First Take: Space Jam: A New Legacy - is *that* all, folks?

SYNOPSIS: A rogue artificial intelligence kidnaps the son of famed basketball player LeBron James, who then has to work with Bugs Bunny to win a basketball game.

Well then. The summer’s first major kids film, with audiences back at full capacity. Expectations were understandably high for the sequel which has long been joked about as the movie which would never happen, given the reluctance of Michael Jordan to commit to it, the development hell it has been in since 1996, and the way Hollywood has changed since then. 25 years on… this does not feel like a worthy sequel to Space Jam in any stretch.

Malcolm D. Lee - a man who replaced the original director Terence Nance due to creative differences - is in charge, and the pacing is just an absolute mess. For a 1 hour 55 minute film, there is just simply too much to take in, especially with a plot that feels so far fetched that it causes more damage to muscles than actually playing basketball- that script from Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler (yes, executive producer Ryan Coogler’s brother), Nance, Jesse Gordon and Celeste Ballard relies far too much on using the wide range of IP that Warner have in their arsenal, creating a glorified 2 hour advert for the studio. If anything, this isn’t a new legacy, this is an initial public offering if ever you saw one. On cinematography duties is Salvatore Totino (who replaced the legend that is Bradford Young), and the score from Kris Bowers (a last minute replacement for Mr Zimmer), and they just about do the job- but the amount of replacements that have been made should give you an idea of how messy this film is.

As for the cast, LeBron James is a decent lead, and while he doesn’t feel as natural on-screen as Michael Jordan did, for this generation he is an inspired choice for something like Space Jam. Supporting him is Cedric Joe, who is arguably the real standout of what is arguably a poor film, Don Cheadle, Khris Davis, and so many cameos from stars of Warner’s range of franchises both on and off-screen - Lil Rel Howery pops up, there’s archive footage of Mike Myers from the Austin Powers films, a moment Rick and Morty fans will love, and even Sarah Silverman appears briefly during the whole setup of the backstory. Tonally, this film is all over the place, and it suffers big time as a result - while it has done incredibly well, did this film even need to be made in the first place?

THE VERDICT

Space Jam 2 simply fails to hit the heights set by that beloved original movie - with an overreliance on using known franchises just for the sake of using new franchise, this film simply drags on too much, which is not what you want for a film targeted at children.

RATING: 0.5/5