Wen 丨 Gray Wolf
Unsurprisingly, as soon as the live-action animation "Slam Dunk in the Air 2: The New Legend" starring LeBron James was released, the comments section exploded.
Douban comment area of "Slam Dunk in the Sky 2: New Legend"
IMDb score 4.3, Rotten Tomatoes index 30%, Metacritic index 36, these are all data that can be imagined, after all, the "Dunk in the Air" starring Jordan was also scolded by professional film circles (but after more than a decade, because of Jordan's personal emotional factors, the film's reputation has rebounded). But at that time, the experiment of combining live-action and animation, as well as the commercial operation of bundling the two major IPs of Jordan and Bugs Bunny, was very successful
The Great Slam Dunk in the Air (1996)
But "Slam Dunk in the Air 2" is different, it has neither technical innovation nor mythological cohesion, although it can still attract attention, but it relies only on controversy. Judging from the status of various websites and major forums, the discussion of this movie is no longer a "movie event", but a "basketball event" or a "star event".
Its core discussion is not only focused on the historical status of James and Jordan, but also involves the historical feud between James fans and other star fans (especially Komi).
Back on October 12, 2020, the 35-year-old James led the Los Angeles Lakers to another championship and was unanimously elected FMVP. By now he has 4 championships and 4 FMVP trophies, and the controversy surrounding the best in basketball history has begun to boil again.
LeBron James
Around the same time period, Nadal won the French Open, tying Federer's 20 Grand Slam records; Hamilton won 91 F1 and tied Schumacher's record. Born around 1985, this group of sports stars have joined forces to challenge the best position in the history of their respective industries, which can be described as a momentary spectacle.
"Slam Dunk in the Air 2" was put into production in this context, which is both a performance of the film's sports popularity, but also a cultural exchange or industrial return, as some insiders say: "James brought a championship to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles gave him a movie back." 」
Slam Dunk in the Air 2: A New Legend
In terms of the appeal and mechanism from here, although James has a seemingly similar influence with Jordan at that time, there are essential differences in the cohesion of public opinion and the mythological level of the film.
In addition to James still lagging behind in the accumulation of historical honors, there are also some gaps in the overall public opinion and wind evaluation. For example, Jordan was the first man in the absolute sense of his time, conquering everyone from opponents to fans. Although James's accumulation of honors in the new era can also be regarded as a leader, Kobe, Durant, Curry and the Spurs team can compete with him and even beat him, and some of his technical flaws, as well as the controversy brought about by the group winning the championship, have made his black fans all over the world.
Jordan's filming of "Slam Dunk in the Air" was the window between his two triple crowns. His strength was still at its peak, and he had just returned to the NBA from the unsatisfactory baseball league, a comeback that was close to the myth of "Superman's Return" at the time.
Warner certainly doesn't miss the opportunity: since Jordan is an all-human sports superstar, making a movie about him is a top priority — but because audiences are accustomed to Watching Jordan's "reality myth" on the TV screen, in order to shape its charm on a larger scale and more exaggerated, breaking the dimensional wall and pushing it into the cosmic dimension has become an inevitable choice.
At the time, it seemed that jordan was the only option for him to become the protagonist of a live-action animated blockbuster, and in contrast, even Maradona, the first footballer and more individual at the time, did not seem to carry enough weight (because it was commercial rather than competitive).
Jordan's victory is naturally related to his perfect technique, gorgeous style, supreme honor, and positive personality, but it is also related to his rapids after the 1993 triple crown. His retirement and switching to baseball are related to his father's murder and his loneliness on the basketball court. Three consecutive championships, retiring baseball, coming back, and winning three consecutive championships are legendary; after retiring in 1999, in the face of the economic crisis brought about by 911 and the mental malaise of the whole people, Jordan returned to the stadium in the appeal of the people, and was once again portrayed as a savior star.
At least in the field of public opinion at that time, the myth of Jordan was a kind of "realistic imitation", otherwise it would be derogatory.
