I'm actually shocked by how low the ratings are for this movie. I thought it was the best Cars film and a pretty solid film in general. It follows Lightning McQueen in a completely different role, that of the aging star who is out of touch with the times. It is heartbreaking, it is dramatic and it is compelling. I never knew I could feel so sorry and yet so hopeful for such a has-been.
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briancham19941 July 2020
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mcain-260577 September 2017** Possible Spoilers **
First off, I have no idea what these other reviewers are talking about with this "alternate universe" theory. The fact is this movies ties perfectly with the first one. All the same characters are in the movie from the first one and many references are made to Doc, so not sure how this thought came about.
This movie is essentially a version of cars where Lightning McQueen actually aged, meaning he is not the same age as in the first one. With age, especially in sports, comes new, and younger, talent. In this movie lighning McQueen is faced with this same challenge, new, younger, talent who are training in new, more advanced, ways. With this younger talent and better training methods (Lightning McQueen still trains like he did under Doc) Lightning is having a tough time competing against the new guys. He essentially has to make a choice, adapt with new training or retire. I won't go into the details of his choice as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.
However, this movie was very good and, I thought, a fitting end to the franchise. Can you imagine a Rocky movie where Rocky never ages and just keeps fighting and beating everyone? No, and that is not how the Rocky series ended. Rocky retired and helped the new up and coming fighter. That is somewhat what happened here.
I can only assume the others making the reviews wanted Lightning to be perpetually young and just keep racing and racing and beating everyone, movie after movie. The writers wisely chose not to follow that formula. Yes, I will agree, there is a bit more of a story here than just pure racing, and perhaps that is what people didn't like. However, that didn't make it a bad movie.
I hated Cars 2 but I did really like Cars 3. It's not a perfect movie but also isn't what people are making it out to be. Give it a chance and I think you will like it. -
pickle-9264226 September 2021Way better than I expected. After being slightly disappointed by Cars 2, this was a pretty good return to form for the Cars franchise. I thought it definitely could've been much better, though. A lot of the scenes were unneeded and once again, did not have the magic the first one has. But somehow, it still finds its way and manages to be a formidable sequel and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Although, was it really the conclusion? It seems like they could do another, but they just don't make enough money. Hopefully we'll see a fourth that just completely blows people away. Other than that, I don't have much else to say, pretty forgettable but still pretty funny and entertaining.
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cardsrock25 December 2019While another sequel to Cars was still not needed, Cars 3 is at least closer to the quality of the original. With more of a focus on Lightning McQueen and his internal struggle, the story has a lot more depth than Cars 2. The story isn't original by any means, but it's told in an interesting way and is a pretty fun watch.
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Mynameisroman30 September 2018The first Cars movie was awesome and it jumpstarted a lot of rip-offs tv shows for children. talking cars or talking planes everywhere nowadays... cars was the origin and of course there have been two sequels to that movie. while the first sequel felt forced onto the franchise this one here fits perfectly. a great continuation about how his career would develop over the years. he's not a rookie any more... he's not as fast as he used to be... he needs to find out how to solve this... the hints about where the story goes are subtle and reach the right conclusion in the end. and its feels like this might also be the final movie for the franchise but who knows... it a solid 7. if you loved the first one you will love this one as well
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First of all, let me get this out of my system: I've seen many 1-2 stars reviews out there. While I understand why those people are upset I think 1/10 is way too low. The movie isn't inherently bad, it's not a disastrous mess of burning oil like some reviewers make it to look. But it's not great either.
The movie is lighthearted, easy to chew and fun for the most part. I wouldn't expect more from a cartoons movie. But this is Pixar so of course I expected more.
I've got three major problems with this movie. First, the new characters are extremely flat and one-dimensional. The "new" younger cars are just jerks (all of them), there's no reason for them to behave like they behave but because they're the "antagonists" of the movie we need to feel mad at them I guess. So they're flat-out pretentious with zero background. The new sidekick of Lightning is also a completely basic character with an extremely contrived background story.
Second, the third act feels forced and unbelievably illogical (and yes I know I'm talking about a movie with talking cars). I can't really explain this point without spoiling anything but let's say the end isn't loyal to the movie's protagonist and the end is wrapped up in a very forced manner.
Third, the Mary Sue of the movie. I really don't care about overpowered female characters, I didn't even care about Rey in Star Wars. I don't care! But this new female sidekick of Lightning McQueen is just too Mary Sue to be true. Again I don't want to give away anything but I'm tired of that "you got something that you didn't know and now you're a hero", that's BS.
So, it's a fun flick but many levels below the old good Pixar. -
Quinoa198415 June 2017Aside from what should be obvious to most of those who are over the age of 5 - merchandising, merchandising! I can hear Yogurt from Spaceballs say (which this movie does try to sort of, kind of, almost satirize but doesn't quite get there, and I'll get to that later) - I wondered going in why Pixar would make Cars 3. The first Cars, one of those unlikely passion projects for John Lasseter, was fine though not remarkable unless one didn't mind getting their Paul Newman fix (last movie too!) if it meant wading through the "comedy" of Larry the Cable Guy, and the sequel was one of the most mediocre films of the past decade, from anywhere (again, Larry the Cable Guy as the protagonist). But then I thought that this was exactly why it would be interesting to see the movie - what would the Pixar creative team come up on this one. What they came up with was a good movie, no more but no less either.
