Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) – Movie Review

After his son is abducted by an artificial intelligence, LeBron James finds himself downloaded into the Serververse. There he must work with Bugs Bunny to assemble an all-star team to win his biggest basketball game yet and save his son from being trapped there forever.

Space Jam: A New Legacy did exactly what it set out to do – be a silly family-friendly movie that continued within the same vein as the original Space Jam (1996). I almost considered skipping this movie, but having grown up watching the original, I knew I had to check it out. Plus, it didn’t hurt that it was included for free with HBO Max.

The movie followed a similar story to the original, except that instead of the Looney Tunes coming to our world, LeBron James and his son were sent to Warner Bros. Serververse. With the Serververse, this movie actually stood out more than the original because this allowed them to bring in not only our favorite Looney Tunes, but numerous other beloved Warner Bros. characters such as King Kong, The Iron Giant, Scooby Doo and Mystery Inc., Superman (from the Animated Series) and many more. In fact, there were so many other characters and references, this movie reminded me a lot of Ready Player One, where you’d be hard pressed to spot them all in one viewing.

Even with plenty of references to the original movie, I was a little disappointed to see no where in the film did they include the iconic Space Jam theme song. That was just a missed opportunity, plain and simple.

I thought LeBron did a decent job. He most likely won’t be receiving an Oscar for this role, but I thought he performed his role well for a professional athlete fairly new to the acting scene. Although, some of his screams on Tune World were about as enthusiastic as a DMV worker on a Monday morning.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie for what it was and would rate it 3/5 stars. Of course it was silly (or “Looney”), but if you go into it with your expectations set accordingly, you’ll come out entertained and with a good message about the relationship between father and son. 

Space Jam: A New Legacy is now available in theaters or to stream on HBO Max.