Post by Dracula on Jun 26, 2022 19:31:21 GMT -5
Lightyear(6/22/2022)
The opening title card of the new Pixar movie Lightyear reads “In 1995 Andy got a toy. That toy was based on a movie. This is that movie.” That pretty concisely explains what this movie is and how it’s supposed to relate to the Toy Story franchise and the film’s marketers likely would have saved themselves some trouble if they’d put something like that in the trailer. Really though you’re probably better off not thinking much about Toy Story at all when seeing this because that’s really not very important. It think it’s pretty obvious that Pixar just wanted to make a space adventure movie and landed on this weird Buzz Lightyear connection as a way to both do that while also feeding the Mouse House’s insatiable need to exploit pre-existing franchises. However, I think that franchise fervor may have backfired on them this time because it’s left cinemagoers rather confused about what this project is supposed to be but also because the Buzz Lightyear character seen in the Toy Story franchise was never really supposed to be a “cool” spaceman so much as a pastiche of the 50s/60s conception of what a spaceman would be, so he’s an occasionally awkward fit in this film which plays much more as straight science fiction adventure.
However, the straight science fiction adventure they’ve given us is pretty serviceable. The film starts with a whole colony ship getting stuck on a hostile planet and then needing to find a way to get off with space ranger Buzz Lightyear being the test pilot for their new space fuel, requiring him to go on light speed test flights that essentially force him to travel forward in time through time dilation. Eventually one of these flights move him forward to a point where his colony is being imprisoned by hostile robots and he needs to find a way to defeat them. The film’s use of advancing time is more interesting than you’d expect from your ordinary family film and the movie’s humor mostly avoids the annoying pop culture based nonsense that kids movies often barter in, so Pixar’s reputation as the prestige animators of Hollywood is not really put in danger by this. Still, I can’t help but feel like this movie is only “okay” rather than the kind of ambitious storytelling you expect from them. Were this a live action science fiction film I’m not sure its concepts would seem all that special and while there are some decent set-pieces to be found here it’s not exactly a stunning action movie either. I’d say its messages are also a bit confused. Its duel morals appear to basically be: learn to give up when a goal starts to take too much of a toll on your personal life and also learn to put up with the mistakes of the incompetent even when they threaten to put everything you do in danger, and I found the handling of both of these themes kind of lacking. This movie is generally watchable and crafted with some care, but it’s not going to be one that sticks with you and as an experiment franchise extension it’s rather confused.
*** out of Five
The opening title card of the new Pixar movie Lightyear reads “In 1995 Andy got a toy. That toy was based on a movie. This is that movie.” That pretty concisely explains what this movie is and how it’s supposed to relate to the Toy Story franchise and the film’s marketers likely would have saved themselves some trouble if they’d put something like that in the trailer. Really though you’re probably better off not thinking much about Toy Story at all when seeing this because that’s really not very important. It think it’s pretty obvious that Pixar just wanted to make a space adventure movie and landed on this weird Buzz Lightyear connection as a way to both do that while also feeding the Mouse House’s insatiable need to exploit pre-existing franchises. However, I think that franchise fervor may have backfired on them this time because it’s left cinemagoers rather confused about what this project is supposed to be but also because the Buzz Lightyear character seen in the Toy Story franchise was never really supposed to be a “cool” spaceman so much as a pastiche of the 50s/60s conception of what a spaceman would be, so he’s an occasionally awkward fit in this film which plays much more as straight science fiction adventure.
However, the straight science fiction adventure they’ve given us is pretty serviceable. The film starts with a whole colony ship getting stuck on a hostile planet and then needing to find a way to get off with space ranger Buzz Lightyear being the test pilot for their new space fuel, requiring him to go on light speed test flights that essentially force him to travel forward in time through time dilation. Eventually one of these flights move him forward to a point where his colony is being imprisoned by hostile robots and he needs to find a way to defeat them. The film’s use of advancing time is more interesting than you’d expect from your ordinary family film and the movie’s humor mostly avoids the annoying pop culture based nonsense that kids movies often barter in, so Pixar’s reputation as the prestige animators of Hollywood is not really put in danger by this. Still, I can’t help but feel like this movie is only “okay” rather than the kind of ambitious storytelling you expect from them. Were this a live action science fiction film I’m not sure its concepts would seem all that special and while there are some decent set-pieces to be found here it’s not exactly a stunning action movie either. I’d say its messages are also a bit confused. Its duel morals appear to basically be: learn to give up when a goal starts to take too much of a toll on your personal life and also learn to put up with the mistakes of the incompetent even when they threaten to put everything you do in danger, and I found the handling of both of these themes kind of lacking. This movie is generally watchable and crafted with some care, but it’s not going to be one that sticks with you and as an experiment franchise extension it’s rather confused.
*** out of Five