Aside from a far smaller quotent of scenes with that grating Mater character (I'll get off it now but, really, who really was hungering for more of Mater in their movie theater in 2017?), this is another example like Monsters University where the filmmakers are favoring a strong message over having a simple villain. And, curiously enough, while both movies do feature Nathan Fillion as an almost/would-be antagonist, it's not about that (it can't be coincidence that in both movies he voices the show-off, cocksure figure, right? - actually Armie Hammer is more-so that character here, but nevermind), I suspect that the message was what was key for those in the story room. What could make Lightning McQueen interesting again after all these years? Was he even interesting to begin with? It's not even him so much as it is what a character's arc is, and what Pixar taps in pretty well here is the idea of moving on and what education means.
In the story of Cars 3, McQueen gets into a terrible accident as the first turning point - one remembers that from the surreal teaser trailer where it made it look as though this might be the Saving Private Ryan of Cars movies or something - and though he wants to get back into racing there's constant trepidation, about his age, about his ability, about everyone else out on the track... and then comes, ironically enough, his trainer (thanks sponsor Fillion!), with a good voice job by Cristela Alonzo by the way, who of course didn't grow up as a, uh, small car wanting to become a trainer of other cars, she wanted to be race car herself! But she lacked the confidence and the wherewithal to keep at it (those who can't do teach sort of thing). Matter of fact, that may be the whole point of the movie, but it's also saying that isn't necessarily a bad thing - if you want it, it can be great.
It reminds me too of what happens in other professions like in the movies where actors find they aren't getting the good roles or aren't being challenged enough so they decide to direct, and it takes on a whole new feeling and passion. All of this noted, Cars 3 doesn't exactly make this some big surprise, it's actually a predictable story that, at least for me and I'm sure many others, one will see coming a mile away as far as whether or not Lightning McQueen is going to do that first race (really the only question is how much or how little will he really race before passing on the baton). But Pixar was sneakily impressive here with how it brought real emotion, or as much as can happen with these cars, and Owen Wilson and Alonzo have a good pairing in the film that has an arc and develops over the course of the story.
There's a little shakier ground that Pixar tip-toes up to as far as what it means to have, say, branding and merchandising - the Fillion "Billionaire" car Sterling (I wondered if he had ever wanted to race or as a tiny car wanted to be a, uh, Billionaire car, however they can spend it) looks at Lightning as a vehicle, no pun intended, for money-making, that his admiration for McQueen is for what he is *valued* as a commodity, as a presence or a thing, as opposed to his ability (which goes a way to explain why he's not impressed when he begs Sterling that he can do one more race). But I'm not sure Pixar developed that side of it enough, or perhaps they could only do so much satire in a G-rated movie for all audiences. It may be enough, though a little more could've gone a longer way to make a decent movie into one of their REALLY good sequels like Monsters U or Toy Story 3.
At the end of it all though, Cars 3 is entertaining, occasionally quite funny (some puns and jokes hit better than others), and eschews typical villainy or the usual antagonists and embraces more like existential questions, which is probably more than a kid-friendly blockbuster like Cars 3 of all things had to concern itself with. I give Pixar points for that, and if seems like something that had... effort put into it, at least up to a point. Not to mention, last but not least, what seems to be a fitting coincidence (or it may be just what Lasseter intended) that a first-time director was promoted up to do this movie within Pixar, Brian Fee. It was time to get in the race, I suppose, and he showed up to do well. -
nadinethart14 October 2019Yes! Love this ending of cars! 1 and 3 are the best, 2 more for fun. I enjoyed this movie a lot! Just for a fun night
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WasiReviews6 September 2020If you came out of Cars 2 disappointed you're not alone, the bad spy stuff, the melodramatic plot and the awful characterization. This film is visually fantastic having Lightning McQueen take part in a customary mid life crisis in a racing, mafia and sports movie. This part is a little bit boring but you can ignore it because it becomes an awesome race towards the end. I hope they don't make a fourth it will be a bad reboot featuring a ugly yellow car.
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mediadinosaur27 January 2018Okay, before I start I will say that I am a 33 year old woman who loves film, music, games, nature and technology. I am not hating on this because I don't like women characters, I am not some "negative nobody" as people who dislike this film have been called, who doesn't like new things. I generally see things that I do not like here.
The film was marketed as a comeback for Lightning McQueen after he suffers a traumatic wreck during a race against newer model cars. These new cars are supposed to be the millennial or gen z cars of the cars world, though this is never brought up, and are portrayed as antisocial, self centred glory seekers. The main car Jackson Storm, for all that he is seen in the film, is particularly stereotyped as being these things. Lightning then has to get help from a new trainer who uses things like treadmills, meditation and simulators to teach. This is to help him prove to the world that he can still be a top racer, adapt with the times and still perform his chosen job.
