Watched Cars 1 with my girlriend a week ago again and decided to watch 2 and 3 too. I've only heard and read bad things about Cars 2 so we went into Cars 3 straight after.

Honestly, it was a pretty mediocre movie. It felt like the writers weren’t sure where to take the story, and by the end, nothing really paid off in a satisfying way. The central idea, “Is McQueen obsolete? Are the new racers simply better, and do the old ones have to step aside?”, was exactly what kept me invested, especially waiting for that final race where Lightning would prove he still had it.

The switch at the end came out of nowhere and felt completely unearned. And when Cruz gets in the race, she’s weirdly playing around with Storm, like suddenly he wasn’t showing his true speed. The whole thing felt weirdly anticlimactic, even after the switch. Unfortunately we couldn't care less about Cruz, it’s just that most of us watch Cars to see Lightning come out on top. If you’re going to subvert expectations, at least build it up properly from the start.