Joshua Jacobs

My heart jumped a little when I saw the announcement for a new Space Jam 2, with anticipation building over time. It’s fair to say that I’m not old enough for heart rhythm disruptions, but when Michael Jordan was saving the planet from the evil Monstars with the Looney Toones team in 1996, I already was around. Good times. Now it’s not about MJ anymore but the future of movie basketball, lead by LeBron James. Can “SJ2” live up to the hype and pressure exerted by its predecessor? Let’s walk you through it.

Plot

We are walking through the quite civil life of mr. LeBron James, who is struggling to keep a connection with his son. Dom James (Cedric Joe) has quite the different interests from his famous dad. It causes Junior to trip over himself, straight into his beloved digital world. Mister Moviestar himself then needs to gather a team to shoot hoops and hopefully save his child from a rogue, quite spiteful AI.

There is a positive message to be taken away, and I am happy to see that the executive people didn’t decide to throw weird and difficult angles into the mix to make a drama out of it. It’s a kids movie, and we should be happy about that. Game on!

Chemistry through a hoop

S/O to Cedric Joe. The kid’s got talent, and the face! LeBron James and him seem to have a reasonably believable connection, and they need that to carry the movie. They actually behave a fair bit like each other: their somewhat indifferent style makes them roll through SJ2 with ease. Also they get quite fired up when they get irritated.

I’ll always like Don Cheadle but he seems a little out of place here. That’s more down to the editors and what apparently was asked during shooting by director Malcolm D. Lee. Evil Cheadle can turn that steely AI’y glaze on his face anytime he desires. It is just the general hyperactive atmosphere which sets the scene up quite poorly for him.

Cringy Tunes

Let’s say I am definitely happy to give SJ2 a fair chance. Time moves on and so does the writer of this review. Nevertheless, this movie leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth. If you are properly dedicated to start ‘A New Legacy’, be sure to cut ties with the past entirely and don’t hang around the graveyard for inspiration. To give you an example: at one point Porky Pig goes out of his way to destroy the other team with rap. Sounds familiar?

This example is indicative for the whole movie. It quite often just sounds a little bit too edgy: SJ2 contains many jokes but actually little quickwitted humour for all ages. At times the movie actually tries to make children actively dumber, I believe. It’s just too easy to jump on the meme bandwagon. Where the movie tries to keep its core audience (how do you do, fellow kids?) engaged, the director and writers could have tried to not pitch everybody against each other. For the movie it sounds fun but why LeBron ever agreed to stumble around like he’s technologically 200 percent illiterate, I will never know. Obviously Dom is more familiar with tech but his dad shouldn’t be portrayed like an absolute fool.

The same goes for a certain family member, who is basically a 2021 version of Paulie Pennino, and the list goes on. The announcers are a prime example of the makers insulting all the children in the audience. They are really not reporting but just repeating everything that is happening around them, but with words. It really takes a toll on your attention span and your sigh muscles.

Top Notch World

One thing the makers should be awarded for, is their ability to drag me through their screen. They went out of their way to jump between universes. I must admit, I am something of a graphics man myself but this really was a fun ride. The same goes for the actors I believe, they seem perfectly at ease talking to their digital counterparts and they must have had a ton of fun on the set. This is one of the strongsuits of the movie, which partially makes up for the poor direction.

Worth my time?

It’s safe to say that Space Jam: A New Legacy is a return of the memestick, which claims it has nothing to do with its predecessor but is a refreshed version of it. Hashed together with some* classic meme culture, it smells like a quite easy cashgrab with only slightly more effort than the bare minimum. It has its fun moments with the animation, that’s true. That and the dedication of the actors simply cannot make up for the lack of energy that went into really claiming its own space in the basketball movie universe.

Child Rating: 7/10

Adult Rating: 5.5/10

* : Like a lot, a real lot.