Did you people see the same film I saw?

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Sometimes we wanted to like the movie, because it was inspiring, family friendly, great cast, performances and so on, but something stops you. Not because of hatred, but the other end of the dislike, i.e., too much tenderness and packed with full of clichés. This Aussie film was one those, a very good concept and I would definitely recommend it, especially for children and families, but seemed everything was plain with no surprises.Partially based on the real events. A young boy named Dylan who lives in Perth, the Western Australia with his dad discovers his skills on the paper plane making and launching. Soon begins to focus it on the professional level by aiming for the junior level competition to represent his country in the upcoming world championship held in Tokyo. How far this unexpected success would take him and how it would help to fix his grieving family is the entire story.Right from the beginning you would know all those going to happen in the length x breadth of the movie. So the spoilers and synopsis won't hurt much if you are yet to watch it. Even the characters planned like that way. For example the boy's friendship with a hawk was not coincidental for this particular movie theme and also his grandpa was a world war 2 pilot. I already lost my interest at that point, but I was unable to dislike this little cute and rare film. I carried on because the boy's courage and passion for the paper planes was not just for his ownness, but everyone around him that gives a change to change."Okay. Here's my advice. Study everything that flies. (Snaps fingers)"There are plenty of mini sub-plots. Anti-bullying was one of the best things and the three different kinds of friendships; a boy from the neighborhood, a girl from the competition and with a bird. The father was kind of depressing and a bad example, but had a good reason for that. That boy's every action was directed to his father to make him look back. Well, the father was Sam Worthington, whose role was insignificant compared to his star value. It influenced to raise the movie value, especially the marketing which makes people come and watch it, but overall he was decent.Okay, fine, to this point all I said about, but missing realism was unable to accept. I'm talking about the flights of the paper planes. It's not like 50 years ago, today we got the very best CGI at production level, that mean you can't omit the actuality and go for the extravaganza. That would work well for commercial films, and this was not one of those. It was suppose to encourage the kids and it did in a way, I appreciate that. Not the best children or Aussie flick that I saw in this mansoon. Even though I had a mixing feeling on this, I quite enjoyed watching it and I hope your opinion would differ to what I said in this review.6/10

This is a sweet, simple little film, but with some interesting and thoughtful themes to get your kids thinking a little more about things they see sometimes, but may not really understand.The biggest of those themes is loss, and the reviewers who don't 'get' Sam Worthingtons character have completely missed this. You don't just 'get over' the loss of your wife five months after her sudden death, everyone has their own way of coming back, and Worthington's character hasn't found that way back when we meet him in the film. He's still lost. And it's his son's understanding of his dads grief that underpins the entire film. It's subtle, but it's the whole driving force of this story. The actual competition that seems to drive the film is actually secondary... but ultimately becomes the catalyst to get the father through his grief and back to 'life'.My 8yo son picked up on this about halfway through the film, when the father refused to sell the piano - he said 'I know why he can't sell it'. The storyline didn't flesh it out until later, when Dylan told Kimi that his mum had been a piano teacher - and this is another thing the film does; it reveals its layers slowly, and for the most part lets its audience figure things out for themselves.The messages and lessons for the target audience start almost from the beginning of the film - it will get kids thinking about sportsmanship, peer pressure, role models, friendship, and loss... and it does so with a good dose of laughter and a sublime sense of the ridiculous - always a winner with kids.Worthington's character didn't really hit his stride until mid film, which was a shame - it left the door open for the less cerebral members of the audience to assume he was just a deadbeat dad, and when those types make that assumption, they'll drop dead before they'll admit to themselves that they were wrong. Not Worthington's fault; the script should have introduced the bereavement earlier than it did.I also think the connection between Dylan's father and grandfather should have been explored a little more. Ultimately we end up knowing nothing about his father other than that he's shattered by the loss of his wife - that's a given, so why didn't we get a little more about the man himself? I slept on my lounge plenty of times myself in the months following my separation from my wife, but if I were a movie character I'd want my audience to know a bit more about me than that fact.Tip - have a decent supply of A4 paper on hand for the morning after watching this movie with your kids :)

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.