Movie Review: 'Space Jam A New Legacy'

Space Jam A New Legacy is a branding partnership between Lebron James and Warner Media. The goal of Space Jam A New Legacy is to further the branding of both Lebron James and the Warner Media intellectual property known to many as Looney Tunes. That this branding partnership comes in the form of narrative media, known colloquially as a ‘movie’ is really just a means of conveyance.

Space Jam A New Legacy finds the world’s best known athlete, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, sucked inside the Warner Media ‘serververse,' an animated realm overseen by a character named Al G Rhythm, played by Don Cheadle. LeBron was sucked in while chasing after his son, Dom (Cedric Joe) after the two had a falling out over LeBron’s desire to have his son attend basketball camp instead of Game Development Camp, a place for videogame programmers.

Al G Rhythm captures LeBron and Son so as to use LeBron’s reach as a superstar to promote his algorithm based on existing Warner I.P. In order to convince LeBron to come along and become his unwilling media partner, Al G Rhythm proposes a game of basketball. LeBron will assemble a team from Warner Media’s vast library of I.P while Al uses Dom’s videogame to capture the talent of NBA stars like LeBron’s teammate, Anthony Davis and WNBA star Sue Bird.

So, how does LeBron get stuck with the Looney Tunes? Do you really care? LeBron ends up in the Looney Tunes universe only to find Bugs all alone. The Looney Tunes have broken off into other I.P where they have taken on classic warner characters and only Bugs appears to have refused offers to re-enact Looney Tunes versions of The Matrix, Superman and other such Warner Media intellectual property. Bugs uses LeBron’s plight as an excuse to reunite with his Looney Tunes gang while also circumventing LeBron’s plan to recruit Neo, Superman and the Iron Giant for his team.

Space Jam A New Legacy tries and fails to give a more nuanced narrative to this version of Space Jam. The LeBron James of Space Jam A New Legacy is thus so deeply focused on basketball as a job that he forgets what it is like to have fun. He’s robbed his son Dom of his identity by refusing to acknowledge his desire to be a game developer rather than a ball player and on the court, LeBron is tyrannical regarding the nature of fundamental basketball.

You would then assume from that description that LeBron’s arc is to loosen up and become fun. You’d be kind of right. You see, it takes all of a couple of minutes before LeBron throws out his dedication to fundamentals and embraces fun. The real life LeBron James, and, I imagine, the people who profit from marketing LeBron James, can’t allow LeBron to look bad or really need to learn a lesson. Instead, the muddled narrative casts both father and son as hard headed and unwilling to listen to each other. Thus, LeBron and Dom’s arcs are mostly flat, slowly coasting toward the most rote and predictable of reunions and apologias.

That said, if you expected a solid narrative or genuine effort at moviemaking from Space Jam A New Legacy, you were fooling yourself. Space Jam A New Legacy is, just as the original Space Jam was, a marketing effort. This is about corporate synergy not movie making or storytelling. Director Malcolm D Lee might try to sneak some of his directorial talent in on the margins but, in the end, Space Jam A New Legacy is a nearly two hour commercial intended to sell the product of LeBron James and the Warner Media I.P known as Looney Tunes.

Space Jam A New Legacy has a whole new generation to sell products to. It has new plush toys, a new video game, new shoes and t-shirts to sell. It’s a two hour marketing campaign and if you have a problem with that, that’s on you. I may consider Space Jam A New Legacy nothing more than a two hour commercial but I also didn’t pay to watch it. I’m paid to remind you that it isn’t a movie, it’s a commercial. If you choose to subject yourself to a two hour commercial that’s on you. Just know that you knowingly choosing to engage in a two hour commercial as if it were a movie.