Gordon-11 This film tells the story of a young Australian boy who just lost his mother to a car accident. He finds new purpose in life by making paper planes that fly far, and competes in interval international competitions."Paper Planes" has a predictable plot and is full of stereotypical characters, such as a fat bully and a naughty grandfather. Yet, the film is sweet and fun. It breathes of positivity and hope, encouraging children and adults to look on the bright side and believe in yourself. It reminds people to look out for each other and be supportive of people going through a tough time.

david-rector-85092 Just when you thought there were no new rite of passage stories to tell? Along comes 'Paper Planes'. This is a well made, textured tale which is deceptively simple in approach, but with much to say about grief, loss, peer pressure, ambition, ego and pride. Ostensibly this is a film about folding pieces of paper and making them fly far!!!! It is about so much more. Director and Co-writer Robert Connolly has made some serious movies in his career including Balibo, The Bank and as Producer of the award winning The Boys and Romulus my Father. This foray into filmmaking, looks on paper, pardon the pun, as a softer option, but at a closer inspection, there are as I've outlined some weightier themes. The film and its success do rest on 2 ingredients: 1 The terrific visual effects that allow both the paper planes and the films narrative to take flight. 2 The casting and performance of Ed Oxenbould in the leading role. With acting parents and an uncle who was a child star of film and television, 12 year old Ed has racked up 3 major film roles within a 12 month period - in two Hollywood features and this Australian production. Ed has such intelligence and sensitivity on screen, and yet he never appears inauthentic or tryhard; difficult when in virtually every scene and required to act off some pretty heavy hitting screen partners: Sam Worthington, Deb Mailman and veteran Terry Norris. In some scenes Ed seemed like a boy; in others as a young man, the timing of shooting is critical when filming a story about a rite of passage into manhood and especially when the narrative carries grief and loss as well in that mix. Big things are predicted for this young actor.There are some broadly sketched characters, and some (David Wenham's sport star and Dad to the movie's villain) are underwritten. Other reviewers have commented on Sam Worthington's moping father routine, but I thought he carried it pretty well; a point of difference to his usual strident and big character roles. At the end of the day, this is the young man's story as he finds an expression for his energies and for his own losses. It is that which lifts this movie above just being a family friendly film about aiming for the sky and hoping to win. It also points to the degree that society and our kids have lost touch with the simple things. The symbolism of paper planes for a bygone era resonated with this baby boomer. It is the astute writing and naturalistic performance by the lead, that elevate this into something more significant about growing up, the importance of loyalty and mateship and the mantra of never giving up. I'm really pleased this movie has found an audience and will long be remembered, even with all the paper folding.

Reno Rangan 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

jonschaper 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.