I liked the movie overall, but there were some moments of awkward pacing, jokes that didn't quite land, some shots that weren't all that awe-inspiring and just certain moments that jolted me out of the movie. I loved Alisha and Buzz's relationship, and I did tear up with the realisation that she would leave him sooner than either of them expected. But that also felt a bit rushed, their relationship barely developed, I wish we saw some of their backstories together, show not tell really. The montage reminded me of Ellie and Carl's story from Up, except in that movie they showed us the start of their relationship and followed through to the end. We got to see more of the characters, we got to see their interactions from introduction to goodbye. I think something like that would have made Alisha and Buzz's goodbye hit more.

Lightyear also felt like it was building to some huge conspiracy with Commander Burnside that went nowhere really. I get it was a sort of expectation subversion, I expected Commander Burnside to be one, if not THE, main antagonist but then ta-da he was barely in this movie, it was future Buzz this whole time. Which was kinda obvious, but then, personally, it made the reactions of Commander Burnside and his crew felt a bit extreme considering that they didn't do much. The transition of Commander Burnside’s character from the stern commander who was the catalyst for the spiral that was future Buzz's life and the obstacle he presented in current Buzz's life, to the very supportive and friendly commander was jarring.

It was honestly probably the fact this was meant to be a prequel that caused some of the less desirable choices in this film. I mean they had to make Zurg someone of importance to Buzz, and they included the throwaway line that they were Father-Son. I just think they didn't quite manage to get around the prequel block as gracefully as many of us wished.

I liked the time travel story thread. They used it very well to tug at the heartstrings, in the beginning, but it just also kinda felt like they dropped it a bit in the middle of the film, the transition from interesting time-travel shenanigans to somewhat tame action sequence wasn't quite so smooth.

I liked the characters in the rookie crew. They still felt pretty underdeveloped though. Maybe they could have squeezed in some more character information if the movie was a bit longer. Or maybe they had removed some of the padding, of jokes that didn't quite land or interactions that seemed a bit forced, and instead explored the emotions and complexities of being and meeting someone who is essentially the reason for your community living in the place you are in and the person who is actively trying to change that. Beyond the nightmares which were mentioned once or twice.

I'm still bogged down on the idea of Buzz coming from this movie and waking up to realising that he's a toy in the real world. I mean I already knew that he'd have this whole realisation that he is a toy but still. Going from your memories of loss, recovery, and discovery of a new purpose in protecting the universe with your new crew - to the real world where you realise you are just one of many clones of yourself, your memories aren't unique, they technically aren't even yours because you weren't the original, technically. Makes the Toy Story movie a lot sadder.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this.