'Lightyear' Review: To Infinity and a Yawn
PG: For action/peril
Runtime: 1 Hr and 40 Minutes
Production Companies: Pixar Animation Studios
Distributor: Disney
Directors: Angus MacLane
Writers: Jason Headley, Angus MacLane
Cast: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez, Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Release Date: June 17, 2022
In Theaters Only
When Lightyear was announced during Disney Investor Day 2020, I was skeptical. I remember laughing out loud because the concept of this movie was outrageous to me. A sci-fi action movie about Buzz Lightyear, the action hero that the toy was based on? Sure, whatever you say, Pixar. None of the trailers I saw until the film’s release left much of an impression on me. Sadly, the movie isn’t any better.
A sci-fi action-adventure and the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the toy, Lightyear follows the legendary Space Ranger after he’s marooned on a hostile planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth alongside his commander and their crew. As Buzz tries to find a way back home through space and time, he’s joined by a group of ambitious recruits and his charming robot companion cat, Sox. Complicating matters and threatening the mission is the arrival of Zurg, an imposing presence with an army of ruthless robots and a mysterious agenda.
For this being Pixar veteran Angus MacLane’s directorial debut, I commend him for the ambitious scope he took to make Buzz Lightyear’s world unique and vast. It attempts to evoke a classic sci-fi style reminiscent of every sci-fi epic action film from the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Star Wars, Alien, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, to name a few. Lightyear tries to stand amongst them instead of imitating them. The film excels from that standpoint. It somehow manages to have its cake and eat it too by being visually unique while wearing its influences on its sleeve.
The style blends the likes of futurism through the various color hues utilized in the exterior locations and surrealism through its live-action-like cinematography. All of the locations have an eerie atmosphere that elevates their identity while incorporating distinguished lighting and lens flares that would make a sci-fi nut go crazy. MacLane said, “Hey, what if we made an animated movie that was meant to look like live-action in the Toy Story universe?” It’s like a Pixar Dune. Lightyear stands its ground, boasting incredible visuals that are oftentimes breathtaking. Watch this movie in the biggest format possible so you can bask in the massive scale and scope the animators crafted to make this an epic in every sense of the word.
The film prefaces with text that says, “In 1995, Andy saw a Buzz Lightyear movie, which made him obsessed with the character. So we made that movie.” Upon watching the movie, I’d say Buzz is the least compelling character here. If anything, the side characters, primarily Izzy Hawthorne (voiced by Keke Palmer) and Sox (voiced by Peter Sohn), steal the show and are the heroes to truly be obsessed with. Izzy’s arc is the strongest aspect as far as character development goes. Without giving too much away, most of her conflict stems from wanting to live up to her grandmother Felicia Hawthorne’s (Uzo Aduba) image. Since she was Buzz’s best friend and the only remnant of her legacy, there’s an overwhelming amount of pressure to live up to her Hawthrone name. Along with Izzy’s spunky can-do attitude, you just adore the heck out of her.
Then you got Sox, the Meow-VP of the entire picture. Listen, I’m a cat person, so I have a bias towards any cat-like character. But man, this sentient robot cat is the best character in the movie! Sox is cute, funny, and helps move the plot forward instead of being a plot device. Man, what kind of dull kid Andy must’ve been to obsess over Buzz Lightyear when Sox is the best boy. Plus, Peter Sohn’s calm, nurturing voice mixed with an optimistic tone matches the adorable character design. I would love to own a Sox plushie right now, I am not joking.
It’s been two long years since we saw a theatrical Pixar movie for reasons that shall not be named.
After the last few Pixar films were relegated to Disney+, it felt refreshing to watch a new feature from the studio in a theater, the way the filmmakers intended. Granted, I got to see Turning Red at AMC Empire 25 during its one-week run––so Disney can get that Oscar eligibility–– but that’s neither here nor there. For this being Pixar’s grand return to theaters post-Onward, Lightyear’s lack of personality makes me wish it was released on Disney+.
Do you see how I singled out Izzy and Sox as being the best characters in a movie called Lightyear? Well, that’s because Buzz doesn’t have much to him. While Chris Evans does a fine job voicing this cinematic iteration of the character, he’s as redundant as the Buzz we know and love when he was introduced in the first Toy Story. He's a by-the-book, independent hard-head who causes an entire ship of people in stasis pods to reset their lives off-world. For most of the movie, he’s stricken with regret for failing the mission. Outside of that, he’s not so interesting.
If we’re playing in the ballpark of sci-fi action heroes, the characterization of Buzz is far removed from what young kids idolize in terms of personality. Protagonists such as Luke Skywalker had a longing for adventure, Marty McFly was a cool teen rebel, and most of them were charismatic. Buzz hardly exudes any of those expressions, but he’s a rationalizer with determination. It’s not enough to make him compelling or as engaging as either his toy Tim Allen counterpart or his animated series Patrick Warburton counterpart.
Within the past few years (post-Toy Story 4), it felt as if the studio was entering a new director-driven era. With a central focus on letting filmmakers tell personalized stories that only that filmmaker can do, Lightyear’s narrative is a bit too calculated and watered down for its good. While films like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red allowed the storytellers to take risks, much of Lightyear is written in a derivative manner. Most of the dialogue retreads the situation at hand or regurgitates the message of teamwork constantly. The screenplay plays like a first draft that they rushed into production instead of doing punch-ups to give Buzz and the rest of the non-Sox side characters any agency. One of the side characters is voiced by Taika Waititi and he isn’t funny! How do you have Taika in your movie and he only makes me laugh once? At a certain point, it becomes clear that the appeal is designated towards a young audience. That’s fine and all, but Pixar has been taking chances on new stories and bringing them to the height of their creativity. So, watching them resort to something as mundane as Lightyear is disappointing. If anything, it harkened back to the dark era of the early 2010s when Cars 2 crashed the studio’s streak and made us take off our rose-colored glasses.
Quick side note, I’m not fond of the message. Heck, three different messages are present and they’re all scattershot in execution. The one about teamwork is in your face throughout, the one about regret is not taken far enough, and the final one, that comes with the third-act twist, boils down to, “Hey, sometimes you have to take the L.” The way that becomes prominent in the finale is so muddled it leaves a sour aftertaste in your mouth.
The ambitious scope director Angus MacLane achieved to make Lightyear a cinematic sci-fi epic for young audiences is jaw-dropping. Much like its titular lead though, the screenplay barely has a personality to match the exciting visuals. Apart from one incredible sequence and two great side characters, the muddled and calculated story prevents this from being more than an exercise of Pixar's lesser fares.
