Space Jam: A New Legacy – Film Review

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Movie Details

Rating: B-

Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Writer: —
Actors: LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, Jeff Bergman, Gabriel Iglesias, Zendaya, Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Bob Bergen, Fred Tatasciore, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi, Sonequa Martin-Green, Ceyair J. Wright, Harper Leigh Alexander, Khris Davis, Xosha Roquemore, Stephen Kankole, Jalyn Hall, Wood Harris, Jordan Thomas, Sue Bird, Draymond Green, A'ja Wilson, Randy Mims, Gerald 'Slink' Johnson, Sarah Silverman, Steven Yeun, Ernie Johnson, Lil Rel Howery, Michael B. Jordan, Rosario Dawson, Justin Roiland, Kimberly Brooks
Runtime: 1 h 55 min
Release Date: July 8, 2021
Genres: Animation, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction
Certification: PG

Basketball superstar LeBron James and his young son, Dom (Cedric Joe), get trapped in digital space by a rogue AI. To get home safely, LeBron teams up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang for a high-stakes basketball game against the AI’s digitized champions of the court — a powered-up roster called the Goon Squad.

Although I was not born in the 1990s, Joe Pytka‘s Space Jam still remains one of the most nostalgic movies from my childhood. I remember the first time I watched it – I was about seven or eight years old – and I fell in love instantly. There was just something so indescribably awesome about watching NBA legend Michael Jordan play a game of intergalactic basketball with some of the most iconic characters from the Looney Tunes universe.

Of course, as I grew older and looked back on the film, I recognized just how silly and over-the-top the whole thing is but I still enjoy it to this day. Yes, it certainly has a plethora of problems and if you wanted to tear the movie apart piece by piece, you could do so extremely easily. But I would be lying if I said that I don’t smile whenever I watch Space Jam. It’s zany, ridiculous fun and I love it for that reason.

And it seems as though there is a whole generation of people out there that loved growing up with Space Jam. Sure, that film didn’t do well critically, but the cult following the film received in the years after its release was quite prevalent. So why did it take so long for a sequel to get made? It’s a question I won’t ever know the answer to, but alas, here we are in the summer of 2021 with Malcolm D. Lee‘s standalone sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy.

I knew I was going to watch an absolutely ridiculous movie the moment it started. A New Legacy never once takes itself seriously and I’m so glad that it doesn’t because it could have been one of the most embarrassingly bad movies in recent memory. But because the screenwriters ensured that the story never gets too dramatic and instead focuses on the goofy side of things, A New Legacy ends up being surprisingly entertaining.

This is by no means a great movie. But at the same time, I can’t say it’s an awful one either because I did have a fair amount of fun watching LeBron James play basketball with the Looney Tunes cast of characters and Don Cheadle is hilarious over-the-top here in every way possible as the villainous Al-G Rhythm.

Character motivations here don’t really make a lot of sense and once you stop and think about Al-G Rhythm’s “masterful”, evil schemes for more than a few seconds, you will start to realize just how stupid it really is. Why does he want everybody to compete in an intergalactic basketball tournament? What is he going to gain out of it? The answers are never given and the writing for the characters here is genuinely terrible.

But do you know what, though? Kids that go to the theatre and watch this movie aren’t going to care about any of that. Any child that goes to see this movie won’t care about character motivations or a deep, riveting story. They just want to see LeBron James and the Looney Tunes goof around for two hours and that’s exactly what this movie gives us.

There are, however, dozens of times where this movie feels like one gigantic commercial for Warner Bros.-related characters and IPs. The film includes some genuinely head-shakingly bad moments that just absolutely reek of corporate greed. Keep in mind, this is something that the first movie didn’t do. So why is it in this sequel?

Something that I honestly have to mention is something that I found to be extremely hilarious and it doesn’t necessarily revolve around the movie itself but rather, its trailer. Whoever edited the trailer didn’t do a good job whatsoever, because the trailer accidentally spoils the entire movie’s outcome. The whole premise of A New Legacy is remarkably similar to the premise of the original. A famous basketball player recruits characters from the Looney Tunes universe to play a humongous game of basketball against a villainous team.

Of course, you know who’s going to win at the end of the movie but in case you genuinely had no idea, the trailer flat out tells us even though it didn’t mean to. Take a look at this still frame taken right from the trailer on YouTube and you’ll get your answer. I honestly have no idea who put this trailer together but it’s a hilariously bad mistake.

If you are wanting to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy because you want to see some over-the-top outlandish fun, then you’re going to get exactly that. But if you are wanting to watch a film with a compelling story and deep, interesting characters with clear motivations and depth, then you’re going to hate this movie with a passion. Go into it with the right mindset, and you might have some fun as I did.