Lightyear (2022) Film Review

Director: Angus MacLane

Voices: Chris Evans as Buzz, Keke Palmer as Izzy Hawthorne, Peter Sohn as SOX, Taika Waititi as Mo Morrison, Dale Soules as Darby Steel, James Brolin as Zurg, Uzo Aduba as Alisha Hawthorne.

Introduction

Lightyear is an adventure/action Disney animation. Buzz Lightyear is one of the toys from toy story, another Disney animation ‘Toy Story’. He is an action figure who tries to win Andy’s heart by becoming his favourite toy.

Synopsis

Lightyear tells the story of a space ranger who discovers potential life forms on an uncharted planet and heads with his crew to investigate. The strong-willed and stubborn space ranger – Buzz is responsible for a crash that leaves him and his team stranded on this hostile planet. Buzz makes it his mission to fix the mess.

Review

Lightyear starts with Buzz and his partner/ commander Alisha Hawthorne heading out for a special mission.

Buzz records his discoveries and activities on a device he wears on his arm. Alisha is constantly mocking him for this. He claims it makes him focus. Alisha and Buzz are best friends, so it shouldn’t be surprising how they joke around.

As said earlier, Buzz is a stubborn ranger and likes doing things his way. He disregards the advice of the ship autopilot I.V.A.N and crashes the spaceship. Due to this crash, he is stuck on the planet with his crew members.

Buzz feels so guilty that he decides to make it his mission to get his crew out of this planet filled vines and bugs. Buzz and his squad choose to make the fuel that will enable them to reach hyperspeed so they can leave this planet which they did successfully. While attempting to return home after being stranded for years, Buzz Lightyear confronts an army of evil robots led by Zurg, seeking to take his fuel supply.

I liked how Chris Evans voiced Buzz. He expressed emotions even though Buzz is sometimes emotionless. He uses the right voice tone in the right places. Same goes for Uzo Aduba and Keke Palmer. Each character perfectly fits into the genre’s usual roles. Michael Giacchino’s score is one of his greatest, a delightful satire of grandiose space cinema music that improves every scene it appears.

I enjoy how Lightyear encourages people to seek help and recognize the skills of others. I especially appreciate how the film emphasizes collaboration, endurance, sensitivity, and bravery.

As my colleague would say, there are two sides to a coin, so I will also talk about what I did not like. I felt the movie was basic, soulless, and disappointing. This wasn’t what I was expecting. I chose to watch this movie because I thought “Toy story was good, I enjoyed it. Same should go for Lightyear”, but it wasn’t so.

The picture looked good and sounded amazing, but it didn’t do enough to make me care about the character or the story much. I don’t think this picture was intended for adults to relive childhood memories but for the new generation to interpret the character in their own way. Zurg was Buzz’s polar opposite. Zurg was likely the biggest let-down in terms of how they represented him. Who he was in “Toy Story” is not the same as who he is now(In Lightyear).

I don’t know what went wrong, but I feel it lacks the other Toy Story films’ inventiveness, intellect, and emotional impact. The movie about plastic toys has more humanity than those about cosmic potential and possibilities.

Don’t get me wrong; the animation is not bad. It is okay on the first watch; I don’t think I will want to re-watch it though. It is not just as good as I expected.

You can watch it and let me know what you think in the comment section.

Similar genre – Minions: The Rise of Gru

You can watch Lightyear on Disney Plus or you can download it here