Space Jam: A New Legacy – A Ham-fisted Mess

1996’s Space Jam was a cultural benchmark film of the 1990s and has played a part in the childhoods of countless audiences. With remakes and reboots now a thing, no film is safe regardless of whether or not it is needed. Why even bother rebooting Space Jam or what is even the point? It’s all about presenting it to the new generation or at least that’s the common mindset when it comes to rebooting classic properties but when it comes to Space Jam: A New Legacy, that distinction isn’t necessarily clear though the film features the most popular basketball player of this generation, Lebron James. A hamfisted mess of ideas that is more interested in being a revolving door of gratuitous shoehorned IP (and WB name drops) tied together by a dull and derivative story full of lazy and dated humor, the film is a painful and overlong experience that will more than likely only appeal to younger audiences because anyone else will be simply be left rolling their eyes. All of this essentially snowballs into an increasingly irritating experience that adds up to nothing or next to nothing.

At its core, Space Jam: A New Legacy is about the challenging relationship between James and his son Dom (Joe) whose challenges pretty much go the way one would expect but to distract from this derivative trope, the film perverts it into something barely recognizable. In spite of all the ridiculousness, there is still a basketball game to be played. One where James has to work with Bugs Bunny (Jeff Bergman) and the rest of the tunes had to take on an evil artificial intelligence with a severe dislike of him named Al G. Rhythm (Cheadle) and his Goon Squad after he kidnapped Dom, leaving the fate of Dom in the balance or at least that’s what he thought. Suffice it to say that this journey would not be an easy one while lessons were inevitably learned throughout by James and Dom as the former journeyed through the Serververse to reunite with the rest of the Tunes, prompting the aforementioned revolving door which was not nearly as fun or funny as it sounds. The film had them overshadowed by the settings where they were found.

That being said, while retrieving the Tunes is one thing, getting them to play as a team was another even though they have experience with basketball. In order to have any chance, James would have to change his ways and his mindset as he was clearly in much different territory than he was accustomed to, also a metaphor for his relationship with his son. When it came to the actual game, there was very little tension to be had as the outcome was never in question. Meanwhile, any tension will surely be lost by viewers thanks to overly silly flourishes sprinkled throughout that are sure to entertain younger audiences but only made it harder to follow as a whole for anyone who still happens to care. Meanwhile, audiences will be further disappointed to see the Tunes be sidelined at the expense of the story which did not seem interested in showcasing them to the new generation, relegating them as props for some other agenda which was just sad.