Bros, The Flinstones, Harry Potter, The Justice League, the crew from Wacky Racers; and on the opposite team: Batman’s rogue gallery, the guys from Clockwork Orange, Joker and his Goons from Batman (1989), the creature from IT, hell… Even Arnold returning as Mr. Freeze… A HUGE amount of characters to choose from, exposing a lot of the WB/HBO Max back catalog to millions of new viewers around the globe… But no… We have to do what they did with Jordan, right down to the exact same crew of toons.

One of the things that makes the story itself even more of a letdown is the fact that Space Jam: A New Legacy goes out of its way to show some more interesting and creative ideas in some of its throw-away gags. While reuniting the Tune Squad, LeBron and Bugs visit DC Superhero world, where not only are they changed into Batman (Bugs) and Robin (LeBron) in a great joke, but we also see the return of SOOOOOOOOOPERDUCK!!!! As Daffy returns to one of his best WB cartoon roles, complete with Porky as James Olsen (We also see cameos from mostly Bruce Timm era DC animation). Wile E Coyote and Road Runner in Mad Max: Fury Road!? WITNESS ME!! Elmer Fudd as Mini-Me from Austin Powers… Ok, but funny. They also show Granny & Speedy in The Matrix, another funny as hell moment.  Not to mention a cameo from Rick and Morty! The highlight of all this is Lola becoming an Amazon through the pages of an animated Wonder Woman comic book (probably since they didn’t have ready footage from Wonder Woman 84 to use, but recreated it so well in this format). So many throw-away moments in Space Jam: A New Legacy that is much better-sounding adventures than what we ultimately get at the end.

… With Nothing Original

Ultimately the biggest issue lays at the feet of LeBron himself. Throughout all of Space Jam: A New Legacy, he walks around with his stern/judging look on his face. Even during moments where he is meant to look like he is having fun, he goes back to this expression after each moment. I understand some people have a resting bitch face, but LeBron has a resting judgment face. At least with Michael Jordan he felt and acted like a human who was confused but also learned to have fun in something. LeBron learns the same lesson, but his expression and acting don’t show any of it. Poor Don Cheadle tries his best to be animated and energetic, but when you are playing against a brick wall like LeBron’s acting, even Don has some trouble getting his screen time to mean something.

Another problem I have with Space Jam: A New Legacy is the game itself. With Space Jam, everything was done in the world of the Looney Tunes, with Jordan having to adapt to the world and logic of cartoons, ultimately accepting things as they are and winning because he becomes a toon. With this version being a video game that is pretty much modeled around NBA JAM: Tournament Edition, complete with power-ups and weird scoring, everyone just goes along with it. So when Al-G cheats at one point and exclaims “I am the game”, it doesn’t make any sense at all because they established early on that the normal rules of Basketball do not apply here, so he wasn’t really cheating. Same with the final dunk, which LeBron does thanks to his son (who switches teams in the end) throws a power-up under LeBron’s foot, which Al-G calls cheating… Which it isn’t.

Finally, there is the Goon Squad themselves. This extends from the video game gripe I mention above. With Space Jam, the MonStars stole the talent of players who were Jordan’s equal on the court and used that to put pressure on the Tune Squad. With Space Jam: A New Legacy, since people think that no one is on the same level as LeBron James (Proving Jordan’s position as the G.O.A.T. in the NBA), the Goon Squad is made up of gimmicked characters, mostly random NBA/WNBA players combined with animals. This just doesn’t feel like a proper contest. Having the most overpowered player on the Goon Squad being Chronos, a robot who can manipulate time just feels stupid and makes no sense… This falls in line with just about everything to do with Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Look, I know Space Jam wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it was a damn good movie that you can throw on for a couple of good chuckles and kill some time. Space Jam: A New Legacy on the other hand, just makes you sit there asking why things are happening. Hell, the best ideas and jokes in Space Jam: A New Legacy are things that get thrown to the side so we can focus on LeBron not really acting, but just being “LeBron”. At least with Jordan, we could see his story, his progression, and his love for what he does in everything that happened in Space Jam. Even the Looney Tunes, with all their references, were funnier in Space Jam than in Space Jam: A New Legacy. All Space Jam: A New Legacy is good for is showing that the debate is over: Jordan wins.