I'll be honest, this movie went EXACTLY how I expected it to go, and when I say exactly, I mean I actually wrote down what I thought all of the plot-points would be, what order they would happen in, and at what minute they would happen in and I was 95% right (it's a little game my brother and I play sometimes to see if we can figure out a movie right before watching it). Everything down to the twist villain was what I expected it to be, but even though the movie wasn't unexpected, I don't think that made it a bad film as there is still enough going on during certain scenes of the film that are engaging.
Disregarding whatever your views are on LGBT issues and what not (as I see about half of the reviews here are commenting on, and I did find it kind of funny that they show a lesbian couple being pregnant and having kids looking identical to the parents... somehow?) I think the movie is fairly solid in terms of its script/screenplay and its animation and textures are fantastic, but unfortunately it is an emotionally front-heavy film with very little substance after the first act.
Script/Screenplay: The first act is pretty solid, and much like the film Up, is the emotional core to the film. I won't spoil what happens, but the dilemma that Buzz faces is very interesting and engaging which naturally leads to the beginnings of what could be a fantastic character arc. The second and third act are also fun, but I feel like the emotional weight from the first act is quickly thrown away for much more conventional stakes and character drama that don't leave the kind of impact that one would want from such a strong opener. The twist villain was... well... strangely expected but also didn't make a ton of sense and rather confusing when you think about it too long. It's kind of a shame that Pixar/Disney seem to follow the rule of only having twist villains in their films when I think it would be rather interesting to just have a villain established in the first act and develop it from there (but I digress). The third act is also surprisingly similar to Up where the villain who controls an army of minions that are sent out to gather the macguffin back to his flying air base captures the good guy where the two quickly become friends due to common interests until they realize that they don't share the same view which leads to conflict. I know that's a broad claim, but it was something I noted.
The third act itself also feels strangely... uh... small? For a sci-f movie I was kind of expecting a big cerebral mind-warp (e.g. 2001, Interstellar, Annihilation, Arrival, The Black Hole, Planet of the Apes) climax that would leave the audience with an awe-inspiring finale on a level not expected. Unfortunately, we get a very safe finale that doesn't try anything very risky and doesn't really put any of our characters through any serious challenges. Hawthorne needs to make one jump... that's her finale... and the rest of the gang needs to make literally ONE small explosive and just wait for someone to step on it. For me, these feel like very low stake dilemmas for the characters to go through and Zurg's final battle wasn't too innovative.
Characters: The characters are pretty good and Sox was surprisingly not as annoying as I assumed he would be. Characters that are designed to be "cute/light hearted" to emotionally bounce off of the protagonist are a tightrope to write because they can become obnoxious very quickly if their presence feels unnatural. Fortunately, Sox isn't bad and most of the cast works. Going back to Buzz's character arc, an issue that I find with the movie (and that I found in my prediction of my film that surprisingly... still made it in to the movie?) is that his core character arc seems to shift after the first act. The first act sets Buzz's dilemma as someone who accidentally wasted his once in a life-time opportunity to spend time with people he loves for his mission to save people. However, the rest of the movie has his character arc being "how do I come to grip with the fact that I need to train rookies and I have no talent around me". Overall, this is a MUCH weaker character arc and I don't think it really satisfies the first act. Even though it is relevant to his current dilemma, Buzz seems to pretty quickly get over the fact that he is in the future and most of his turmoil appears as very surface level.
Seeing as how the movie appears to be being review bombed, I will say that I don't think it is entirely fair to discredit everything in the movie. There are some genuinely interesting ideas here and there but as a whole I don't think the movie is particularly special nor do I think it really needed to be made. It's fine for what it is and it's functional, but it's no masterpiece.
Disregarding whatever your views are on LGBT issues and what not (as I see about half of the reviews here are commenting on, and I did find it kind of funny that they show a lesbian couple being pregnant and having kids looking identical to the parents... somehow?) I think the movie is fairly solid in terms of its script/screenplay and its animation and textures are fantastic, but unfortunately it is an emotionally front-heavy film with very little substance after the first act.
Script/Screenplay: The first act is pretty solid, and much like the film Up, is the emotional core to the film. I won't spoil what happens, but the dilemma that Buzz faces is very interesting and engaging which naturally leads to the beginnings of what could be a fantastic character arc. The second and third act are also fun, but I feel like the emotional weight from the first act is quickly thrown away for much more conventional stakes and character drama that don't leave the kind of impact that one would want from such a strong opener. The twist villain was... well... strangely expected but also didn't make a ton of sense and rather confusing when you think about it too long. It's kind of a shame that Pixar/Disney seem to follow the rule of only having twist villains in their films when I think it would be rather interesting to just have a villain established in the first act and develop it from there (but I digress). The third act is also surprisingly similar to Up where the villain who controls an army of minions that are sent out to gather the macguffin back to his flying air base captures the good guy where the two quickly become friends due to common interests until they realize that they don't share the same view which leads to conflict. I know that's a broad claim, but it was something I noted.
The third act itself also feels strangely... uh... small? For a sci-f movie I was kind of expecting a big cerebral mind-warp (e.g. 2001, Interstellar, Annihilation, Arrival, The Black Hole, Planet of the Apes) climax that would leave the audience with an awe-inspiring finale on a level not expected. Unfortunately, we get a very safe finale that doesn't try anything very risky and doesn't really put any of our characters through any serious challenges. Hawthorne needs to make one jump... that's her finale... and the rest of the gang needs to make literally ONE small explosive and just wait for someone to step on it. For me, these feel like very low stake dilemmas for the characters to go through and Zurg's final battle wasn't too innovative.
Characters: The characters are pretty good and Sox was surprisingly not as annoying as I assumed he would be. Characters that are designed to be "cute/light hearted" to emotionally bounce off of the protagonist are a tightrope to write because they can become obnoxious very quickly if their presence feels unnatural. Fortunately, Sox isn't bad and most of the cast works. Going back to Buzz's character arc, an issue that I find with the movie (and that I found in my prediction of my film that surprisingly... still made it in to the movie?) is that his core character arc seems to shift after the first act. The first act sets Buzz's dilemma as someone who accidentally wasted his once in a life-time opportunity to spend time with people he loves for his mission to save people. However, the rest of the movie has his character arc being "how do I come to grip with the fact that I need to train rookies and I have no talent around me". Overall, this is a MUCH weaker character arc and I don't think it really satisfies the first act. Even though it is relevant to his current dilemma, Buzz seems to pretty quickly get over the fact that he is in the future and most of his turmoil appears as very surface level.
Seeing as how the movie appears to be being review bombed, I will say that I don't think it is entirely fair to discredit everything in the movie. There are some genuinely interesting ideas here and there but as a whole I don't think the movie is particularly special nor do I think it really needed to be made. It's fine for what it is and it's functional, but it's no masterpiece.