Space Jam: A New Legacy review: Sequel is a hectic but rather charmless affair
The sequel relies far too much on references to existing IP – and at times feels like it was made by an algorithm.
I’ll confess straight away that I was a little cynical before even taking my seat for Space Jam: A New Legacy, the brand new sequel to the 1996 live-action/animation hybrid. I was fond of the original film without ever being particularly enamoured by it, but a recent rewatch proved it to be fairly enjoyable despite its many flaws – with the wackiness of its premise, the comic chops of supporting stars Wayne Knight and Bill Murray, and its very specific brand of ‘90s charm ensuring it remains a fun, zany experience 25 years later.
It’s not, however, a film that I felt was particularly crying out for a sequel – and unfortunately the new movie does little to suggest its motive was anything other than an excuse to fit as many Warner Bros. properties as possible into one film. (If you ever wanted to see a film that includes characters from both The Flintstones and A Clockwork Orange, this is one for you!) The film is a very hectic, occasionally amusing but mostly exhausting experience that irritates more than it charms.
It’s back in the '90s that the story begins, as we see a young LeBron James told off by his basketball coach for being distracted by his Gameboy – which is soon thrown in the rubbish. Fast forward 20 years or so and it's LeBron's turn to take on the role of strict coach – encouraging his son Dom to practice despite the fact he's far more interested in making it as a games designer than a basketball player.
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Anyway, through a couple of necessary contrivances, LeBron and Dom end up sucked into a virtual world ruled by a tyrannical sentient algorithm, suitably called Al.G Rhythm (Don Cheadle, by far the film’s standout performer) who captures Dom and tells LeBron he will only return him if he can defeat him in a basketball match. Shortly afterwards, LeBron lands in Tuneworld, where he is transformed into a Tune himself and soon teams up with Bugs Bunny.
A ‘let’s get the band back together’ type sequence follows, in which Bugs and the cartoon version of LeBron travel through the various worlds of the “Warner 3000 Server-Verse” to assemble their team, with just about every film or franchise in Warner Bros. history clumsily referenced in the process. It’s a section that’s clearly supposed to evoke nostalgia, but I found it to be mostly charmless – offering fan service and little else. Perhaps the sequence might work better for kids, but to be terribly honest I can’t imagine too many younger viewers being particularly bothered by references to The Matrix or Mad Max, never mind Casablanca. This section and others – not to mention the whole “virtual game world” concept itself – ensures that this sequel has far more in common with Steven Spielberg’s 2018 blockbuster Ready Player One than it does with the original Space Jam.
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The fact that LeBron himself is in cartoon form for the whole of this segment also removes some of the fun. One of the things that made the first film work is the bizarre sight of seeing the real Michael Jordan interact with the Tunes, and this is completely lost in this section of the film. Not to worry, though, because before the climactic basketball match Al.G Rhythm conspires to turn LeBron back into his live-action self – at the same time transforming the Tunes into hideous 3D CGI versions of themselves. This is a key plot point, and the Tunes clearly aren’t happy to be turned into 3D, but that doesn’t cloud over the fact that it all just looks pretty ugly. And this is part of the film’s core problem – on the one hand it seems to be skewering the idea that a film could be made by an algorithm, but on the other hand, a film made by an algorithm is exactly what it feels like and the rather forced delivery of its cliched father/son message does little to counteract this.
The film isn’t entirely without saving graces: there are some decent meta-references that might raise a smile, such as LeBron muttering that the path from athlete to actor “never goes well,” and an excellent Michael Jordan joke that almost makes up for the lack of laugh-out-loud moments elsewhere. Perhaps the part of the film I enjoyed the most was a good-old-fashioned slapstick Looney Tunes sequence featuring Bugs Bunny and cartoon LeBron shortly after he first arrives in TuneWorld – and indeed it's when the Tunes are given a chance to just be themselves that the film is at its best.
Too often though, it simply falls back on its over-reliance on existing IP and lazy gags involving the Tunes muttering phrases you wouldn’t expect – such as an excruciating moment in which Porky “The Notorious P.I.G” Pig delivers a rap. The climactic basketball match – attended by yet more iconic characters from Warner Bros. past – has its moments but quickly becomes rather tiresome.
The first Space Jam was a rather slight film, offering an alternative explanation of what might have happened during Michael Jordan’s absence from the NBA, and it worked precisely because it was so silly. In trying to do something more, what with its fixation on algorithms, Space Jam: A New Legacy only succeeds in becoming forgettable and frankly more than a little annoying.
Space Jam 2: A New Legacy will be released in cinemas on Friday, 16th July, 2021. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Movies hub for the latest news and features.