Sounds good right? An underdog/comeback style movie that's very popular with a lot of people. Well, the film does start the way it was advertised, with Lightning being at the top of his game and winning. The racingboard allows the newer cars in and all the older models, though not much older, have to either retire or are fired. Well what did they expect them to do when you bring in cars with lighter bodies and bigger engines? Lightning however still races and does okay. However, you can see that something bad is going to happen as each race gets darker and the music grittier, and it does with lightning crashing in the most spectacular, horrific fashion that really sets you up for his coming back and fighting for his career.
Well this does not happen. At all.
The new character, of which there are a lot, are bland uninteresting and basically serve as discount versions of the well loved Radiator Springs cast, like Sally and Mater. New characters like Natalie Certain, a red sports newscaster, is the very definition of the dreaded cooperate ice queen trope, were a women only lives for her business and anything doesn't exist as one example. Also, the new race cars. Why are they boring, antisocial advocates of technology and nothing else. Any decent athlete knows you've got to get your experience from all angles not just tech. Also female racers do exist and all the new ones are boys? Why? They could have had women racers there but it seems Pixar don't like doing this idea.
But then again this movie plays to various overused tropes. Like he well used and predictable trope of technology being evil and only being outside in the elements can possibly bring you victory, that Lightning of course uses. Co's he's supposed to be soooo old in this film for some reason?
That brings up another thing. How is Lightning old anyway? One he's a car and not bogged down with human limitations and in no way looks old. He's younger looking than Cruz and all the new racers who all look like adults. Two he could have gotten a full carbon fibre frame, new diffuser, brakes and so on as cars from the previous movies had. That would have dropped his weight considerably and made him accelerate far faster than Jackson Storm. Three as a custom built car he could have had his engine tweaked to its highest performance level without getting a different type and maybe rung an extra 50hp out of it. The lighter weight and tune ups would have given him an edge for a while and then his 10 years of experience could have been played of for interesting wins.
Instead this movie just dumps on technology like its bad for you and dumps Lightning too.
See all the stuff advertised like Lightning being able to wind the clock up again? Doesn't happen. Lightning is incapable of doing much of anything in this movie it seems, except training his only slightly younger replacement.
Lightning being an underdog and training to proving he's still got it? Nope! Lightning's underdog plot is never really looked at and so becomes obsolete in the end as this movies is not really about him.
Lightning coming to race Storm in a spectacular race? Well Storm's barely seen and Lightning never races/beats him. So nope again.
Cruz being a super trainer who helps get Lightning back in the game? Again, this does not happen! Cruz couldn't train a plant pot let-alone Lightning it seems. She's at first deeming, ageist and incompetent, then goes to being even more useless with a boring backstory, before finally becoming a MarySue of all things.
From the moment Lightning meets Cruz, the whole movie just goes down hill. Basically be raceturned trainer, is an ageist little smart mouth who attempts to get Lightning to do the stupids things like naming his tires (seriously?! Does she not realise how many he goes through in a race?) treat him like he's 1000 years old and incontinent. Sure Lightning was out of racing for a few months while recovering but he's not an invalid or a rookie. Basically all her methods and Lightning's behaviour to said methods are stereotypical "younger idiot trying to teach technophobic older guy things" that are done for laughs but I never heard anyone laugh and kids are not interested in seeing their hero being made out as useless like this.
Once outside, the rest of the movie turns into an even bigger mess of various plots stolen from other movies such as rehashed stuff from the first Cars and Planes 2. You can see Rocky 3, 4 elements thrown in along with even more bad jokes, clichés and tropes about genders, age, minorities, and it all boils down to Lightning inadvertently training his own useless trainer (Creed). Lightning sticks her in his big race halfway through (this can't be legal or fair to the other racers) and Cruz wins in the most unrealistic fashion with all the girls cheering for her. Why just the women? Why not everyone else. Where they booing or something? I would have. And the ending saying they both won is a cop out and feels cheap.
Now, I'm not an adverse to seeing growth or changes in a character. I enjoy seeing the hero/heroine take hits and grow, not just do the same thing with no obstacles., women not being racers or good at their jobs without male assistance This movie doesn't do this for Lightning. He's plot as an underdog trying to better himself is overshadowed by cruz's want/need/plot to be his replacement. It goes back and forth like this so the story never feels emotional enough to bother investing in with either character. Plus we've never actually seen Lightning win on stage, just heard about it. So this was a supreme disappointment to those wanting to see him win for once.
This is the first Pixar/Disney film to have left me feeling so disappointed that I wanted to cry. It gets 1-star for the visuals and one more star because I did enjoy it up until Lightning got to the Rusteze centre but after that, the movies garbage! It will possibly be watchable to some kids ( under 5's ) and adults who aren't bothered by the movies "plot? What plot?" Story but I don't know anyone who likes this movie. It borderline flopped at the box office and made less money world wide, after earning back its budget, than all other Pixar films except The Good Dinosaur. The main reviews simply praise it for not being Cars 2 and not much else. Granted, some like it but many others, like me, don't like this film.
