Lightyear Review: To Infinity and Beyond
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Lightyear
Director: Angus Maclane
7
Where to Watch Lightyear?
Should you Watch Lightyear?
Lightyear had an interesting concept on based on its titular character. Although the adventures of Buzz Lightyear on this new planet was filled with action and self discovery, there was something in the pacing that made the movie feel quite slow. If you’re watching this for that hit of nostalgia, give it a shot, but be warned that there’s a chance you may be bored around the middle of the movie. Lightyear falls a step behind Turning Red or Raya and The Last Dragon, so it wouldn’t be my first choice for recent animation films.
What is Lightyear about?
After Buzz and Alisha land on a planet in search of resources, Buzz soon finds out that the planet is filled with hostile plants that start attacking their ship dubbed the turnip. As the plants attack the turnip, Buzz and Alisha are able to shake off enough attacks to launch their ship.
However, the plants land one last attack and Buzz is unable to clear a mountainside, which causes the ship to crash land. Following this mistake, Buzz does everything in his power to find a strong enough power source to jump to hyper space. To do this, he launches off in a smaller ship to test each fuel source. However, each trip costs him 4 years of his life. Soon, he out lasts his old commander, and as Alisha passes on, Buzz has one last chance to find his power source.
Who are the characters in Lightyear?
Lightyear focuses on its titular character Buzz Lightyear. Buzz is a headstrong Space Ranger who doesn’t like to rely on rookies or those with lacking experience. It was his stubbornness that caused him to make a grave mistake, and its this character trait he spends the whole movie trying to improve. Alisha Hawthorne is Buzz’ commander. She is caring and direct. As the story progresses, Alisha’s granddaughter Izzy, is introduced. Izzy struggles with her own identity as she tries to figure out who she is behind her grandmother’s shadow.
Lightyear Review
If I’m going to be honest, Lightyear was alright, and just alright. After seeing the trailer in theatres before, I expected more from this movie, and instead, I left the theatre a bit disappointed. I think the main thing I didn’t enjoy about this movie was how boring the middle of the movie was.
Sure, there were some comedic moments and some fun action sequences, but the whole thing wasn’t all that captivating. Along those lines, the pacing for the movie also felt a bit off, which lead to the slower middle portion of the movie.
Besides pacing, the characters in this movie didn’t feel all that interesting either. We do get to see some character development from Buzz, but it all felt predictable and too quick. There’s one scene where Buzz considers his band of misfits as friends, and yet there wasn’t much that went on that could create such a sudden change of heart. Speaking of the side characters, although they do have their moments sometimes, I feel like they weren’t really a part of the story. They kind of just exist, and don’t do much else with that.

When it comes to the plot, a whole lot of nothing happens there too. Even though the characters move a lot throughout each scene, overall, it feels like not much is happening. It’s pretty much, move to a location, something happens, then move to another, and repeat the process. However, when the something happens, it’s just bland.
Overall, I just feel like Lightyear was disappointing. There was so much more that could’ve been done with the character, and there could’ve been so much more to explore within each character. Instead, nothing really happens in the movie until the end, and even the ending feels lackluster. If you want to give this movie a shot, go ahead, but be prepared to be disappointed.