Hello Fellow Journeyers,
I don't really have a good explanation for this post. Lightyear was a movie released in summer 2022 and I feel it got overlooked. I think most people simply avoided it because of the "what's the point?" aspect of it mixed with the whole thing smelling of a cash grab opportunity. While I agree with these two perspectives, I separated myself from any expectations for this watching. I decided to watch Lightyear when we rewatched Toy Story with the twins and my interest was piqued about the idea of an "origin story" for Buzz.
What's the story about: Lightyear follows the titular Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear on a mission that goes awry and causes an entire group of colonists to be marooned on a hospitable planet. Buzz, as you'd expect, feels it's his mission to fix a mistake he made and get on with being a space ranger. While being an origin story, it doesn't actually give much origin to how Buzz becomes a space ranger, just rather how he becomes the space ranger we know from Toy Story.
With this basic premise, the movie includes concepts of time travel heavily in the first half, which negatively impacts the pacing. For this part of the story, it really only has one character and the focus is all on Chris Evans' Buzz, who is hopelessly optimistic, as the toy was, but also struggles with the mistake he made. As a whole, Chris Evans does a worthy job embodying the "real" Buzz and making it his own while connecting to the toy that we all know and appreciate. But back to the first half, it's pretty slow in terms of progressing. In general, things happen and there is a tension to how things will happen, but it also feels kind of like a grind. It doesn't feel like anything important is really happening until the 50% mark when there's only 45 minutes left in the movie.
This leads to the main problem of the satisfaction of the overall story: the first act was stretched far too long while the important middle and third acts were unfortunately squished together in a fast-paced nonstop action and comedy section that is almost satisfying, but not fully. Since the characters that Buzz is supposed to grow with are introduced fairly late in the game, the investment is too late to really grow with them. The side characters, which are likeable but nothing special, just don't have the time to really do anything of interest. That being said, the cat Sox is a definite standout character in terms of necessary plot device and strangely effective comedic presence.
With the risk of sounding redundant, there is nothing bad about the film, there's just nothing that makes you feel like much after it is over. The ending has a conclusion that really opens it up for future space ranger adventures, which is good, but it kinda feels too late for it after the first entry just missed the memo. The best way to watch this movie is to not really think about it connecting to Toy Story and just imagining the origins of Buzz Lightyear, but also don't think too closely about that either. The connections to the toy are there, but pretty loose and kind of pointless. Ironically enough, the whole thing made me think of "Halo for kids" during much of the movie, which wasn't a bad thing, until you remember what the point of the movie was.
Final Verdict: ★★★ 3 Stars - Lightyear is a fun, light-hearted, diagonally-connected prequel to Toy Story that is as good as it is purposeless. It isn't bad, but it also doesn't really justify its existence (sound familiar with Disney, Star Wars, Marvel properties lately? 😑) Does anyone really want to know what Buzz Lightyear the toy is based on? This movie is a fictional movie set in the fictional story of Toy Story...😅 That being said, if you forget WHY the story was created, it's a pretty fun nod to the character that feels cleverly fleshed out and as a sci-fi adventure, it's enjoyable enough to just sit and watch. Like so many Disney properties now, it appears that their motto is "don't think about the story too much; here's some candy."
Let me hear from you! If you like what you read, want to hear more thoughts on this movie, other reviews, or talk movie recommendations and Essential Reading, leave a comment below.