And if there is to be a Cars 4 starring Cruz? No thanks! I'm so done seeing the franchises that I love being destroyed by Disney and their ever-growing greed. This movie was a cashgrab and it's clear the writers had no respect or inclination to depict the characters we love as they should be or grow them properly. So thank you Disney, Pixar, for ruining cars and for this film being one biggest disappointment of 2017. Screw you! -
omelaphaga17 September 2018I had to say that since so many people were kept away and buy this one fear. The movie is what I hoped it would be. And yet, ended in such a way that I did not expect and was thankful for at the same time. It is a slow movie, so know that going in. Loved all of it.
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Rey-116 July 2017This was a completely disappointing effort. I think we have to acknowledge that Pixar's tank is empty at this point. It was a very muddled, confused story, with minimal plot, just a few set pieces strung together.
I appreciate Lightning's character arc, but it didn't pay off. OK, he's getting old, starting to get beat by the younger, higher tech cars. Interesting premise. At the beginning, they ignore the idea that cars can actually change their tech - could Lightning try to "get in shape" by improving his aerodynamics, suspension, handling, etc.? No, he just gets old and gets bypassed.
And he's aided by a "trainer" who expects to get him ready for a race in just a couple weeks, by putting him on a 5 MPH treadmill. She's pretty inept, I expected her to get thrown by the wayside.
BUT WAIT! The inept trainer is actually a racer! Who's never raced before? But, a day racing on the beach, a night on a moonshine run, and a few days on a dirt track, and a demolition derby, make it clear to us that this is now a main character. A boring, predictable, main character.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING HERE.
And the final twist is the most unrealistic thing I have seen in a movie in years, I can't understand how this made it past the first draft of the script. You know how, if you don't run any qualifying heats, you get to race in the championship, you just have to start last? No?
You know how, in a marathon, they just let anyone trade numbers, and the person finishing the race is not the person who started? Really, you don't? And how you can just pick someone out of the crowd to finish the race for you, they don't have to be on your team, or regulated in any way by the race? You don't? Well, the writers of this movie know all those things.
You know how, if you have no idea about the rules of a game or sport, and you try to write a movie about it, you risk making something completely unrealistic, that takes the audience out of its suspension of disbelief entirely? The writers of the movie never heard that rule either. And the movie ends on this absolutely farcical idea, which is awful. Even worse, Lightning's story arc is resolved in an unsatisfying way, and Cruz's story arc was set up so inartfully that it basically means nothing to her. And it certainly meant nothing to me as a viewer.
Still, better than Cars 2. -
j-581833 November 2017I love anime, video games and comics of all kinds. Disney, Pixar, you get the picture. My whole family is like this. I loved the original cars and thought cars 2 was good too. So when I saw the posters and trailers for cars 3, I thought hey! A cool looking comeback type movie. I was so disappointed, as was everyone else I know who watched this movie.
Lightning McQueen has been racing for a good 10 years and basically these newer, more technological advanced cars come along, beating everyone else. Lightning crashes ( not that this is paid any attention to) and decides to keep racing. But first he must retrain himself to get better, faster and all that. His new boss thinks he should just retire but Lightning convinces him to let him race once more. But he has to train with a new trainer called Cruz. She's loud, irritating and useless. Basically Lightning has to train her and spends the whole movie doing so. We also learn she wanted to be a racer but lacked confidence.
After going to his deceased mentors hometown, Lightning trains with all these old cars (with Cruz stealing the spotlight and getting upgrades whilst Lightning doesn't) but it isn't enough. So come the time of his big race, Lightning has not got faster, better or anything. He does pretty good in the race but decides to put Cruz in the race to give her a chance to be a racer. It leads to a terrible ending that just ruins the movie. Lightning is still declared a winner, along with Cruz, and decides to train her before going back to racing. It's a very safe, yay we're all winners, hey everyone look girls can race look look look!!! (Yes we are very much aware that we can Pixar) This forced ending hasn't sat well with a lot of fans and I am not surprised.
The good parts of the movie are the animation and music, so a star for those but nothing else.
The bad parts are:
The way Lightning is treated this whole movie. Because he's supposed to be over 30 or something, so he's portrayed as useless, age-shamed constantly, called past his prime and incapable of using technology. You can see this in how many of the cars, both younger and older treat lightning. They constantly tell him he's super old. It's sort of like semiotics, using imagery and speech to get an idea across. The idea here appears to be to make kids think Lightning is old and they need new characters. Pixar could seriously have done heaps to make Lightning better. I know that other cars throughout the series have had upgrades and mods to get faster and lighter so why not Lightning? This movie was marketed as a comeback movie. It's not. Lightning never races his rival or really trains or anything. He just looks after his useless trainer and gets made fun of. Pixar basically shoehorn him into becoming Doc when he was never even like him! And not everyone gets or becomes a mentor you know.
Next would be the whole attitude towards ages and genders throughout the movie. Old people are to be made fun off and can't use tech whilst young people love tech but cannot handle the outside. This is garbage! I'm just into my 30's and love technology. I love my consoles and iPad and everything. You'll see me in the gym as much as you would outdoors. The same can be said of my friends, siblings and their kids. It's rubbish this whole lazy or technology dependent millennial or gen z kid stereotypes.
