This week Pixar took us to infinity and beyond with the all-new Buzz Lightyear movie, or it tried to. Starring Chris Evans, the titular Toy Story character got his spin-off in the form of an origin story, which shows us Buzz Lightyear of the past come to be the Buzz Lightyear of today. 

And while the prospect in itself sounds promising, the reviews and reactions have been mixed. Currently, Lightyear has a score of 76 percent with 233 reviews, most of which describe it as “perfectly okay.”

Some of the more positive ones describe it as a charming family entertainer, while the negative ones have pointed out its overuse of style over substance. For instance, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times writes “A relatively minor Pixar effort starring Buzz from Toy Story nevertheless succeeds as escapist summer entertainment for the family. Similarly, Wenlei Ma of News.com.au writes, “It’s fun, it’s charming and it’ll hit you right in the feels without being overwhelming.

As we mentioned earlier, the movie has shared a fair amount of criticism as well. For example, James Berardinelli, of ReelReviews writes, “If there’s potential in the idea, the animation wizards at Pixar failed to unlock it. The movie is visually impressive but emotionally inert.” while Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair perfectly describes the problem with, “Lightyear is nearly the Pixar nadir that is Cars 2, just with a spiffier paint job.”

Some critics have also pointed out the safe formulaic approach the film takes. The Atlantic’s David Sims writes, “I’m most confused by the fact that Lightyear is billed as a movie from the fictional universe of another movie, even though what is playing out on-screen is formulaic to the point of dullness.” 

The same echo can be heard among the audiences as well, which seems to be split between praises and criticism. Although, most of them so far have been in the favour of the movie. One audience wrote, “Loved having an origin story for one of our childhood favourite movies. We enjoyed picking out the original lines from Toy Story and imagining Buzz as a real person. The movie was a lot of fun!”

While some were not a huge fan, writing “Pixar can’t deliver every time. The highly anticipated movie ended up leaving me disappointed. Can’t say it was bad, but compared to what I expected, it made me feel as though it was. Might be time to leave the Toy Story franchise alone now, before it gets worse.” 

Lightyear has an ensemble cast of Chris Evans in the lead alongside James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Uzo Aduba, Keke Palmer and Peter Sohn. Here’s what the internet has been saying about it:

( Image credits: Pixar, Disney )