Watch of Shame: Space Jam - A New Legacy
There’s something I love so much about a truly bad movie. That phrase “so bad it’s good” was all but created for the type of film that brings me so much joy. A cult classic, a baffling misstep of a big budget movie or a quiet indie that never got both feet off the ground. It doesn’t matter; I’ll watch them all. I can’t remember if my enjoyment of these cinematic “classes” has always been there or if it was really brought to life because of the How Did This Get Made podcast. I love a movie that makes me ask that exact question, so I decided to pursue my own brand of crappy movies.
I’m seeking out movies that have at least one of the following: a relatively high popularity, some bigger name actors or part of a bigger franchise where it is clearly the weakest link. And for my first choice, I had no other options than something that had all three: Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Full disclosure, I love the original Space Jam. I love every corny, totally 90s dated moment that the Looney Tunes will give me. I know Michael Jordan may not have been the most cuddly of characters, but it holds such a strong place in my heart. I think of watching it with my best friend, singing along to “I Believe I Can Fly” (this blog in no way supports R. Kelly - just saying) and quoting the dumbest lines the Mon-stars said. This, however, was no OG Space Jam.
I’ll go ahead and acknowledge that I do understand why people could - and do - enjoy this movie. It’s bright, it’s silly and it’s a two hour parade of every property Warner Bros has access to. If you have a family, especially younger kids, this can be a wonderful way to show them the characters that brought you joy as a child, whether in the first film or in their own animated shows. I’m not coming to this film all high and mighty and mad that it isn’t an Oscar contender. I have zero judgments on anyone who enjoys this movie. However, the second I think about it more as a movie reviewer and less as a 90s kid, I have quite a few struggles with it.
This movie is an ego trip. Plain and simple. While the first movie was definitely highlighting the insane talent that is/was Michael Jordan, A New Legacy is even more than that. The opening scene tries to add some weird moral weight to LeBron James’ pursuit of basketball, and it leads into a credit sequence that is just paired with sports commentators talking about how amazing James is. The obvious note here is that clearly, James is a phenomenal basketball player. No one is denying that. But it feels like this movie exists solely for him to point to and say, “No, see, look, I was amazing,” in a few decades. They call him King James more times than the even come near saying the word LeBron. It’s a showcase, nothing more.
However, it isn’t just James that got in on the showcase mode. Warner Bros just threw every single thing at the wall and didn’t care if it stuck. How else do you get Granny (a la Tweety Bird cartoons) in the Matrix? Or a random (horrifying) moment where the clown from It in the crowd of the basketball game? While some of it was entertaining and did occasionally make me laugh, I got fatigue from it pretty quickly. And the length of it was a bit insane. Almost every movie is two hours or more now, and more often than not, it did not need to be. This is definitely one of those times.
I think my favorite aspect of this movie was Don Cheadle. I have no idea what was promised to get him in this movie, but he was cracking me up. Between weird Tony Stark-like hand motions on a giant CGI computer screen and cliche villain lines, it was clear he wasn’t in the MCU anymore. The overarching plot line of him being an algorithm (literally named Al G. Rhythm) who is pissed LeBron doesn’t want to be digitally inserted into all his movies so he kidnaps his son (who is a brilliant video game nerd and isn’t the biggest basketball fan, which is devastating to his father) into a digital world….and I guess just plans to suck up everyone into the internet?
Honestly, the premise got lost somewhere along the line and the plot being more than just “win basketball game; save the world” felt incredibly unnecessary. I don’t know many people who were excited about this movie, and after watching it, I don’t fully understand why it was made in the first place. Maybe it’s just to sell a bunch of new toys, or maybe it’ll have a fantastic effect that causes kids to check out classic cartoons. But as someone who already had a love of those characters, I was just disappointed to see them used in this way.