Also Pixar could have had mixed gender characters throughout their cars movies, y'know more girl racers or ones who are ambiguous but no, they don't. This is their choice to not include others and now their throwing in one who feel like a cheap, Mary Sue, supposed-to be-girl-Lightning type character.
Next, Cruz. If she is to be the new face of Cars, i'm Done with this series. She the technology reliant hip 20 something who cannot function outside. She's supposed to be a super trainer but she cannot train Lightning at all. She a fitness trainer at most not a race trainer. She has to be given everything. Her win at the destruction derby was only got from Lightning protecting her, even her chance as a racer was given. Lightning and the other racers worked their way through training, races, the big leagues, everything. They were pros. They worked for everything. Cruz has some talent, does some training but that's it. Plus she only does half of the big race whilst everyone else does the full thing. That's cheap and cheating. What we need are female characters who can do it themselves, work for their career. Not half-ass their way everywhere.
The other characters in the movie are pretty forgettable and you see very little of the people from Radiator Springs. Sally would have been way better at coaching Lightning. It was her who got him to go back to racing in the first place.
And the whole movies plot just feels like a mess of plots from other movies (creed) the first cars, with too much crammed in or not resolved, complete with lame jokes and disappointment. Seriously, I look up the word disappointment in the dictionary and see a picture of Cars 3 and nothing else needs to be said. Cannot believe that this is the end to the Cars series. I mean you don't just ruin the main character of a series like this. When I play halo, I want the Master Chief. When I play Tomb Raider, I want Lara Croft. Not only that but this film grossed 100 million less than both the other car films and is no.17 out of Pixar's 18 films. That says something about this film alright. -
2 out of 5 stars (has some good moments, but is overall bad)
Anyone who knows me knows that I love Pixar. They have provided my generation with animated classics finding heart, humor, and emotion in ideas that seem poised to fail. However, Pixar's track record as of late has been very hit-and-miss, alternating between tear-inducing masterpieces like "Inside Out" and serviceable fair like "Brave". Every film studio has a few hiccups, but Pixar used to be the outlier, the company my generation could depend on for grade-A entertainment, and, if anything, allow us now 20-somethings to watch an animated movie and not have to lower our standards "because it's for kids."
"Cars 3" wants desperately to be one of the great Pixar movies: At points it delivers honest truths about the cruel nature of the racing industry and has a great number of laughs, but the film is less than the sum of its parts. For every emotional moment, witty line, or thrilling race sequence, there is a lazy joke or painful bit of writing. The film is caught between being a more realistic dramedy dealing with mature themes, or just settle with entertaining young children (which, in my theater, it completely failed to do). I've definitely seen worse children's films, but "Cars 3" hurt me more because it had promise.
We once again follow Lightening McQueen (Voiced by a bored-sounding Owen Wilson) at the top of his game, with pals Mater (Voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), Sally (Voiced by Bonnie Hunt), and all the other side "caracters" by his side. However, Lightening's racing career is threatened by rising hotshot Jackson Storm (Voiced by Armie Hammer), who causes him to wreck during a big race and take time out to change his game plan at a tech-heavy training center. Unfortunately, Lightening is paired with ultra fangirl Cruz, who is as good at training as I am at Calculus, forcing him to work harder than ever, and possibly realize that he's reached the end of the road.
I have never loved this franchise. "Cars" was fine if unremarkable, and "Cars 2" was total kiddishness. "Cars 3" falls somewhere in the middle, with unexpected drama and moments of poignancy, but also having the overly childish humor. I thoroughly enjoyed the racing sequences in this film, and there are several moments of witty banter that made me laugh out loud, but those elements failed to coalesce into an entertaining whole for me. The film wants to emulate "Toy Story 3", which was more of a dark prison drama than a family comedy, but the difference between the two franchises is that "Toy Story" entertained children AND adults, while "Cars" primarily entertains kids. Kids who loved the first two films in this series will love this one too, but those of us who never understood the appeal of this series will gain very little from this one.
"Cars 3" has occasional funny lines, good racing sequences, and unexpectedly poignant drama, but childish humor once again kills any dramatic weight that could have existed otherwise.
Rated G -
I was not expecting this to be this mature, one of Pixar's best opening 15 minutes that sets up the surprisingly compelling comeback story for Lightning. The Cars movies were not really my cup of tea and I'm of the belief that the second one is actually better than the first because of it's utterly ludicrous nature. But, to this movies credit, the racing scenes are gorgeous especially the training sequences. I think the design of the cars has always been pretty ugly, specifically the mouths, but here everything that doesn't have to do with the design of the cars is really fantastic stuff that Pixar should be proud of. I was also surprised about the emotional angle of this movie and how it really snuck up on me, with an emphasis on Doc and how he influenced McQueen, more offscreen of course, the movie is able to balance it's main arc much better. Having not seen a Pixar movie in a while, the brisk pacing was certainly welcome and the writers really did a great job mixing old footage from the first Cars in with "vintage" footage we'd never seen of Doc Hudson and such. It didn't bog down the story and actually added to the weight of it, I felt myself getting a bit emotional at a few points despite not having an emotional connection to the first movie. Finally, it was nice to see Doc and Lightning have a better relationship portrayed than the one they had in the first film, one of the reasons I never really connected to it was because I never felt that Doc actually liked Lightning.
