VGFlicks: Space Jam: A New Legacy (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Countdown to the Game

Several plot threads happen concurrently at this point. Let’s see how they evolve on the way to the match.

Would make sense that Lola would be the second-in-
command, she is the second best player in the team!

Who in the making of this film decided that Granny
needed to be the biggest badass in the cast??

Back on the ship with a full cast, LeBron tries to teach basic basketball to the Tunes. Lola, as a second-in-command due to her knowledge, demonstrates basic shots. Bugs tries to explain to LeBron that Tunes tend to do things differently and disregard rules, but the superstar doesn’t listen.

Practice devolves into toony shenanigans, with Yosemite Sam bringing his guns to a basket fight, Tweety distracting Sylvester with yarn, and the Road Runner swapping balls with bombs. Special mention to Granny doing daredevil tricks. Since when is the elderly lady the most badass of all the Tunes? It’s chaos! Pandemonium! And it leaves LeBron aghast at all the nonsense.

They aren't exactly here for tourism.

In the real world, LeBron’s friend Malik is desperately trying to get Warner Bros. Studios’ security to help him look for the star player and his son, who both disappeared right after the meeting, but the guard he talks to is appalled that LeBron is gone yet unwilling to help. Thankfully, Kamiyah James, their other son Darius, and their daughter Xosha, all show up to lend a hand.

The family walks around the studio to start their search, when Darius receives an invitation from an unknown app, the Warner 3000, announcing a peculiar match: Father VS Son. Following signal of LeBron's phone, they find their way to the servers room, deep underground.

Just an instant upgrade, nothing to be afraid of!
...Side-effects not documented.

Dom is still with Al-G, who has modified the character creation system in the boy’s game to include the young James himself. The algorithm is now pushing for Dom to show to his own dad what he can do with his programming (combined to some Serververse magic). Al-G manages to push Dom into giving a basketball-playing avatar of himself 100/100 in every skill, making that virtual Dom the best player of all time. Dom then finds out he’ll be on the court during the big game as Team Captain, playing against his father; the son isn’t too sure about that, but the algorithm breaks the friendly façade to “convince” Dom to play along. That it’s only by Dom beating LeBron at a game of DomBall that the father will finally see the son’s worth. Dom isn't sure, but agrees to have the avatar’s skills applied to him. The kid goes through a massive virtual upgrade and, suddenly, he is the best player ever.

He's moving so fast it looks like he's dribbling four
basketballs at once.

After testing these new talents and showing superhuman speed at handling the ball, Dom is pushed by Al-G to create his teammates. Dom takes the models of basketball players he had, and proceeds to combine them with other things he had digitized…

Upgrade… And More Self-Congratulation

"My game, my rules" fails to account that the Tunes hate
following rules. Even laws; they even disregard the Law of
Gravity.

The ship lands on Tune world. There’s only one hour left till the countdown hits zero. Practice resumes for the Tunes, with LeBron trying to teach positions and moves, while Bugs tries to needle him away from Fundamentals and towards the chaos the Tunes are more likely to get up to. Just let them be themselves! But LeBron refuses; saving his son is too important to screw around on the court. He openly declares that the Tunes can be as wacky as they want outside of the field lines, but within them, they must do exactly as he says. The athlete is expecting a “normal” basketball game.

That’s when the countdown hits 0. The floating timer transforms into a CGI basketball court that falls onto Tune World, and as it crashes, it transforms the rest of the planet with it. The Tunes (and LeBron) are left in 2D as everything transforms to CGI around them, falling back to the planet in the aftershock. Above the court, the DomBall scoreboard appears.

Man, I know they're facing some crushing expectations, but...

This upscaling was non-consensual!

Al-G appears, with Pete by his side. He mocks the Tunes’ looks, then brings up their profiles and decides to “upgrade” them. First Lola, who is lifted and, from feet to long ears, gets turned into CGI. With a gratuitous shot focusing on her butt, because WB may have diminished her curves, they’re still gonna make the furries thirst. One by one, every Tune goes through the process, which also restores LeBron to live-action. Al-G keeps Bugs for last; to the bunny, this upgrade means war.

