Skip to main content

Lightyear

I'm just going to cut to the chase: there is no fucking way that this was Andy's favorite movie back in 1995. I think that's what really bothers me about Lightyear. It's not going to light a spark in a kid's heart to that degree. Why? Because it's so. damn. depressing. I wouldn't even call it fun, and aren't kids movies usually supposed to be fun, lighthearted, with a side of life lesson tossed in? Lightyear feels like one big life lesson. A movie for adults, basically. I am not here to be an adult.
Alright, now that I've properly jumped the gun, I can get started. You ever watch Toy Story? Toy Story 2? Toy Story 3? Toy Story 4? Do you remember Buzz Lightyear? Love him! Well this is his origin movie, the movie that launched a million action figures. Apparently. It feels completely disconnected from that series, but sure, let's go with it.

Buzz and his crew land on a scary, monster-ridden planet (mmm, tentacles!). Their escape goes awry, leaving them stranded for much, much longer than anticipated. This is where it starts to get sad. Sad, I tell you! Buzz goes on so many trips around the sun that he leaves everyone behind. 

I found myself getting frustrated several times while watching Lightyear, since it seemed to have an overabundance of thwarted attempts. Whenever a character was about to have a win, it would often get snatched away, or something would go wrong. Whoever wrote this really enjoys having their characters fail ad nauseam, but it's something you can only get away with maybe two or three times before it becomes exhausting. If that wasn't enough, very little about this movie makes sense, and the writers truly dropped the ball. I won't get into all of the little details, but dude, why did they do this? 


And now, get ready for some spoilers...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The whole bad guy reveal...sigh. Buzz is both the hero and the villain. Seriously? Was anyone else disappointed? It felt like a huge letdown, and a lost opportunity. What's worse is that I don't actually disagree with Bad Buzz. It makes sense to want to go back in time and fix everything. While people lived on, had families, and existed in a makeshift colony, it's safe to assume they also had families back home, right? Kids, parents, pets? People who never found out what happened to their loved ones up in space. I don't think it's evil or unreasonable to strive to correct the mistake that led to those losses. With that in mind, it was difficult to feel good about Lightyear, and I left the theater feeling somewhat low. Hey, wasn't this supposed to be fun? 

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but watching this didn't feel like a reward; it felt unsatisfying and like it was made for adults, but by people who don't know what adults want. And to reiterate, I DIDN'T COME HERE TO ADULT. 

The robot cat was cute, though. 

My Grade: C+. It's watchable. Sort of.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inspector Lewis: Wild Justice

You know, I was excited last night. Why? Because, after weeks of no Inspector Lewis, they were finally airing two new episodes back to back! Yay! PBS has been a bit backed up, what with all of their pledge programming and favorites. There are four new episodes in total, and two, I believe, were supposed to air in September. Only one did. Naturally, I was looking forward to the 9-midnight Lewis-athon. And you know what ticked me off? They didn't play two new episodes back to back. They repeated the first one and then played a new one. So I had to wait until 10:30 to get my fix. Because of course everyone wants to re-watch the first one, right? Wrong! Mamma not happy! But we did get one new episode, so I'll be content with that. They should be playing the other two next week, since a new series is supposed to start soon. This one is called "Wild Justice". Lewis and Hathaway are investigating the death of a female Bishop. She flew across the pond from the USA for
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie Review: Serial Mom

*may be spoilers* I feel as if I should have seen this before, but it somehow managed to escape my notice. But hey, I found it! Great premise, too: Kathleen Turner as a picture-perfect wife and mother, living in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. She's also insane and likes to kill people over the smallest matters. She has a talent for murder, but not, sadly, for covering her tracks. The thought of wearing gloves or wiping fingerprints doesn't even cross her mind. The first half of this is the strongest. After she gets arrested, it loses some of its humor and charm, though it doesn't completely fall flat. Good ending, as well. Ricki Lake plays her daughter, Misty. It's easy to forget about her acting days, especially when you haven't seen her in anything...like me. I liked her in this, and may I say that it was refreshing to have a chubby young actress instead of a typical, thin, dime-a-dozen actress? Overall, not a bad comedy, but not a masterpiece.
Post a Comment
Read more

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

*Big smiley face* Sherlock is back! Woot! I'm happy now that mystery season is back in full swing. For Sherlock, they've lined up some of his most famous cases. I'm always interested in how they spin these tales and make them their own in modern times. This takes place immediately after last season's finale. Irene Adler puts her stamp on the series, matching wits with Sherlock and almost beating the detective at his own game, but she's never quite as clever as he is, and she's not abnormal enough to outdo him, if you know what I mean. I remember the version of this episode in the Jeremy Brett series. It was one of my brother's least favorite episodes because it posed the question/possibility, what have you, of Sherlock falling in love. That simply isn't Sherlock, hence why the idea is unpleasant to swallow. They do the same thing here, naturally. But Sherlock really isn't the type to fall in love, and I'm not saying this because he's a
1 comment
Read more