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lesleyharris3028 August 2017Cars 3 is a decent movie with a reasonably well developed plot and a great voice cast. It certainly has its moments, a pleasure as always to see these lovable characters once again, particularly Lightning McQueen and Mater, who have a terrific back and forth with one another as always. There is also a very sweet, hard hitting message as we see McQueen accepting his fate and realising it is his time to pass on the torch, the final fifteen minutes certainly serves as an effective finale to the series.
I am somewhat heartbroken to be rating a Pixar film below an eight, but the quality of this film is far less than what I have come to expect from this studio. It is a very slow moving ninety minutes that I would imagine would get quite tedious for kids. It tries too hard to remain grounded, but is not gritty enough for that to be effective, it is far too innocent.
It is also rarely funny, I am not saying this in a way that the jokes fall flat, but it actually does not try to be humorous for very long periods. It has a droll, bland tone throughout, an annoying new character and a very small amount of screen time from all the characters who made the original two harmless fun, bar Lightning.
Expected much more from my favourite animation studio. A disappointing conclusion to an enjoyable series, Cars 3 is nothing more than a movie made for merchandising, the kids may love it, but there is very little here for adults.
Lightning McQueen struggles to keep up with a new generation of racers and technology. -
**I first wrote this review on 11/15/17 but it never got published. If something seems off or outdated, this is the reason why.**
This film universe is a little weird. I mean really, it is. We all have questions that we never really get many answers to regarding how much we can personify these cars as humans. Apparently they do consume and excrete, they require fuel, and that there aren't humans (I guess they are the humans); I still don't understand the idea of adolescent cars, what their limits are for speed when they're racing (sometimes it seems like Lightning just 'wills' himself to a higher position), how they build stuff, where they come from, why they need seats/doors or if they're even aware of what they are, etc. Perhaps it's best to not overthink it, but this is the first franchise for Pixar where the seemingly off-putting set of protagonists (toys, bugs, monsters, rats, robots) do not really serve a larger purpose for their message, and instead are kind of just... there. You can argue the Route 66 elements are important as well, so I'll give them that as much as anybody else will.
Many audience members are somewhat turned off by the models though, as it's just too weird to think about. I'll say one thing: everybody and their mother suggested Pixar should have used the headlights as the eyes, and their response in Cars 2 was about as punctually adequate as can be. I didn't see a big visual leap in the models from Cars 1 - 3 after a decade of work, but there were some nice little touches that a Blu-ray can help pick up which I have enjoyed the progression in. I did expect a bit more of a graphical upgrade on that front, since the surrounding environments all looked so beautiful and that crash teaser trailer even looked fantastic. But I digress, these animated films are definitely about more than just their animation.
Although the majority do not speak very highly of the Cars franchise in comparison to Pixar's other stellar efforts, people still look back at the first film in higher regard given the simpler message of taking the road less traveled and appreciating the journey every bit as much as the destination, including the people you meet along the way. It was humble and innocent. Though I think people give Pixar too much credit for just that. Other films have done this exact same thing; in fact, there is a film I saw called Finding Normal which I likened to Cars by all of the character connections, though it was made after it so I guess I have to give Cars some credit here. Cars 2 messed this up tremendously for the majority of moviegoers, throwing a Mater spin-off in our faces as we had pretty much a spy flick, with new characters for Pixar to merchandise off-and they would probably admit as much as well. As unfortunate as this was, I was thoroughly entertained by Cars 2. It is not good, but it's also not unenjoyable either. Definitely not up to Pixar's standards, though it still had its own message: accept your friends for who they are and not what you want them to be (I think that's what it was?).
So now Cars 3 comes along, yet here we are still all clamoring for an Incredibles sequel, which thankfully is coming. However, I think John Lasseter wanted to right the ship a little bit. For one, he downright ignored Cars 2 completely. If you didn't see it, you didn't miss a thing. Not a single new character from that film appeared here, no references to what happened as they went world-traveling, nothing. Skipping out on it becomes no loss whatsoever. Secondly, he gave Mater and non-car operated machinery (boats, planes, cranes... you name it) their chance in the limelight in the second film, and stuck to cars only this time around, tossing Mater to the side thank goodness. Lastly, they focused again on Lightning McQueen and the evolution of his character through the time that has gone by, back to true-and-blue circuit racing roots. It was appreciable that they did this, and for the most part I will say it worked very well.