Look at all those faces! Look how little I care!

A basketball match wouldn’t be complete without an audience, so Al-G waits for them. And… it’s a lot. If you thought the self-congratulating was bad, it’s about to get worse. Tune World gets invaded by thousands of WB characters – animated peeps from Hanna-Barbera (still not a soul from Cartoon Network, as far a I can tell), some Gremlins, famous faces like the Iron Giant or King Kong, and even more than can be counted. Later shots show cameos like Agent Smith, the Mask, Zod, Pennywise, the Wicked Witch, several Batman heroes and villains (from the ‘90s movies and prior) – all played by bit part actors, because they’re background stuff.

It’s still WB dangling keys in your face, though.

The barber didn't sign on for that!

Al-G activates the app that will make the second half of the crowd appear. Everyone in the real world who received an invitation to watch the Father VS Son game and who is watching their phone at that exact moment gets directly digitized into the Serververse, using a mix of Dom’s original program and Al-G’s unexplained tech that can turn people into code (as he did for LeBron and Dom). All over the world, people are disappearing into their phones. Doesn’t even have to be just the owner, anyone spotted by the screen is taken.

Logistically, this is like Thanos and his Snap, right? Not in terms of quantity, but in terms of risks to humanity? All it takes is enough people disappearing while in positions where their disappearance endangers the lives of other people… Yeah, that’s messed-up.

The family reunion will have to wait.

Over a million people end up appearing around the court. There’s no way those at the back have any chance of seeing the match. Ernie Johnson and Lil Rel Howery appear on prime seats to commentate the game; they don’t really add much, aside from the occasional joke. In the server room, LeBron’s family gets digitized and they appear right by the side of the court, to provide direct support… while Malik gets left behind. However, the James family can’t go and hug LeBron, as the court is surrounded by an impenetrable force field that prevents the audience from interfering.

Meet The Goon Squad

Al-G announces the game to the enormous crowd. If LeBron James wins, the captive humans will return to the real world. If the AI wins… everybody remains stuck in the Serververse forever. Oh, and the Tunes will be deleted. Why? Al-G just hates ‘em, that’s why.

Credible threat? Maybe. But these four don't get to show
much, personality-wise.

The algorithm introduces his team: The Goon Squad! A name that has aged… uh… interestingly. Let’s not think about that. Once again, though we can say a lot (a lot!!) of negative about this movie, I do think there was a lot of effort and respect put into very specific parts, especially relating to designs. Since the Goon Squad is featured for about 40% of the film, and are the villains the Tunes will play against, they need to be a credible threat.

The film follows up on its idea of Dominic James scanning the likenesses of NBA players for DomBall. Each monster player is voiced by the basketball star that inspired them, and each one has skills or an apperarance inspired by that star’s nickname, feats, or history with the sport.

-Diana Taurasi is nicknamed the White Mamba, so her character is combined with a snake to become a naga;

-Klay Thompson was a “Splash Brother”, and fans refer to his better court presences as him catching fire, so his avatar is Wet-Fire, alternating between the water and fire elements;

-Anthony Davis becomes The Brow, a part-bird creature (referencing his time with the New Orleans Pelicans, though he had joined the Lakers by the time of the film’s release). The name? That’s because of the unibrow, is all;

That's not a regulatory basketball! Not with spider webs on it!

-Damian Lillard, of the Portland Trail Blazers, got nicknamed Dame Time, and is heard in the film asking Dom to give him an ability based on that nickname. Lillard’s Goon version is Chronos, which can manipulate the speed of time;

-Finally, Nneka Ogwumike, whose only link to spiders is that she’s very active on social media, on the “web”. Renamed Arachnneka, she was created with the tarantula Dom had scanned.

Do you really need a hoodie to play basketball?
Maybe it doesn't matter. when you're the best player ever.

That’s… a cool concept, right? These five are memorable in terms of abilities. But they appear halfway into the film, and we see of them exclusively on the court, so most of their personalities end up limited to “jerks convinced of their own superiority”. They get involved in the slapstick, of course, but they don't display much when it comes to emotion. So… props for the concepts, but they’re otherwise meh.