Therefore, in the concept of "Slam Dunk in the Air", Jordan not only has to break through the dimensional wall, but also has to compete with those alien monsters and take on the heavy responsibility of defending the earth. On this level, it is no exaggeration to say that Jordan is a so-called "superhero".
In the 1996 film, the dimensional wall is figurative, a solid film that leads from the real world to the animated world, with a large WB logo written on it. But in the new version of the 2021 film, the dimensional wall no longer exists, and this crossing is presented as an obstacle-free pipeline from the real world all the way to the server world.
The dimensional wall of the digital age is no longer important, because everything can be digitally synthesized, so the combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, the combination of real people and animation, no longer has the sense of wonder of the simulation era. This distinction creates different potential identities for the protagonist: Jordan is the savior of another dimension, and James is just a powerful player in the virtual world.
The more typical difference is that in Slam Dunk in the Sky, only Jordan is three-dimensional (if you ignore Bill Murray, who comes in to play soy sauce), and the members of the Looney Tunes world and all the villains are two-dimensional.
In Slam Dunk 2, everyone on the court is three-dimensional (including all members of Le Yitong), while everyone is two-dimensional during the team (including James himself). This means that Jordan is a high-level being (higher than a member of the Le Yi Tong), while James is a kind of equal being (the same as the Le Yi Tong member).
In "Slam Dunk in the Air", Jordan is the immortal rescuer moved by Bugs Rabbit, the only god-level character, and all the members of Le Yitong, including Bugs Rabbit, are functional characters who play auxiliary roles. At the same time, Jordan's performance is simple and low-key, like an honest friend, and his only appeal is to let Bugs Bunny bring him a pair of sneakers and shorts from his time in North Carolina.
If the former is suspected of being implanted with the Air Jordan brand, then the latter can at least bring pure emotion, including the scene where Jordan's child pulls his teeth out of the mouth of the French dog. Jordan did not complain in the slightest about the old, weak, sick and miscellaneous card army of Le Yitong, but almost completed the defense of the earth with "one person's strength".
But in Slam Dunk 2, James is sucked into the server by an algorithm played by Don Chandel, who intends to use his data power and James's fame to dominate the world. James's mission became more of a self-help and a saving of his son, and saving the world was a proposition imposed later.
Slam Dunk in the Air 2: New Legends Slam Dunk in the Air 2: New Legends
Here, he is no longer a fairy rescue soldier moved by Bugs Rabbit, but he must find bugs Bunny and le Yi Tong members to complete the game as rescuers. Of course, James is determined not to look at these nonsense members, because the members he listed for his dream team basically listed the strongest lineups in the Warner Universe: Superman, King Kong, Tridine, Batman, Iron Giant...
This list, almost equivalent to cheating, also indirectly ridicules the black history of James's career "winning the championship".
The same is true in the film, because of the failure to recruit all-star Warner superheroes, James had to team up with the members of Le Yi Tong. Even so, in the face of the superhero Sue Bird, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Damien Lillard and others in the opposing lineup, James is just a physically strong physical mortal, with little resistance.
For example, the opponent easily leads by 1,000 points on the field, but it is the crooked wolf who cheats with a special cannon for Le Yitong; when the opponent turns on the Bug mode, it is Bugs Rabbit who risks being deleted and creates a game failure with a series of cross-backward retreat throwing actions, which gives James the chance to win the last goal (in this rabbit bugs plays the same image as Iron Man in "Avengers 4"), lola rabbit is also indispensable, because she almost assumes a role similar to Wade. It recreated the "Jianway Connection" of that year; even James' son, Dom, gave a second assist at a critical moment.
James, on the other hand, in addition to frequent hand-spreading and physical assault at individual moments, relies on the final dunk. Of course, this dunk is more of a collective role, but the overwhelming picture presented when James reads the dunk is successful, but it becomes a freeze-frame moment. This also shows that James's salvation is not Jordan's own strength, but only benefits from the team, and at a critical time to obtain the final victory of "posture".
