Overall this movie was, to be honest, I don't even know how to describe it. If I could remove the ending of this film I would give cars 3, 8 to 10 stars but, sadly you can't do that. The movie does a great job setting up this underdog story where lighting must overcome incredible odds or his career as a racer is over. I like how in the movie lighting tries to improve his chances first by technology but when that doesn't work, he goes back to what helped him in the first movie, DOC. The movie does a great job with these two acts but the third one completely sh**s on itself. Lighting, from the very beginning of this film has been fighting left and right to keep his career as a racer. He says multiple times how racing isn't about money, or stuff, its about the thrill, its about going 200 mph, its about the fun, and its about the love for the sport, and this is why he will never stop. He trains and learns all he can for the big race at the end of the movie and then, wait for it, he....... QUITS
so some another car (Cruz) can have her chance as a racer, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. Okay, I get why lighting did it, the movie was slowly telling us about Cruz and how she wants to be a racer so badly but no one takes her seriously, and shes too scared to do it by herself, but after a road trip with lighting, lighting sees her for who she truly is, a racer. Now this would make a good story, if Cars 3 actually focused on this from the very beginning instead of focusing and marketing on a comeback story, only to be replaced right at the end by a completely different story. The way they did it in the film was forced, sloppy, and just plain bad. The movie gave about 10 mins for this new story about Cruz, 10 MINSSSSS. In the trailers and for about 90% of Cars 3, the story is about lighting and his struggle to get back to the top even though everyone is telling him to quit. He does this because he loves to race and doesn't want to stop. That was the main focus of the majority of the film. However at the end, after lighting tapped into Doc's legacy, learned new tricks and trained very hard, the story changes to lighting training a car who wants to be a racer, LITERALLY DURING THE LAST RACE. Thats how rushed and bad it is. If they kept lighting in this race, made him win and then start teaching cruz (making her like the new lighting and making lighting like the new doc), that would of been great, but nope.
To sum it up, Cars 3, to be honest, left me sad, deprived, unsatisfied, confused and kind of angry. For me, Cars 3 hasn't ended yet. Its like the first 2 acts in Cars 3 were slammed together with the last part of Cars 4. I don't know why they did what they did in the last act but it ruined the movie, left the whole comeback story hanging and made lighting quit racing, even though he would never do that. I would recommend watching this movie and then turning it off when lighting makes his first pit stop in the final race, and just imagine that lighting won using the new skills, and tricks he learned from the masters.
********************************************************************* editttt (After Watching it for the second time) *********************************************************************
So after writing this review, I was wondering if I missed anything hinting, or leaning to the final act where Cruz becomes a champion. So I decided to watch it again.
Going through the movie again, I noticed two things. The big one was when Lighting realized that the best part of Doc's life was teaching Lighting, not racing himself. Making Lighting realize that He doesn't need to race to keep on racing, he can pass the torch to someone else and still get the joy of racing, if not more. As I said above, the whole Cruz story makes sense and I get it but, I still don't like how Lighting dropped out of the biggest race of his career. This is because the second thing I noticed. Lighting said he isn't done racing. So why would he give up that raceee. What they should of done was allowed lighting to win or lose (I have some cool ideas for him losing) and after Lighting shows that he is the best, or some other message, then he trains Cruz on how to go against these new gen racers, and soon racing isn't just about tech anyone, its about heart and the will to win.
so some another car (Cruz) can have her chance as a racer, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. Okay, I get why lighting did it, the movie was slowly telling us about Cruz and how she wants to be a racer so badly but no one takes her seriously, and shes too scared to do it by herself, but after a road trip with lighting, lighting sees her for who she truly is, a racer. Now this would make a good story, if Cars 3 actually focused on this from the very beginning instead of focusing and marketing on a comeback story, only to be replaced right at the end by a completely different story. The way they did it in the film was forced, sloppy, and just plain bad. The movie gave about 10 mins for this new story about Cruz, 10 MINSSSSS. In the trailers and for about 90% of Cars 3, the story is about lighting and his struggle to get back to the top even though everyone is telling him to quit. He does this because he loves to race and doesn't want to stop. That was the main focus of the majority of the film. However at the end, after lighting tapped into Doc's legacy, learned new tricks and trained very hard, the story changes to lighting training a car who wants to be a racer, LITERALLY DURING THE LAST RACE. Thats how rushed and bad it is. If they kept lighting in this race, made him win and then start teaching cruz (making her like the new lighting and making lighting like the new doc), that would of been great, but nope.
To sum it up, Cars 3, to be honest, left me sad, deprived, unsatisfied, confused and kind of angry. For me, Cars 3 hasn't ended yet. Its like the first 2 acts in Cars 3 were slammed together with the last part of Cars 4. I don't know why they did what they did in the last act but it ruined the movie, left the whole comeback story hanging and made lighting quit racing, even though he would never do that. I would recommend watching this movie and then turning it off when lighting makes his first pit stop in the final race, and just imagine that lighting won using the new skills, and tricks he learned from the masters.
********************************************************************* editttt (After Watching it for the second time) *********************************************************************
So after writing this review, I was wondering if I missed anything hinting, or leaning to the final act where Cruz becomes a champion. So I decided to watch it again.
Going through the movie again, I noticed two things. The big one was when Lighting realized that the best part of Doc's life was teaching Lighting, not racing himself. Making Lighting realize that He doesn't need to race to keep on racing, he can pass the torch to someone else and still get the joy of racing, if not more. As I said above, the whole Cruz story makes sense and I get it but, I still don't like how Lighting dropped out of the biggest race of his career. This is because the second thing I noticed. Lighting said he isn't done racing. So why would he give up that raceee. What they should of done was allowed lighting to win or lose (I have some cool ideas for him losing) and after Lighting shows that he is the best, or some other message, then he trains Cruz on how to go against these new gen racers, and soon racing isn't just about tech anyone, its about heart and the will to win.