A TikTok? A Commercial? Space Jam: A New Legacy Review

The new film represents a perfect microcosm into the current state of Hollywood outputs, business-facing first, creativity second. (via Warner Bros)

Space Jam: A New Legacy represents a large portion of movies made by big studios these days. They lack creativity, a competent script and act more as a commercial to promote their other properties rather than an actual standalone movie.

The original Space Jam was a brilliant idea. Take the best basketball player on the planet and have him play basketball with Looney Tunes characters in a fun movie for kids that adults would be able to appreciate with some creative writing and celebrity cameos that could be appreciated. 

While the writing in the original movie left some more to be desired, one must take into account the ridiculousness of the premise coupled with the fact that it was geared towards a younger audience. Still, the original had lasting moments paired with a story that was relatively forgettable, yet cohesive with its characters and plot overall. 

None of this can be said about the current iteration of the IP, with only the art styles and animation seem to be a bright spot for this attempt to take your money. 

The movie is filled with unnecessary references, useless characters and advertising that isn’t even close to subliminal. Most of the movie feels like a commercial for one of the many corporate sponsors, be it Nike, Gatorade or even Bounty at one point. 

The loveable characters taken and added to this commercial movie just adds to the disappointment. (via Warner Bros)

The clear indifference of not attempting to weave in these sponsors with clever writing leads me to think one thing, this wasn’t an attempt to reach people or their children. This was a blatant cash-grab mixed with an attempt to show off their many other IPs in the Warner Brothers catalog. It’s not even fair to blame the writers, as it certainly couldn’t have been their decision to include all of these not-so-sly advertisements.

To see characters such as the Iron Giant, Harry Potter, Rick and Morty, King Kong and more just thrown into the movie as literal seat-fillers is sickening in terms of the lack of imagination. Throughout the film, WB pulls out all of the stops to make sure you and your children are seeing these IPs and to make sure you know they exist in the category. 

The amount of time taken to show off these characters could have easily been added to include more adequate writing or more basketball -- you know the stuff that could’ve made this movie better. 

The corporate greed seen in this movie shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with WB as they pulled similar shenanigans with the 2018 film Ready Player One. This movie feels like a papered-over version of that movie itself, but with the paper being washed-up Space Jam. 

Beyond the corporate greed being shown left, right and center in this soft reboot of the 90’s classic though, there are fun parts buried inside this soulless cash-grab. 

Watching LeBron James go toe-to-toe with interesting villains created from real NBA players' attributes was a creative spin on the original “talent stealing” from the original. 

The final third of this picture is fun and will certainly fool people, and specifically children, into thinking that this movie was a quality one. Getting to the final third was a slog as when there is no basketball being played, the writing is clearly exposed for being formulaic and derivative. It’s maddening to see a half-decent idea squandered in the face of corporate greed, but that is the story with modern-day Hollywood.

Bloated references and unnecessary characters for reasons unknown weigh the movie down and add a distracting nature to the whole thing. (via Warner Bros)

LeBron shows decent acting chops but it would’ve been a fun idea to have more scenes in which he was able to show these off. While it is apparent he is not a professional actor, improvements can be seen in his acting acumen from when he was in the 2015 film Trainwreck.

It’s understandable that some of the brunt of criticism should be taken with a grain of salt due to the kid-facing nature of the movie, it is still unacceptable that WB makes the film more about their properties than the plot or characters themselves.

The movie feels like a long string of TikToks meant to hold a child’s attention similar to how one may distract their dog with a tennis ball. Whatever happened to making a half-decent children’s movie I ask of WB? 

It is very clear that WB has no intention of reaching the fans or their children, only their wallets and bank accounts.

As a close friend states during one certain scene showing many of WB’s properties, “This feels like Hot Topic the movie” and I must agree with her.

Final Rating: 3/10