‘Space Jam’ sequel drops the ball
In the lackluster “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” there’s actually a moment where a character says, “That first half was really interminable.”
So terribly true! Although they were referring to an other-worldly basketball game between the Loon — as in Looney Tunes — Squad and the (evil, bad, very bad cheaters known as the) Goon Squad, interminable, numbing and no fun applies to all 115 minutes of this elaborate live-action and animated disaster.
LeBron James offers a plausible performance as an actor but as the star must bear some responsibility. Who else rates as the behind-the-scenes heavyweight who presumably could have had any kind of a “Space Jam” sequel he desired?
“New Legacy” begins with a too familiar set-up about a famous father neglecting his son’s issues — and never goes beyond that.
Will Dad recognize that Dom, his perfectly behaved teenage son, is truly a wizard at playing and making video games and isn’t, like Dad, interested in basketball? Will he be able to skip basketball camp over the summer?
Obviously LeBron James is not going to tread new dramatic heights as an abusive, much less neglectful dad. That’s a set-up minus anything having to do with suspense. The set-up is the proverbial house of cards, ready to collapse at any moment.
Yet this is the trope upon which hangs an extravaganza like “New Legacy” but it’s all that’s here.
With 14 writers credited, that’s pretty much all you need to know about the behind-the-scenes confusion that led to such stagnant and laborious storytelling.
What “New Legacy” really represents is one of the most blatant and massive examples of (unending) product placement for Warner Bros. with animated characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman from DC Comics, horror movies like “It” and the Looney gang: Bugs, Daffy, Tweety and “Sufferin’ Succotash” Yosemite Sam.
The film drafts Don Cheadle as an evil algorithm who resides deep in the Warner Bros. storage unit — his clever name is Al G. Rhythm. He kidnaps Dom (15-year-old Cedric Joe, whose naturalness and ease only emphasizes how fake and contrived everything around him is) and forces LeBron James to come as an animated entity and play a “winner take all” basketball game.
Is there ever any doubt on how this all will (mercifully) end?
The problem, among many, is it just doesn’t end soon enough.