Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

I saw the original Space Jam exactly once. I wouldn’t say I loved or hated it. It was just there. It’s such a strange oddity of a movie. Michael Jordan teams up with Bugs Bunny (who got second billing in the opening credits) to play a game of basketball against an evil alien looking to make slaves out of Bugs and his Looney Tunes pals. Jordan wasn’t much of an actor, even playing himself, and much of the movie as I recall was there to say that he was essentially some kind of god on the basketball court, with the only sort of character arc Jordan went through was for him to decide to go back to the NBA after his forgettable year as a minor league baseball player. Something like that probably couldn’t possibly happen again.

And yet, here we are with Space Jam: A New Legacy with LeBron James taking the Jordan role as the real world NBA great playing opposite Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes pals.

To the movie’s credit, there seems to be some sense that someone somewhere is actually trying to make a movie. LeBron James, playing himself, is a bit hard on his younger son Dom (Cedric Joe). Dom has a real talent for designing computer games, including a really stylized basketball game, but he’s not as interested in basketball as his father wants him to be. In an attempt to bond with the boy, LeBron takes him to Warner Brothers for a pitch created by the company’s AI Al G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle). However, LeBron isn’t interested in being put into movies, and Al G isn’t happy to be rejected, so he does what any reasonable algorithm would do and sucks both LeBron and Don into the “serververse” where all Warner Brother intellectual property apparently resides. Al G separates the two Jameses but will let them go free if LeBron can assemble a team to beat his. LeBron isn’t too happy about it, so Al G dumps him where the rejects are. That’s Looney Tune world with its single inhabitant, Bugs Bunny.

In a nice turn, LeBron turns into a cartoon character himself during many of these early scenes. Bugs is willing to help since Al G convinced the other Tunes to move to different worlds for some reason, a deal Bugs alone rejected. With LeBron in tow, the pair set off to recruit a team. However, it isn’t quite the team LeBron had a in mind as Bugs just reassembles the Tune Squad from the original movie with the likes of Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweetie, Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, the Roadrunner, Speedy Gonzalez, Foghorn Leghorn, Gossamer the furry red monster, the Tasmanian Devil, Granny, and Lola Bunny (here recast as Zendaya). Apparently, the Tunes, and only the Tunes, remember the first movie.

This isn’t what LeBron had in mind, but it’s the team he has, and he’ll need it as Al G convinced Dom to play the basketball game he was working on, a game LeBron knows little about but one where “style” gets more points, plus a team of monsters called the Goon Squad. Can LeBron and the Tunes win this game?

OK, credit where it’s due: this is at least trying to be a better movie. LeBron is a better actor than Michael Jordan–not a huge accomplishment–and he actually has a character arc of his own where he needs to bond with his son as much as he needs to win the game. The game itself actually has some stakes, and I am sure the sharp-eyed could have a field day just picking out the various characters from the crowd scenes. As for the Tunes, they seem to be behaving mostly as themselves, and Lola actually has something of a personality beyond the tough sexy bunny girl. There are many moments where I can see where the movie is going with its humor, and as a fan of the Looney Tunes, I should appreciate that.

And yet…this movie does not work. It’s more than just LeBron is not a good actor or even that, as talented as Don Cheadle is, he seems to be phoning this one in. There’s just so much going on during the game portion that it defeats the purpose of whatever is happening. It’s hard to focus on things when there’s all kinds of crazy stuff happening all the time. All the intellectual property on display comes across as just a sales gimmick, a Michael Jordan joke’s punchline seems telegraphed from a mile away, and as much as I wanted to like the movie, I just couldn’t. I did somewhat like the recruiting montage of Bugs getting his pals who were spliced into other movies, but that was about it in certain respects. I’m sure kids will be fine with this one, but please, never give Porky Pig a rap solo ever again. Maybe every generation these days needs to have its own Space Jam. Maybe someday there will be one I can honestly say I liked.

Grade: C-