The eagerly anticipated reboot, Space Jam: A New Legacy, makes the disappointing Ready Player One feel like a grounded masterpiece, and that's really saying something. Not unlike that movie, it's basically a 2-hour advertisement for Warner Brother's intellectual property, but it's even less subtle and more cynical than I could have possibly imagined for a money grab like this.
Not only does the film routinely name drop the name of its iconic studio, but it literally repurposes footage from old films to serve its relatively incomprehensible 'narrative.' In theory this could have been handled in a fun or thoughtful way but instead it's a never-ending stream of lame punchlines and references (M.C. Hammer, in 2021, really!?) that will be lost on certainly most young viewers.
The main attraction here should be LeBron James, the rare superstar athlete who is also likable, engaging and can be effective on camera -- but he is pretty much lost in this insanely overstuffed and seizure inducing movie. He's playing himself again, just like he did more successfully in the comedy Trainwreck, but unlike in that movie he's a humorless scold here -- when he's allowed to have a personality at all -- and he's saddled with a tired subplot as a dad whose too domineering when it comes to his son.
When he's not in animated form, he's left to deliver stilted dialogue abut fundamentals and 'putting in work' -- I was stunned that he didn't have a single line that made me smile or even chuckle. Is he a better, more natural actor than Michael Jordan, sure, but he's terribly served by this movie.
Meanwhile, a number of other celebs -- including slumming Oscar nominee Steven Yeun -- pop up for thankless roles that I suppose they accepted as a favor for LeBron? Worst of all is the great Don Cheadle, delivering perhaps his worst performance as the mustache twirling villain -- unbelievably named Al G. Rhythm. Some of the broadness of the acting here is arguably forgivable in a kids movie but compared to Pixar films or a movie like Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse that actually have a narrative, this is an abomination. Even it's attempts to be meta and in on the joke (LeBron tries to pre-empt criticism of his performance with a line about athletes acting 'never goes well') fall terribly flat.
It's impossible to even appreciate the animation since everything on screen is an assault on your senses. There's a video game element that leads all sort of digital chaos on the screen and worst of all -- the 'crowd' attending the interminable big game finale -- is comprised entirely of overacting extras playing characters from the Warner Brothers catalogue -- even ones as incongruous as the killer clown from It and white walkers from Game of Thrones.
Who is this even for!?
I don't have a ton of special reference for the original. I was already aged out of its core audience when it came out in 1996, but this new iteration makes that one seem quaint and innocent by comparison. Both were product placement machines. Both cheapened the appeal of the great Warner Brothers cartoon characters (they're just annoying here, not even a little funny). But this one feels more exasperating and exhausting. Literally, at one point I paused it to see how much more was left and was appalled to realize i still had 35 MINUTES to go.
And there was still an embarrassing 'rap battle' sequence featuring Porky Pig still to go.
Luckily, I watched this at home on HBO Max and if you're temped to see it -- either because you love LeBron, or you have nostalgia for the original or like me just wanted to see if it was a bad as everyone is saying it is (it is) -- you should definitely at least skip seeing it in a theater. I hate to say this because I am a big LeBron fan -- but I want this movie to fail so they never make another one like it.
No comments:
Post a Comment