Paper Planes

Dylan Weber is a young boy in the Australian outback. His phone is old. His father (Sam Worthington) is sleeping his days away haunted by the lost of his wife. His teacher is tired of the kids with their smart phones. He has them make paper planes and Dylan's first takes off. He has many failed trials until his father shows him the winning sailboat keels. He's inspired to do research and creates a superior plane. Jason Jones is his arrogant winning-obsessed rival with former golf champion dad. It takes him to Sydney first and then Tokyo for the championship.

It's a fine uplifting family film. Considering the subject matter being kids making paper planes, the movie can't be much different than what it turns out to be. It is positive with people overcoming heartbreak. It is good people finding inspirations and bad people turning good. The villain sweeps the leg but in the end, learns a lesson. This is fine family fare.

At first this movie may seem like it is just a film about trying to build the best paper plane in the world but the film encompasses so much more than that. The actual plane building makes up some portions of the film but the rest actually is spent with getting to know the characters and seeing some relationships evolve over the course of the film. This movie had a lot of heart and many emotional scenes especially when it is following the boy's relationship with his father. You really understand these two characters and get to know them and see them really grow. Sam Worthington (Jack) and Ed Oxenbould (Dylan) were great in the film, their relationship felt real and you could buy into their actions and decisions. The overall story was carried by these two characters, mostly the child as you see him progress through the paper plane competition. It is an interesting story, although there was a section 3/4 into the movie that i felt slowed down a little too much just momentarily, but then it picked itself up ad finished off pretty strong.

Where i felt the film could have done a lot better is with the supporting cast. Well, excluding the grandpa, he was the comedic relief in the film and i would have to say he was pretty entertaining and did lighten the mood a few times. There was one bit that was a bit too silly and dramatised but he wasn't the issue. I'm mainly talking about the other child actors in the film, Dylan's school friend and his rival in the competitions i felt at times played too much to their stereotypes. I'm not sure if it was the actors or the writing but sometimes they felt, well, like a character and not a real person. There is also a subplot with another girl that was oddly introduced, it felt very out of place and took me out of it for a bit. But in the end this is a fun, heartfelt story about a boy and his father that takes place during a plane throwing competition, and if you can avoid focusing too much on some of the unrealistic plane throws you can enjoy this movie. - 7

Watching a typical "Afternoon Session" in "Afternoon Session", holidays, very cute and friendly, and there really are paper airplane competitions (sponsored by Red Bull, which "gives you wings"), although here it is merely a fiction, it's very captivating and attractive...

Way too often I see Australian reviewers take it easy on mediocre Australian films because they want to see the Australian film industry succeed. How they think that does anyone any good is perplexing. It encourages mediocrity. It causes Aussie films that are actually good (like The Babadook) to be viewed with suspicion and distrust even when they get good reviews -- because if Paper Planes can get positive ratings for being Australian, so can pretty much anything.

I'll start with the soundtrack. The only song which I imagine was originally written for the movie goes something like this: "The world is full of beauty / So boys and girls shake your booty" (the tune itself is even more devoid of appeal). And then there is what I think is THE most unthinkingly tasteless use of music in a film EVER when the lead boy's grandfather shows up with baked goods while "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" plays. WTF!?!?!?! I'm no prude. That might have worked in an Abrams and Zucker film, but here it is totally out of place. Considering how clueless much of the direction of the film is, I couldn't even bring myself to see it as some sort of deliberately perverse joke. Sort of like people who cluelessly play "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" at funerals, or "Every Breath You Take" at weddings. No, that wasn't creepy at all.

So on to the plot: Sam Worthington is wasted as a man who just spends the entire film moping. He is such a useless weight you just want to slap him. And he's the film's sole source of emotional gravitas. Next, for suspense we have this unusual plot device: The lead boy goes from making the greatest paper airplane ever to instantly forgetting how to make one (I mean, he cannot make a plane that goes more than a few inches), etc -- whatever thecontrived plot needs at the moment. I will avoid getting into that in any more detail to avoid spoiling anything, but the film is so utterly clichéd and paint by numbers you barely have to watch any of the film to know how it will all go.

"BUT", you might say. "It is made for KIDS. They haven't seen (The Wizard / Karate Kid remake / generic kid enters competition film)." And, of course, even in predictable films it is the journey itself that counts. Well, my daughters (almost 4 and 8) haven't seen any of those other films yet, either, and Paper Plans completely failed to hold their attention. Was it because it lacked animated characters? Or was it too mature? Hell, no. In contrast they have, e.g., watched "Bridge to Terabithia" with full attention from start to finish -- a film that actually deals with serious issues like love, loss, bullying, friendship, redemption, etc, effectively, without Sam Worthington moping around like a worthless bum for 5 out of every 10 minutes. Usually the girls comment about the movies we watch together. The only thing either brought up was when the 3 year old asked where the boy's mummy was. Paper Planes is, quite simply, barely watchable garbage. Which is a shame since Sam Worthington and David Wenham are great actors -- even this dog's breakfast of a script cannot hide that fact -- but nothing could possibly save this film.

I found this film to be enjoyable but again lacked polish as a lot of Australian Films tend to do. There is nothing Hollywood about this film. It skips through its plot just fine but it is a bit folksy and heavy handed. It has some nice themes which are quite uplifting. The film is a bit nothingness. Sam Worthington's performance lacks depth as usual and I find it interesting that he didn't even bother to turn up to his own Premiere of the film. Overall an "Ok" film with a nice story but have kind of seen it all before. Perhaps this would have been better released on DVD. With a theatrical release I kind of expected something more.