There's an old adage: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Well, Pixar and John Lasseter I think have a different take on that saying. When life gives you lemons, make them the baddies and make another wonderful movie out of them." (Oh, right, spoilers! The lemons are the baddies.) Now, for those of you who don't live, eat, and breathe cars (no, not the movie, the machines) and think that when I say lemon I mean a fruit, let me explain: a lemon is a bad car. And not just a bar car, but an AWFUL car. The ones that break down all the time, can't go more than 20 miles without breaking down, why in the name of sanity did I buy this piece if rubbish car. You know the ones I'm talking about. That being explained, for people not car savvy, you'll still enjoy this movie. Yes, yes, some jokes and visual gags ("Big Bentley," car-goyles) may go over your head, but it is still an wonderful little movie.
So, I shall explain the good (cars, characters, Mater, Lightening), the bad (Allinol, Jason Issacs), and the awesome (Michael Caine, visuals, music, message).
The good:
Oh, Lewis Hamilton and Jeff Gordon. I love that they agreed to do this and be in the movie. I also loved all the cars, and the car jokes, and how all the buildings and landscape are car-like. I love all the Range Rovers protecting the Queen, all the Audis, the Lambos--love it. So many cars. It made me very happy. And the cinematography concerning the race scenes was excellent. I loved it.
The characters were also good. Fin McMissile was wonderfully Bond like. And Holly Shiftwell was fun. Luigi and Guido were wonderful too. The scene where Lightning and their dad chat while they fight over the girls is adorable. Guido was adorable anyway. “Peet stop.” Speaking of Italians--Francesco was arrogant, a touch annoying, and great. Loved him too.
Mater and Lightening--oh. I love them. They have a fun bromance. I love it. But before that, their fighting was brilliant. Good place to arc from for Lightening. And Mater’s arc into accepting who he is was great. The both of them were touching and funny. However, there wasn’t enough Lightening. Really, there was too much Mater, not enough of any of the other characters. At least Mater was funny the whole time. Heh. The Japanese bathroom scene...aw, that’s jus’ too good.
The bad:
Okay. Now, I do like this movie. I really do, but--do you remember Abrams "Star Trek"? Remember the red matter? Remember how it was the mother of all plot holes? How it sounded great, but then you thought about it for five seconds and realized how weak it was? Yeah. Allinol is this movie's "red matter." It sounds really good. Renewable fuel source that has some little mirco particles that freak out when hit by an electro-magnetic ray gun that were discovered/made by a gas guzzler turned electric, and which is approved by Filmore, Lightning’s eco-friendly hippie van--sounds nice. It has a few issues though.
For starters it’s just gas with little micro-particles, something FIlmore would have known and not have kept quiet after he realized it in the beginning of the movie. Why wouldn’t he have said anything? Cos it would have been a massive conspiracy that a 60s/70s sort of hippie would have LOVED to expose.
Secondly, why wouldn’t the villain, who explained the micro-particle thing, have known about the fact that the Allinol is just gas? He would have said it when he explained it to gloat or whatever.
Thirdly, the gas guzzler, Axelrod, looked like he was probably a Range Rover of sorts. That is NOT a lemon. So why would a non-lemon team up with lemons after discovering a renewable source of energy that would not only make him LOADS of money, BUT would make him the planet’s hero? Would he do it for more oil? Debatable, but I think not.
Lastly, the “independent” panel would have discovered why Allinol is. And if not them, someone would have. Honestly. You couldn’t keep that secret for that long. Basically, Allinol is one terribly massive plot hole.
Now, for my other problem: Jason Issacs. There simply wasn’t enough of him and his voice. Yeah. That’s really all I have to say about him. Oooh. Him and Bruce Campbell. Not enough of either of them. Alas.
The awesome:
Okay. Michael Caine. I love him. He’s great. I mean, he’s Michael Caine. Can he make a bad movie? No. No, he can’t. He’s entertaining, funny, smooth, and, as usual, a bit sexy. He’s sort of Bond. I love him. I really enjoyed his performance because it wasn’t just funny, but caring and genuine. Yay, Michael Caine!
Ah, the visuals. The opening scene is on the water and I was impressed right off the bat by Pixar. And it just kept getting better. The facial expressions, the eyes, the landscapes, the skys--it was all excellent and beautiful. I am always impressed by how much better the visuals get with each movie. I recently was watching “The Incredibles” and I couldn’t help but notice how much better the graphics have gotten. They came fairly close to being realistic. Stellar. They were dazzling really. I mean, they put a lot of effort into making everything looking very impressive and they succeeded. They captured the glitz and glamour of “Towkyo,” the class and charm of Monte Carl--I mean Porto Corsa, and the..Englishness of London. Good job, Pixar; good job.
And now we come to Michael Giacchino. Right from the get-go it was great. Very fast, very Bond, but...perhaps a bit too major. Too happy. I dunno. It didn’t have enough tension in the music. But I did like how he took that theme and messed with it using different instruments and different styles. Very clever, sir. I enjoyed it. I actually will by this score on iTunes. That’s how much I liked it. Mind you, I don’t purchase a whole ton of scores (I am a college student--what do you want from me?) when I can listen to them on YouTube, so for me to want to spend money on this score means something. Will it win an Oscar? Well, no. If It gets nominated I shall be pleasantly surprised. But I liked it.
My last “awesome” part is the message. I loved it. It was about the importance of friendship and loving people for who they actually are. Mater and Lightening are fighting because Mater is bumbling about, embarrassing Lightening and then he lost Lightening the race--sort of. Anyway, by the end, Lightening and Mater realize that friendship is very important and worth fighting for. Moreover, Mater gets a girlfriend who love him for who is, not what he looks like. Great morals--makes me happy.
So, overall, I liked it. It had good characters, dialogue, music, visuals--the works; everything except for a really well worked-out plot. That being said, go see it. Go see it without your kids if you want. You will laugh and appreciate the jokes even without them. It is a phenomenal movie with a great message about friendship and love that everyone will like.
Grade: A-
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