Cars 3 is a sign of the times, both old and new. With the way sports are changing today, this was the perfect time for it to release. The new kinds of technology put in place in this film-from the cars to the training regimens to the statistical analysis-were all thrown in showing what modernists can offer to the traditionalists, possibly even aging them out to retirement. However, for Cars 3 to instill its motto in having some heart to compete, its moral stances on racing didn't get too lost in the dust. It stuck to several roots that Cars established (training in dirt roads, drifting, being one with the road) and clearly paid homage to Rocky III and Rocky Balboa (comeback story of a washed-up veteran, racing on the beach, training montage, calling a car Cal Weathers... seriously?). Not to mention there were a lot of callbacks to how Doc Hudson mentored Lightning, which paid off by the time the credits rolled. I like how both sets of times clashed on this one (and not in a James Bond way like Cars 2), because I think that was the next step up for this franchise to evolve properly. In essence, this was a faithful sequel to the first film. You can argue all you want as to whether it should exist, but since it does I think most can admit they did it properly.
Literally speaking of which, at about the 75-minute mark of this film I literally said out loud, "This film is doing no wrong." I liked what I was watching. There were a couple of strong heartfelt moments, not as strong as Cars but not too bad either. There were some scenes that I could have done without, but at the same time if I ever do buy a 3D version of this they are also the scenes I would want to replay most in that setting. Then with maybe fifteen minutes left to go in the film, they take a left turn. I'll admit it was a bit of a surprise and even somewhat more of a letdown (let me just say that the sign of the times really showed here, and if you saw my little mini-rant in the Family Guy thread then you may be able to guess what I'm talking about) because Pixar just had to be different, or rather just had to be modern. I won't fault them for feeling they needed to do what they did, but let me just say that I have the easiest rewrite in the books that gets us to the exact same place when the credits roll without needing to detour a little bit. I have a slight feeling that if they didn't pull this stunt, the several folks (including critics visible on Rotten Tomatoes) who decided to undersell this film would have evened it out in the end. I don't hate what they did, but they honestly could have done without it. Nevertheless, I'll go with as I said in my previous paragraph: since they did it, I can go ahead and say they also executed it pretty well in the process, because they really could have butchered it.
Call me less a fan of the first Cars film than other people seem to somewhat appreciate it for, a completist for being mildly amused at the second film enough to own it on Blu-ray, and a happy-go-lucky fan of this third Cars film that capped off the trilogy in such a way that, although with a little bump at the very end, was indeed a redeeming chapter of this franchise for what it started with. Pixar easily could have allocated its resources in other films, and it looks like we're getting the payoff now with an Incredibles 2, a Toy Story 4, and four originals (including Coco, where if you blink you might miss the small Easter egg Cars 3 had for it). Sue them for wanting to eek out a little profit here and there, but in a world where the Cars films exist I think it's better off with 3 in the books than if the trilogy-closer did not come to light, even if it means we have to wait a little longer for Pixar to sprinkle out hopefully some more magic in the coming years. -
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. -
There will be spoilers...
Oh boy, where to begin.
I'll start with the elephant in the review section: The accusations of "sexism" and "political correctness". Yes, it's true, there is a female car in the film who happens to be a talented race car. The horror!! Look, I get it. I hate having a blatant agenda shoved down my throat. Ghostbusters, I'm looking at you. This wasn't that. Not even a little bit. If you think it was, well, what can I say. Maybe you should just go home to your bunker and watch Breitbart.
The bigger, and I think slightly more understandable, issue is that of the overall message of the film: our heroes getting older, and the end of McQueen's career as a race car. Hey folks, time marches on. People change, even our role models. If your kid can't handle McQueen passing the torch on to a younger, more adequate player, then maybe you should plop your brat in front of the TV with Cars 1 on a loop. News Flash: this is real life! It happens in all sports. Baseball, Football, Basketball, REAL RACING! Whether we like it or not, our heroes at some point become too old to do what they do. Progress happens. We improve. As a baseball fan, I see it every single year. Players we love go away, and new blood comes in. The message in this movie is exactly that. Kids need to learn from a young age that you can't have the same guy up there doing the same thing every day. Heck, if Cars 1 took place in the 1950s and was about the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, people would be complaining about a new car called Lightning McQueen. What an incredibly boring world it would be if Lightning McQueen always won every single race and no other cars came along to improve on the sport. He isn't becoming less of a hero, he's not being emasculated. His accomplishments aren't being diminished in any way. He's helping the next generation to become a hero too! And so what if that new hero is female? By taking this apparently contentious route, Pixar has opened up the Cars franchise to years and years of new material. New heroes will emerge and some will go away. I for one am delighted by this new direction. I was concerned with the let down that was Cars 2 that the third installment would be useless. It wasn't, not even remotely. Cars 3 is fantastic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My 3 year old son, who is obsessed with McQueen, loved it too. -
Even my son was asking throughout then entire 1 hour middle portion of the movie , "why aren't they racing, is he gonna race Jackson storm ...". I just kept saying yeah son eventually. Then it's the female that ends up racing in the end and my 5 year old son experience his first episode of disappointment and fraud. How do you explain to a 5 year old that it's politics and the moral of the story is no longer innocent heroic comebacks but now it's about equal opportunity and forcing ideas on young minds. Kids just want to see a good , animated race movie AS ADVERTISED!!! Instead it's 10 minutes of racing, and an hour and a half of training and build up that leaves you asking yourself... did this have to be nearly two hours long?! Garbage
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Ramascreen12 June 2017#Cars3 is speed with heart. It's fun, exciting and emotionally endearing. The first film was about a lost small town USA and the humbling of a cocky racer. The second movie didn't quite know what it wanted to be, part espionage, part mistaken identity, part global tournament, all wrapped up in a poor attempt to address friendship. But this third installment is about the racer becoming the mentor while at the same time honoring the legacy of a very important person in McQueen's life, Hudson Hornet, who's voiced by the the late great actor whom we cinema deeply miss seeing on screen, Paul Newman.
