By: Andrew Wing, Contributing Writer
Space Jam: A New Legacy is a 2021 live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Malcolm D. Lee. The film serves as a standalone sequel based on the 1996 blockbuster Space Jam, featuring Michael Jordan. It is also the first theatrically-released film to feature the famous Looney Tunes characters since the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The film stars NBA basketball player LeBron James as a fictionalized version of himself, along with Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, Sonequa Martin-Green, Khris Davis, Ceyair J. Wright, and Harper Leigh Alexander in live-action roles, while Jeff Bergman (voice of Bugs Bunny), Eric Bauza (voice of Daffy Duck), and Zendaya (voice of Lola Bunny) headline the Looney Tunes voice cast.
Set in a shared Warner Bros. virtual space multiverse, the film follows LeBron James teaming up with the Looney Tunes to win a basketball game against digitized champions (Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi, and Klay Thompson) to rescue his son from a rogue AI.
Plans for a Space Jam successor have been going on since the release of the original film, which Joe Pytka would have returned to direct. After Michael Jordan’s refusal to return in a sequel, several possible spin-offs were discussed focusing on other premier athletes in other sports including Jeff Gordon, Tony Hawk, and Tiger Woods. However, those plans never came to fruition and after several more years of languishing, a LeBron James-led sequel was officially announced in 2014. Space Jam: A New Legacy was filmed in 2019 and was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the U.S. on July 16th, 2021, both in theaters and on HBO Max for a month after its theatrical release.
THE GOOD
First off, it is just crazy to say that I am reviewing the sequel to Space Jam. For years, there have been so many rumors that it was never going to happen and then when LeBron James’ name was attached to the project, I thought it was a joke. It wasn’t until they actually started filming that I was like “WOW, this is actually happening!”. And even though LeBron’s performance was not the best, and I’ll get to that later in the review, it is still cool to see an athlete of his caliber that I’ve grown up watching on the big screen.
Without a doubt, the best thing about this movie is the animation. It is an extremely appealing movie to the eyes. The character designs for the Goon Squad team were off the charts with my personal favorite being Klay Thompson’s character, Wet-Fire. But for real, every part of the movie that takes place in what they call “The Serververse” is just full of amazing animated visuals. The great visuals throughout definitely made the film entertaining as a whole.
Another part I really liked about this film was the inclusion of the shared Warner Bros. properties in the virtual space multiverse. It was surprising to me reading other reviews on this film because the majority of them critiqued the inclusion of the intellectual properties and found them to be a “spoilage of product placement”. I just didn’t agree with that. I found it really interesting and exciting to see LeBron James travel through different worlds based on Warner Bros. properties such as DC Comics (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.), Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones. Also, if you do go ahead and watch this film, I’d be curious to see how many characters from famous Warner Bros. movies you can name at the big game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad, because there are a flurry of them on the sidelines, which I just thought was a great addition to the movie.
Lastly, the voice cast of the Looney Tunes was great as you’d expect with any movie in the Looney Tunes franchise, especially Zendaya as Lola Bunny.
THE BAD
Alright so just to get this out of the way, this movie was nowhere near as good as the original film. I hate to break that to you as someone who had high hopes going into this, but it just isn’t. The main reason for that is really just the acting. In the original you obviously had Michael Jordan, who I thought was as good an actor as an athlete can be (besides John Cena and The Rock of course) in their first film role, but you also had the legendary Bill Murray who was his funny self, and you had Wayne Knight (Newman from Seinfeld) who made you laugh in every scene he was in. In this one, you have LeBron James and a lot of actors who try to be funny, but they just aren’t.
Trust me, I know this is a movie meant for kids and I do think kids overall will enjoy it, but being a critic I have to therefore critique. To continue with the bad acting, all of LeBron’s lines in the film just felt so scripted and robotic in a sense, and for as much as I loved him in the 2015 rom-com Trainwreck directed by Judd Apatow, his performance in this was a large step down from that, and I’d prefer just seeing him stick to basketball from here on out. I also just didn’t like the performances of the actors portraying his actual family. I understand that it is a weird dynamic for Cedric Joe to be playing LeBron’s kid, but him and LeBron just had no chemistry throughout the entire movie, and it really showed up in the moments that were supposed to be sentimental and heart-warming towards the end.
THE VERDICT
While it is nowhere near as good as the original, Space Jam: A New Legacy is the standalone sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Space Jam that we have been waiting on for 25 years starring LeBron James, and for that reason and that reason alone, it is worth checking out. While it lacks the original film’s humor, it still provides stunning animated visuals, some good laughs from the Looney Tunes, and a unique twist with the inclusion of other famous Warner Bros. properties.
TED TAKES RATING - 5/10
Space Jam: A New Legacy is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Check out the latest trailer below.