Space Jam: A New Legacy review
The first Space Jam came out in my senior year of high school. I saw it. Thought it was okay. It only stuck in my mind because of the soundtrack and because one of my weirdo friends lusted after Lola Bunny. But like many 90s relics it has grown a cult following in the 25 years since it came out. I can see the appeal. It has some goofy Looney Tunes charm.
That charm is completely absent from this new Space Jam movie, pretentiously subtitled A New Legacy. Somehow, a sequel to a movie that was based off a commercial spawned a sequel even MORE soulless.
This has the same centerpiece, just a different star. Again the Tunes have to play a basketball game, only this time it is with Lebron James. Through a dreadfully long and dull setup, it is established that James has to play to save his son from a sinister A.I. played by a very annoying Don Cheadle (in a career worst performance).
The original movie kept it simple. This sequel piles on the plot and a lot of complications. None of it is interesting at all. I didn't care at all about Lebron and his son, or the A.I.'s motivations (which are....????). I just wanted to see some silly Tunes stuff.
But this movie isn't really here to showcase the Looney Tunes (or even Lebron). It is here to showcase Warner Bros. IP. Much of the movie takes place in the "Warnerverse", which gives the movie endless chances to remind the viewer of all the popular movies and TV the company owns. It's like a bunch of member berries exploded onto a movie screen.
As James and Bugs Bunny re-assemble the Tune Squad, they go and find them living within the worlds of other IP. Daffy Duck is in the DC animated universe. Lola is in Wonder Woman's Themiscyra. Tazmanian Devil is in Mad Max: Fury Road. And so on. But the movie doesn't do anything with this. There's no jokes. No parody. Nothing. It's just references. They mean nothing. What a missed opportunity to have some self-referential fun a la Ralph Breaks The Internet.
The movie never stops beating you over the head with these references either. During the big game, they keep having constant shots of the crowd, featuring all sorts of IP characters, from Batman to King Kong to Pennywise. I'm sure playing a Where's Waldo game to spot others is fun, but that's not a movie.
The game is a bust too. It's horribly staged, and since there are no rules, and baskets distribute points at complete random it holds no suspense. So what am I watching?
Last movie had the Monstars, who were a fun adversary (and there were plenty of good gags involving the NBA stars they stole talent from). This movie uses real players too (including Diana Taurasi) but just turns them into CGI creatures that don't mean anything. Why even bother? They could be anything.
A bad plot and even bad characters wouldn't have necessarily killed the movie...if the jokes were good. But this movie only provides a few chuckles, and one legit laugh involving a cameo by Michael Jordan (no, the other one).
It's a movie that is almost completely lacking in that goofy, silly Looney Tunes spirit. The Tunes barely even get to do anything for most of the movie, which is too noisy and chaotic in every frame to let these classic characters have their moment. Oh, but they do find time for a Porky Pig rap sequence, which was one of the most torturous things I have ever witnessed in a movie. Even Poochie would cringe.
It's not even a fun movie to look at. Along with it just being constant frenetic animation and CGI, it just doesn't even look good. It's dark and unpleasant. I didn't even like who they got to voice Bugs. It didn't sound anything like classic Bugs.
James is a big disappointment too. He was legitimately funny as an actor in Trainwreck. But he is every bit as dull here as Jordan was, only he is tasked with doing a lot more actual acting. And while Jordan at least got to bounce off a Bill Murray, James gets no such assistance.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is a rather stupefying failure, a movie that had a seemingly easy bar to reach, but winds up being one of the worst blockbuster movies in years.
That charm is completely absent from this new Space Jam movie, pretentiously subtitled A New Legacy. Somehow, a sequel to a movie that was based off a commercial spawned a sequel even MORE soulless.
This has the same centerpiece, just a different star. Again the Tunes have to play a basketball game, only this time it is with Lebron James. Through a dreadfully long and dull setup, it is established that James has to play to save his son from a sinister A.I. played by a very annoying Don Cheadle (in a career worst performance).
The original movie kept it simple. This sequel piles on the plot and a lot of complications. None of it is interesting at all. I didn't care at all about Lebron and his son, or the A.I.'s motivations (which are....????). I just wanted to see some silly Tunes stuff.
But this movie isn't really here to showcase the Looney Tunes (or even Lebron). It is here to showcase Warner Bros. IP. Much of the movie takes place in the "Warnerverse", which gives the movie endless chances to remind the viewer of all the popular movies and TV the company owns. It's like a bunch of member berries exploded onto a movie screen.
As James and Bugs Bunny re-assemble the Tune Squad, they go and find them living within the worlds of other IP. Daffy Duck is in the DC animated universe. Lola is in Wonder Woman's Themiscyra. Tazmanian Devil is in Mad Max: Fury Road. And so on. But the movie doesn't do anything with this. There's no jokes. No parody. Nothing. It's just references. They mean nothing. What a missed opportunity to have some self-referential fun a la Ralph Breaks The Internet.
The movie never stops beating you over the head with these references either. During the big game, they keep having constant shots of the crowd, featuring all sorts of IP characters, from Batman to King Kong to Pennywise. I'm sure playing a Where's Waldo game to spot others is fun, but that's not a movie.
The game is a bust too. It's horribly staged, and since there are no rules, and baskets distribute points at complete random it holds no suspense. So what am I watching?
Last movie had the Monstars, who were a fun adversary (and there were plenty of good gags involving the NBA stars they stole talent from). This movie uses real players too (including Diana Taurasi) but just turns them into CGI creatures that don't mean anything. Why even bother? They could be anything.
A bad plot and even bad characters wouldn't have necessarily killed the movie...if the jokes were good. But this movie only provides a few chuckles, and one legit laugh involving a cameo by Michael Jordan (no, the other one).
It's a movie that is almost completely lacking in that goofy, silly Looney Tunes spirit. The Tunes barely even get to do anything for most of the movie, which is too noisy and chaotic in every frame to let these classic characters have their moment. Oh, but they do find time for a Porky Pig rap sequence, which was one of the most torturous things I have ever witnessed in a movie. Even Poochie would cringe.
It's not even a fun movie to look at. Along with it just being constant frenetic animation and CGI, it just doesn't even look good. It's dark and unpleasant. I didn't even like who they got to voice Bugs. It didn't sound anything like classic Bugs.
James is a big disappointment too. He was legitimately funny as an actor in Trainwreck. But he is every bit as dull here as Jordan was, only he is tasked with doing a lot more actual acting. And while Jordan at least got to bounce off a Bill Murray, James gets no such assistance.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is a rather stupefying failure, a movie that had a seemingly easy bar to reach, but winds up being one of the worst blockbuster movies in years.
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