Top 10 Reasons Why Space Jam: A New Legacy Sucks
WARNING: Obviously, this list has spoilers for Space Jam: A New Legacy. This list is also mostly based off of personal opinion, so if you actually liked Space Jam: A New Legacy, your opinion will be respected. With that in mind, let's start the list!
You forget there's even a story to this movie because of all the product placement. The executives wanted to shoehorn in as much random crap as possible to distract from the lack of a plot.
This is probably what the HR people were thinking when greenlighting it: "HEY, look, it's HBO Max! There's Rick and Morty! You know that, right? Please... like this movie."
I get that the original Space Jam wasn't much better in this regard - heck, the original movie was based off a Super Bowl Nike commercial featuring Bugs Bunny.
However, it feels like this movie turned the advertising up to 11. You can't go five seconds without seeing advertisements for Warner Bros, HBO Max, Nike, the NBA, or even E3! It's just as bad, or perhaps even worse, than The Emoji Movie.
The most obvious scene for this entry would be the Porky Pig rapping scene, which was already stale and cliché by the time the original Space Jam came out.
However, there are many scenes to pick from, such as Granny talking about Twitter, Speedy Gonzales parodying that one Matrix scene (you know the one), the WB executive saying "you're canceled," or LeBron James dabbing. None of these scenes advance the plot in any way, shape, or form. Instead, they make the movie a cringy, pandering slog.
Space Jam 2 attempts to evoke emotions, particularly with the storyline involving LeBron and his son, as well as the near-death experience of Bugs Bunny towards the end.
However, none of these attempts at emotional depth are successful because, let's face it, it's a movie about the Looney Tunes playing basketball. Instead of enhancing the movie, these emotional moments make it feel unnecessarily cheesy. Furthermore, the emotional scenes are highly cliché, and their outcomes are predictable right from the start.
If you have a keen eye, you'll notice that several models in the background are stolen from other WB movies. The most obvious stolen model is the Iron Giant, taken from Ready Player One. There are also a few Hanna-Barbera characters with models stolen from Scoob.
Additionally, there's a cameo by the Nerdlucks from the first movie in two scenes, but both of their cameos reuse animation from the first movie. The animation isn't even used correctly - they cheer for the villains and against the Looney Tunes, despite reforming and becoming friendly to the Looney Tunes by the end of the first movie.
After the premiere of Space Jam 2, an animator named Dave Alvarez alleged that Warner Bros. did not credit him in the movie, despite his hard work (more specifically, on stuff that was actually in the final product).
Imagine dedicating a year to a product only for your name to be excluded from said product.
I get that Michael Jordan wasn't a very good actor either, due to his very stiff and stoic performance.
However, LeBron is even worse, as they constantly try to force him to emote, which just doesn't work. A perfect example is the scene where he's falling down a cliff in a truck and screaming. However, the screaming is so quiet that it doesn't feel genuine in the slightest. At least you could interpret Michael Jordan as sort of an everyman. LeBron's performance just doesn't work at all.
If I have to give the movie credit in one department, I will say I appreciate how it doesn't constantly jump back and forth between several plotlines and scenes like the first one did.
That being said, the pacing is still horrible. It takes an hour for them to get to the basketball game and another hour for the game to end. When they're introducing the Looney Tunes, in the span of only a minute, they introduce Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Taz, while promoting Austin Powers, Casablanca, and Rick and Morty.
The only reason why this movie was made was to nostalgia bait millennials into seeing it and making a ton of cash.
I remember seeing Space Jam back around 2015 and was almost suckered into watching the movie in theaters because of my nostalgia for Space Jam 1. This shows that it's no better than any of the live-action Disney remakes that just rely on nostalgia for money.
Seriously, most of the scenes involving LeBron James just have the characters go on and on about how he's the "king" and the "best player of all time." Heck, even the villain refers to LeBron only as "King James"! Greedy much?
Another flaw shared with the original movie, except in a different way. During the basketball game, all of the Looney Tunes become 3D models. While some of them look okay, plenty of them look ugly. Most notably is Lola Bunny, who looks hideous. Other characters also look wrong, like Porky and Elmer Fudd.
The Newcomers
Well, it also had other adult-rated characters like Pennywise and Rick and Morty. Most kids wouldn't know who the Droogs are anyways. It doesn't really matter in my opinion, although I also hated this movie.
This is my only complaint with this movie.
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies was already a big scam to begin with! They tricked us into thinking the OG Teen Titans would get us a sixth season, only to give us more Teen Titans Go! movies, including a crossover with the Teen Titans that made us hate the original Teen Titans.
Now, they gave us a crossover with Space Jam where they rip-off MST3K!
Even I thought this was a dumb idea.
Gee, a movie about a hero traveling to several planets themed to certain media franchises inside a server that contains countless pop culture references. Now where have I heard that before?
