Lightyear
A charming, thrilling story, but Chris Evans is no Tim Allen.
Lightyear tells the story of Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans), the film that inspired the toy in the world of Toy Story. The ‘real life’ Buzz is a space ranger, whose galactic travails hit a sticking point when he crashes the colony’s ship trying to escape a hostile planet. Now he, and his whole crew, are stuck on the planet. As the rest of the crew sets to building a colony and surviving, led by their captain Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), Buzz tries to fix their fuel problem to get them off the planet. But his experiments in space come with a challenge - each time he tests the fuel, getting closer and closer to lightspeed, he slows down relative to time. His first four minute mission has him off world for four years in Hawthorne’s perspective. By the time he solves the conundrum, with the help of his cute therapy cat, he is less than a year older than when he landed, but his captain has married, had grandkids and died.
When he does solve the problem, Buzz returns to find the planet besieged by robots, led by a fiendish gigantic robot known as Zurg (James Brolin). To stop them, he has to team up with an eclectic crew, including clumsy Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi), ex-con Darby Steel (Dale Soules), and the granddaughter of his old captain, Izzy Hawthorne (Keke Palmer).
Lightyear is an intriguing proposition, effectively taking the toy character from a three movie iconic series and translating it into a movie about the same character, but also not about the same character. It’s a movie that tries really hard to justify the existence of the reboot, and takes a curious way of doing so.
At its base level, Lightyear succeeds at that. The film is an interesting story, and is a genuinely fun piece. The robotic cat sidekick is a helluva lot of fun, the action hits, and there is a general sense of not knowing where the film could be going. That’s a great success for a reboot, and it truly crafts a piece that feels fresh, new and fun. Like any good Pixar movie, it also works in a couple of teary eyed moments amongst its fun and frivolity.
The issue stems from the title. Or, indeed, the titular character. Actually, scratch that - the issue is the whole concept of using Buzz Lightyear in this way. There is literally no reason why this movie has to use Buzz as a character in any way. The story is new, and interesting, without the forced callbacks to the toy version of the character, or his famous catchphrase. In fact, the whole presence of the history of the character, the shoehorned callbacks, and the endless nostalgia vibes, just feel flat, cynical and ultimately diminish what otherwise is quite a fun, enjoyable animated film.
Oh, and Chris Evans is no Tim Allen.