This is the logic of the contemporary gods, looking only at honors, only goals, only data, only results; insensitive to the specific process of winning, to the skills and subtleties in it. This kind of logic makes it easy for those athletes who occupy the best resource platform to achieve absolute success, which is why this era has produced data maniacs like James, like the aforementioned Nadal, Hamilton, and C Ronaldo, Messi, and Djokovic in the same age group.
Looking at "Slam Dunk in the Air" after 25 years, we can see that although Jordan and James have the same influence in basketball and even the entire sports and cultural world, there are typical differences in the attitude of public opinion and even movies towards them.
This is not only because the time-shifting two have been separated by a whole generation, but also because the career training mechanism of the two people and the public opinion environment in which they are located have undergone earth-shaking changes. Jordan's era is an era of both watching and competing, but also the golden age in the history of sports, in addition to Jordan, the time of Maradona, Baggio, Sampras, Agassi, Schumacher are all in line with such characteristics; but James's era is the era of physical function, technical tactics and network influence, today's Durant, Nadal, C Ronaldo, Hamilton and others are models.
Another difference is that in the pre-new century print media era, people were more fond of the myth of "single-handedness", so the Jordan Bull Six Crowns were portrayed as a one-man myth, and the Euro 84 Platini and the 86 World Cup Maradona were also portrayed as personal myths.
But in fact, these people are not absolute lone heroes, they each have the best teammates around them, just like Jordan's Pippen and Rodman are the top in the world, but the arbitrary influence caused by the top-down one-way transmission of the print media and the lack of audience acceptance channels and feedback mechanisms have made these personal myths flourish among sports fans and become a legend of the times.
Today, however, our media has become a media of feedback and our culture has become a culture of interaction. So there are more tit-for-tats in the sports world, from the competition between James and Kobe Bryant to the competition between James and Durant, and the number of Jamhei and Jamie is almost equal in this process.
The lonely myth no longer exists, both because sports are becoming more and more practical, platooning and tactical boards are becoming more and more important, coaching roles are getting bigger and bigger, and players are becoming more and more functional (too rational and lacking in divine strokes); but also because our culture no longer focuses on single-core heroes, but is more enthusiastic about the superhero team culture of traffic packages – as evidenced by the development of the increasingly popular Marvel and DC superhero universes.
One obvious difference between "Slam Dunk 2" and "Slam Dunk 1" is that the Le Yi Tong team in "Slam Dunk 1" is for Jordan, and only Jordan is a superhero; but in "Slam Dunk 2", the Le Yi Tong team has become a superhero, James is just one of them, and it is difficult to say who he and Bugs Bunny are C.
This line of thinking is equivalent to recruiting James as a superhero team member, even if he does not appear in the world of Leyitong, he will appear in DC or other worlds, and the principle is the same. It was also under this production idea that all the symbols of Warner Pictures came out, including Superman, King Kong, Iron Giant, Tridine, Batman, Robin, Penguin Man, Voldemort, Wonder Woman, Rick and Morty, and many characters in film and television works such as Game of Thrones, The Conjuring, and Joker Return.
This kind of thinking, the good point is called "Warner Movie Universe" or "Database Movie", and the ugly point is "Warner Spring Festival Gala" or "IP Advertising Gallery". This may have algorithmic considerations, but it must also be a crooked trick of the donkey's poor skills. After all, the film is thematically critical of the algorithmic world and gratitude to the real world, but its production ideas are algorithmic in nature, and this self-defeating logical paradox also makes its theme unconvincing.
Twenty-five years ago, the film paid a great tribute to Michael Jordan; 25 years later, LeBron James made a declaration of surrender to the database film.
The sports superstars of Jordan's era are mythical and super-algorithmic, and the sports superstars of James's era are mythical and absolutely algorithmic.
In this process, we witness the simultaneous decline of movies and sports towards the algorithmic world, the parallel decline of movies towards short video streaming and sports towards e-sports games, and in this decline, the abuse of YYDS just becomes a symbol.
It is because of its abuse that there is no longer YYDS, because no sports or cultural celebrity can surpass the algorithm and be eternal.