Lightyear
DISNEYAfter Disney relegated their last few movies to their streaming service, Pixar returns to cinemas for the first time in two years with Lightyear, the film Toy Story’s Andy saw in 1995 that made him fall in love with its titular character. In the Toy Story world, Tim Allen lends his voice. But in the meta-film, Chris Evans plays Buzz Lightyear, a Galactic Ranger looking to find a way back to his home planet after a mission on T’kani Prime goes wrong. As part of this new mission, Buzz tests hyperspace fuel, which sends him forward in time. During his last hyperspace test, Buzz is sent twenty-two years into the future and sees the planet under attack by Zurg (James Brolin), looking to invade it. It’s now up to Buzz, and the colonial defense forces, comprised of Izzy Hawthorne (Keke Palmer), Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi), Darby Steel (Dale Soules), and a robotic cat named Sox (Peter Sohn) to save the planet from imminent destruction.
Aesthetically, Lightyear is one of Pixar’s most dazzling productions. The film’s numerous IMAX scenes are visually arresting and, at times, completely breathtaking. One scene in particular, where Hawthorne floats in space to get to another part of the ship, contains one of the best uses of the format in recent memory. Jeremy Lasky’s virtual cinematography fully understands how the geography of an IMAX camera works and integrates the same level of scale and detail as if the film had been shot with a physical camera. The movie always switches between aspect ratios when the action reaches its apex, and where audience members could easily hold their breath because that’s where the camera will pan at the vast – and vertiginous – emptiness of space or enter Buzz’s point of view while he reaches hyperspace. All of them are as equally staggering as the space scenes in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, and that’s quite an impressive feat to accomplish.
The animation is, as expected with Pixar, detailed and lush. The colors, in particular, give new life to Buzz’s ranger suits, and the world he inhabits. In the Toy Story franchise – and in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command – Zurg has never once looked menacing. But the film’s use of shadows and depth of field during scenes where the main antagonist lurks in his ship is very effective and adds a much-needed layer of menace to the character that hadn’t been achieved before in previous iterations. It also helps that James Brolin was the perfect – and most unexpected – choice to play Zurg, a literal night-and-day contrast to Wayne Knight’s not-so-menacing voice in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins.
He’s terrifically paired with Evans, who not only pays tribute to Tim Allen’s iconic vocal performance but gives a different insight on who the “fictitious” version of Buzz Lightyear is and how he might have been part of the reason why Andy fell in love with the character so much in the first place. Evans integrates a layer of charisma that Allen doesn’t have, and makes the character infinitely more interesting in the process. Toy Story presented Buzz as a galactic ranger who had no idea he was a toy, but Lightyear showcases Buzz the way he always imagined himself to be. To see that version of Buzz on the big screen with Chris Evans’ vocal talents is an absolute thrill to watch, especially when the movie looks this good on an IMAX screen.
And the most thrilling aspect of Lightyear is its numerous action scenes. The film’s pace is relentless. It never fully allows a moment for the audience to catch their breath but moves from one action scene to the next in a breakneck fashion. This structure is detrimental to the story, but the film is never boring because of this. And since the visuals are arresting enough on their own, it’s easy to dismiss the movie’s numerous flaws and think that Lightyear is a fun, and light-hearted space adventure. Of course, Lightyear is fun and light-hearted – especially whenever Sox is on screen – but the film ultimately lacks a gripping story that will hook the audiences deeper than its staggering visuals.
Yes, the movie looks great and has two great performances at its core. But the rest of the voice cast, most notably Taika Waititi, isn’t on the same wavelength as Evans and Brolin and sound completely disinterested in the material they’re given. None of the side characters are as interesting as Buzz’s relationship with Zurg, with most of the jokes falling completely flat. Even Waititi’s usual brand of oddball humor doesn’t stick the landing here and becomes tired as soon as he appears. Only Sox’s recurring presence – and a weird arsenal of gadgets – will bring genuine laughs during an intense sequence’s funnier moments to give some levity to the audience. He’s as surprising as Goose was in Captain Marvel, though no tentacles come out of his mouth, but something way funnier – and more effective – than that.
What’s even worse is when the film’s story adopts the most conventional, paint-by-numbers, and risk-free structure anyone could ever imagine. Without giving any plot details away, let’s just say that once the first act is over, every story element can be predicted a mile away. Pixar has always excelled at making animated movies because they were unafraid at challenging their audience by dealing head-on with mature themes, but also because their stories weren’t conventional! Aside from Turning Red, which not only dazzled in style but presented a wholly original story that constantly took storytelling risks, their last few movies have been incredibly disappointing. Pixar isn’t in the business of taking risks anymore. They’d rather repeat the same themes over and over, without a compelling variation to sell tickets. Their “tentpole” movies haven’t been as great as their more original stories with fresh creators. It’s probably why Turning Red worked – it wasn’t attached to any previous IP and was directed by someone who had never done a feature film before.
But Lightyear can’t reach the same level that Turning Red did on streaming, even if it has the privilege to use the IMAX format to transport the audience to infinity and beyond. While the film excels at delivering one stunning action set piece after another with two great performances from Chris Evans and James Brolin, it isn’t enough for the Toy Story spinoff to be as great, and as meta, as it should be. The framing device makes for an interesting movie within the fictitious world of another film, but it does absolutely nothing of interest to it. If this is Andy’s favourite movie, then anyone going into Lightyear is expecting to be blown away, not moderately enjoying themselves.
Some will say that it was Andy’s favourite movie as a child and that adult eyes obviously see art – and film – differently than kids. But if the film’s framing device is to present Andy’s Star Wars, then this cinematic discovery should not only be mind-blowing in its scope and action sequences, contain colorful characters that are instantly recognisable from the minute they appear on screen, and a memorable score, but it should also be a life-affirming experience for any first-time moviegoer. Lightyear does have the scale of Star Wars but is nowhere near as memorable as George Lucas’ 1977 film will ever be. It’s a shame, because the potential this film had from the get-go was second-to-none. It’s high time for Pixar go to back to the drawing board before they make yet another conventional movie – and fast.