In "Cars 3," Lightning McQueen suddenly finds himself blindsided by a new generation of blazing fast racers. He's seeing himself and his fellow race mates forced to retirement. Refusing to be told when he should call it quit, McQueen is determined to get back in the game, acquiring the help of a new sponsor and a young trainer who's secretly wanting to be a racer. But all that only brings McQueen to the doorstep of his own inspiration, the late fabulous Hudson Hornet. This enlightenment will prove once again whether or not Lightning McQueen still has what it takes to be a champion.
It's obvious from "Cars 3" that Pixar had learned the lessons of their mistake or blunder that was "Cars 2." The story in "Cars 3" is more coherent, clear and straightforward and it goes back to Pixar's strongest strategy which is to appeal to our deepest emotions. It doesn't necessarily rehash the first film, but more of presenting our hero deciding for himself to take on the next chapter of life that is just as fully rewarding as beating his opponents on the race track, which I think is a well put progression in McQueen's evolution as a character.
I think you'll be wowed at the film's excellent effort in pulling parallels between Hudson Hornet's experience and what McQueen is going through. It's like every piece fits into its place naturally, like it's meant to be. The new rival, Jackson Storm makes the cocky McQueen in the first film look tame. You don't see much of Mater this time around, but that's actually not a bad thing. You'll love some of the new racing tricks that "Cars 3" has up its sleeves, I'm entertained by them and I'm not even a Nascar fan. And the rookie/trainer who secretly wants to race, Cruz Ramirez will surprise you at every corner, that one is like a an eager young prodigy whose skills are just waiting to be discovered given the right opportunity. The themes basically ask the inevitable questions of what we all should do when we get older and are no longer able to do some of the things we love, what would be the the options then. And so I think "Cars 3" does an excellent job of letting you know that if you've reached the point of success, we should then do our part to now guide, train, teach others to reach their point of success too. Don't burn the bridge behind you.
-- Rama's Screen -- -
By the end of this movie, people will wonder why the rest of the movie even exists. The story and plot for the third movie in this series seems relatively unfinished, as if the story line should have been split into two different movies. The story doesn't know what it wants to be, and this becomes very apparent during the film's climax and resolution.
The trailers for "Cars 3" showed that the story was going to take place much later in Lightning McQueen's career, and it does. One of the things this movie does really well is showing the passing of time with the idea that technology only becomes bigger, faster, and stronger than the past technological advances. Lightning McQueen was the best in his time, but now the future has caught up with him, making one of the fastest racers in this story line officially outdated. This, however, doesn't become the major plot when a new character is introduced; Cruz Ramirez.
When this character comes into play, it's very visible to see that this is no longer Lightning McQueen's story, for she desperately wants to be one of the greatest racers of her time, just like Lightning McQueen was during his golden days. This shift in the story conflicts with the Lightning McQueen vs. Jackson Storm story plot, eventually making that rivalry completely pointless at the end of this film.
Lightning McQueen steps down from his racing place and sets in Cruz to take his spot during the final race with Jackson Storm, which is where the movie falls flat on it's face. By erasing the rivalry between Lightning McQueen and Jackson Storm, the whole movie is basically rendered as pointless. There is no purpose for this film by having Cruz take up the mantle for Lightning McQueen, and as I said before, this is where the two story lines become one giant mess. Cruz beats Jackson Storm and Lightning McQueen is still allowed to coach Cruz into being a great racer.
As for the characters in this movie, the original cast is not really near Lightning too much in this film, kind of rendering them to be pointless as well. They're there at some points, but not enough to make them important in any sort of way, which makes them a huge waste of screen time when they appear within a scene. Jackson isn't developed and is barely even in the movie at all except for the first race, parts where they mention him beating his old speed records, and also the final race at the end of the movie. The only characters that are a little bit more developed are Cruz and Lightning McQueen. Every other character is just shoehorned into the movie to advance through the story.
Overall, this movie might be great for kids or it might put them to sleep. It's a 50/50 shot with this movie because it's not like the story was dragging, it just had uninteresting characters. As for the fans of the first Cars movie, they'll find that Cars 3 was better than the second entry, but nowhere near as good as the first one. Definitely save your money on this one and wait for the cheaper DVD release. -
What happened?... Are they trying to shutdown some "old" franchises?... this movie is a total anti-climax, you go in full of expectations and go out trying to forget it... to keep the good old memories... it is sad... they completely abandoned the universe created in Cars 1 and 2 and all other spin-offs... they tried to do something new, a new perspective, but did not develop anything beyond a scratch deep... nothing makes any sense... no fun... no logical connection among story developments... I will try to forget it... but it will be though... in the end there is no hero left...