The Mosley Review: Space Jam: A New Legacy

I believe there's a saying that comes to mind when I look upon this sequel. If it ain't broke, then don't try and fix it. In this day and age, I thought Hollywood was done with making sequels to films over 20 years old and trying to create a relevant story to justify its existence. Well apparently this movie was another example of why you just don't do it. To be honest, I liked the original Space Jam as a child and I thought it was fun, kind of corny but a good family film. The film acted as sort of biopic for the first portion and then became the looney adventure we all know and love. Now comes this film where it was copy and paste in the first half and then just diverted into the Looney Tunes level of the Oasis from Ready Player One, but not in a good way. Don't get wrong, I had fun with Bugs and the Tune Squad, but that’s where it ended. In front of them you have a terrible family drama that lost its way on the road to the Saturday Hallmark Channel movie premiere night. As much as it tries to be inspirational, its beats down that notion of following your dreams and makes the lead character the worst part of the film.

LeBron James plays a dramatized version of himself and I he said a line in the film I whole heartedly agree with. I believe his words were, "Athletes acting, that never goes well." Well he was right. This was by far one of the worst performances I've seen in a long time. There was no chemistry with his family, he was tone deaf and beyond unbearable when it came to the scenes with his sons. He was a terrible father figure and I see why one of them truly rebelled against him. Cedric Joe was good as his son Dominic "Dom" James and I loved his ambition to become something other than a basketball player. You can see the brilliance behind his coding skills and you actually root for him to go against his father. The chemistry between them was none existent though and that wasn't Cedric's fault. Sonequa Martin-Green is always a pleasure to watch perform and she was great in the film. Don Cheadle was outstanding and fun as the villainous A.I, Al-G Rhythm. He nailed that sweet spot between cartoony and serious. I really liked his character even though it was an insane jab to the real news story about Warner Brothers using an algorithm to manage production decisions. True story people, Google it. The Looney Tunes are all back and I loved them the most. They are as great as you remember them and have the best references and jokes that'll have you laughing for days. Zendaya did a great job as Lola Bunny and she continues to be one of the strongest female characters of the Tunes. With a film with tons of callbacks, they missed the chance for someone to call her Doll.

The score by Kris Bowers was good and really came to life during the last half of the film. The visual effects and animation were great, but there were times where Bugs looked a little scary. It really showed that not everything you can get away with in digital versus hand drawn animation. Aside from the terrible acting, the story of the film really lost its footing as the film dragged on. There was a clear moment when the film should've wrapped up and it just kept going. Remember in Ready Player One where most of us got caught up in the many references to other franchises, well this film keeps throwing every possible endorsement or brand in your face and it was very distracting. I believe that was intentional to jingle some keys in your face so you don't see the forgettable film that's playing out behind you. This film wasn't as horrible as it could've been, but it is definitely forgettable. It is currently in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!