Starring:
LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe
Directed By:
Malcolm D. Lee
Written By:
Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler
In ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’, LeBron James is sucked into the Warner Brothers servers by Don Cheadle as Al G Rhythm, who’s kidnapped LeBron’s son. LeBron’s son is a game programmer, and has built an entirely new type of basketball game for LeBron to have to play in to get his son back, and out of the “Server-verse”. LeBron is whisked over to the Looney Tunes, where we get the help of Bugs and the gang, but will they be enough to stop the entire “Server-Verse” from being deleted for good?
When it comes to my childhood, Space Jam was a big part of it. The awe of Michael Jordan, the jokes from the Looney Tunes, alongside Bill Murray playing a game of basketball against the Danny DeVito led “Monstars”. It all worked then and in a weirdly nostalgic way still does, aside from on glaringly dated song.
When it was announced there would be a sequel to Space Jam, and it would be centered around LeBron James and produced by Ryan Coogler, I was hesitantly excited for what we were going to see. Then nothing… no news came out, for quite awhile. 2020 hit, and suddenly we have a trailer, but is it Space Jam or Ready Player 2? With the amount of product placement in Space Jam: A New Legacy, I can’t say to check out this movie, but there are some good moments.
The strange thing with ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ is that It’s trying to oversell their IP to both kids and adults. In one scene we are whizzing past different Warner Brothers properties such as the DC Universe, but then move to Game of Thrones world, and then the Matrix, then Casablanca, Finally landing in Loonyville. Who was that scene for, kids or adults, or nobody?
The performances by LeBron and his family are all surprisingly decent. I think LeBron has a lot more fun poking fun at himself and is less wooden than Michael Jordan was in Space Jam. don Cheadle stole the show for me with his performance. Zendaya was great, so shut up about the Lola Bunnies uniform, it’s the same as the rest of the team so get over it weird horny people of the internet.
There are some funny references that work and a great joke near the end, but otherwise ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ just can’t get past it’s own advertising to deliver on a good story. LeBron does fine, but otherwise this is kind of a letdown for me. but doesn’t mean it won’t hit right for kids.