I don't think Dom realizes that his game, through Al-G, is
holding seven digits' worth of people hostage.
That's over A MILLION.

As for Dom, he’s the team captain, with Al-G as “coach”.

The Match! Finally!

Geez, now THAT'S a jump.

The game begins, with Pete as referree. You can totally trust Al-G’s flying lackey to be unbiased and fair. Al-G quips a “U mad, bro?” in response to that reveal. Christ, between that, Granny going “Haters gonna hate”, LeBron dabbing (to embarrass his son), and plenty of Internet slang peppered throughout, this movie feels like it’s dipping into “How do you do, fellow kids?” territory. This is juxtaposed with pieces of ‘90s nostalgia scattered as well, like Bugs dancing to U Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer, or most versions of WB characters in the crowd being from ‘90s films. Pick a lane, film! Four years later and it would have forced a 6-7 somewhere in there!

As soon as the ball is let go, Dom uses power-ups to jump higher than a building. After this first impression, the Goon Squad is seen dominating the game against the Tunes. They use their superpowers to get the ball around, whereas the normally chaotic protagonists, under the strict guidance of LeBron James, are forced to play basketball straight. Even though he gets outmatched by his own son!

"Dom, how fast are you DRIBBLING???"

Only the first of many style points-powered hoops.
That's a DUNK if I've ever seen one.

And when White Mamba scores 16 points in one hoop thanks to the first style bonus of the game, that’s when LeBron finally realizes that this isn’t regular basketball. Yet, through all that, he still won’t let the Tunes get up to their antics! To say nothing of the power-ups, which the athlete soon discovers… and then, after getting a jump boost, bounces past the hoop and smacks against the force field. The Goon Squad has a score advance of 700 points, while the Tune Squad can barely manage to make 3-point hoops the rare times that they bypass the evil team.

This is not working.

Just who the Heck among the Tunes could even have what
it takes to stop a guy who literally messes with time??

To add even more pressure, Al-G reveals the final player of the Goon Squad: Chronos, who can make himself become super-fast. Daffy, as coach, swaps Granny for Road Runner. It would sound like a good idea considering the bird’s speed, but Chronos uses his own ability to slow time to a crawl. In three seconds, the Goon has Road Runner wrapped in a bow and put on a plate in front of Wile E. Coyote. He even takes a moment to dress LeBron up as a pirate just because. When time resumes normally, Chronos scores a hoop that puts the villainous team at over 1,000 points.

If the Looney Tunes were allowed to be, y'know, looney...

It’s halftime, and the Tunes reunite in their locker room in Marvin’s spaceship. They’ve lost hope. Sylvester arrives, saying he found someone in the audience who can help: Michael Jordan! The Tunes have their spirits lifted for a moment… until Michael B. Jordan walks in. Wrong guy! And the actor’s encouragements help all that much.

The guy literally changed his acting name to Michael B.
Jordan because he KNEW he was gonna have to do a
joke like that someday.

Like a lot of Aesops in movies, LeBron needed an inescapable
situation with crazy high stakes in order to learn his lesson.

LeBron laments that he’s nowhere close to saving his son. When the Tunes call him out on being a bad parent (…okay, he’s not portrayed as bad, per se, but he does have a massive blind spot), he tries to defend himself, only to realize that what’s happening with the Tunes is the same issue he has as a parent. He’s forcing them to follow his rule and his path, he’s not letting them be themselves. He’s making them follow a path that doesn’t suit them. In other words: He wants them to be just like him, and it’s not working.

Different skillsets means different strengths!
And the Tunes' strength... is to be looney!

For all the many, many flaws of this film, I will always say that I like its Aesop. A parent realizing that their child isn’t an extension of themselves, but a whole other person with different hopes and dreams. A father who learns that their child may share their interest, but may not want the same career. It’s a great lesson, and honestly, one that’s necessary in more households than we’d like to think.

Realizing the error of his ways, LeBron hands Bugs the marker to create a match plan for the second half. The only way they could possibly win now… is by being as Looney as possible!

Phew! Okay, let’s say Part 4, and that’ll be all.