#lightning.

We’ll start with a few nitpicks:

Storm felt kinda bland. He was pretty generic. He wasn’t enough of a jerk to despise (or love as a bad guy), but he also wasn’t nice enough to be sympathetic as a new Rookie (aka a new Rookie the same way Lightning was). So his roll felt kinda pointless. He was a mile marker more than a character, and that was disappointing.

I wish there had been a few Cars 2 cameos. I know why there wern’t, but I’m not asking for big things. Nothing huge -- just throw away shots. Would it have hurt to have Holly Shiftwell be at least mentioned at some point. She was dating Mater at the end of movie two. Are they still together? I don’t know. I want to, though. And as much as I loved Cal & McQueen’s little banter with him on the track as buddies, he was no Francesco (I miss Francesco). He was McQueen’s friend. He could have been in the crowd. Or something.

I know a lot of people hate Cars 2 and wish it didn’t exist, but there’s a lot of us who enjoyed it and I refuse to let it be ignored, gosh darn it!

But back to Cars 3 before I get too far ahead of myself.

So we’ll end on the big one: I’m so torn on the ending.

One the one hand -- Cruz getting to be a racer and McQueen being a mentor figure? That was awesome. I’m super happy about that.

(Though I wish her number had been 20 at the end. It was the number she got in her first race & first win, and it would have meant more to her. She didn’t really care about Doc & he wasn’t a personal influence, so it doesn’t feel right that Cruz got his number, even if I understand the gesture).

But on the other hand:

I WANTED MCQUEEN TO WIN AND BEAT STORM GOSH DARN IT (That technical win doesn’t count for me).

That guy hasn’t been allowed to win a giant, plot-relevant race in three movies. NOT A SINGLE ONE. Chick Hicks won the first Piston Cup plot race (which he reminded us about often in this movie and it was a delight every time). The World Race didn’t get an ending, so we have no idea who won that one. So this was his last chance to win and he...he didn’t get to.

He gave up on himself.

Like, if Cruz had been showing racing speeds close to Jackson’s level the entire movie and confidence was her only issue, that would have been one thing. It would have made more sense for Lightning to go “She’s so much better than me she should really be in here.”

But she wasn’t. Lightning was hitting 196/197 on his practice runs, too. They were pretty close -- which means if Cruz could win, so could have Lightning. He could have pulled off Doc’s move. That feels like it would have been a way better throwback to the man’s legacy than the...paint job.

Heck, my perfect scenario involved Lightning & Cruz as rivals on the track. He’s not that old. The dude is in his 40′s, not his 80′s. 

I would have even been happy if Lightning had won and then turned around and said “I decide, and I decide I want to sponsor Cruz as her crew chief after this season.” or something. I don’t know.

I just wanted him to win, so, so bad.

The comparison of Lightning to Doc also got...a little old. On the one side, Smokey telling McQueen that he made Doc happy -- that was amazing. I loved that moment.

On the other, implying that Doc was happier as the crew chief than he was racing and that McQueen should learn to move on now that he was “done”...eh. I don’t...I don’t buy that. Doc was miserable. He found a way to be happy again helping McQueen race, yes, but I don’t think that he wouldn’t have been happier racing with McQueen instead.

(Back to the: Man it would be awesome for McQueen & Cruz to be rivals on the track. Young & Old competing together).

The whole aging thing in the Cars Universe is where my disbelief starts slipping a bit. They’re cars. They can replace and update parts. They do it all the time. In Cars 2 someone converted from gas to electric. In Planes we see them replace major parts all the time.

Whatever was causing Lightning to be slow...could have been upgraded or replaced?

But that’s a whole other tangent.

So yeah. I would have liked more with Storm as an antagonist (Lightning taking Cruz & Storm under his wing could have been fun), and I just...I wanted him to win. XD

(This is why I can’t write an objective review right now. Because objectively, that movie ending was fantastic. Swapping out for Cruz and pointing out the number was the only thing that had to be the same was really smart and it was such a great moment for her, but I digress again--I just...I love Lightning.)

And Lightning needs to go back to wearing Red, right now. I know you love Doc. We all love Doc. But that paint job looked really bad. Go back to red with lightning bolts. Please. XD

Despite all that though, it was a great movie (Oh my gosh the Thunder Hollow race was the literal best and the “Are you sure you were in a demo derby? Not a scratch on you” call to it), and personal misgivings aside, it wasn’t a bad ending by any means.

But until then, I’m going to pretend Lightning won and he and Cruz are rivals and that at some point he smokes them both on a dirt track because did you see him in that derby? Jackson would have been eaten alive.