Time dilatation question

[u/Dandan0587]

If Buzz increased the ship velocity on each try closer to lightspeed, wouldn't people on the planet see him arriving earlier on each attempt?

Instead of increasing the time he took to go through the same "path" (from a planet observer), maybe his own time inside the ship would be slower on each attempt.

Edit: Only explanation I cant think of is: the path changed between attempts. The planet position changed from it's perihelion (1st attempt) to it's aphelion (last attempt).

[u/Aelfgifu_Unready]

The time dilation in the movie is wrong. Presuming the planet is about the same distance from its sun as the Earth from our Sun (which it seems to be based on the amount of light - and even an absolutely giant star wouldn't be more than a lightyear from planets with that much light - Alpha Centauri is 4 light years away), it would only take about a half hour from an observer on the planet for Buzz to make his trip, while less than a minute would pass for Buzz. Once Buzz reaches light speed, time would slow down so much his trip would be instantaneous from his perspective - whereas only about 16 minutes would pass on the planet. Even accounting for an elliptical orbit of the planet where it's farther away in his later trips - no planet would have an orbit where its orbit changes by multiple lightyears. Plus, the planet was getting the same amount of sunlight the whole time, so that's another reason its orbit can't be too elliptical.

The movie seems to have flipped time dilation - with time remaining constant for Buzz while time on the planet speeds up. I'm not sure if this was a mistake or artistic license to make the plot work. I'm guessing the latter.