Planes (2013) Directed by Klay Hall

Never thought I would say this about anything but this movie is like a bad version of "Turbo"...and "Turbo" wasn't a movie I was very impressed with in the first place.

There is absolutely nothing special about this movie. As a matter of fact, it feels like it should have been released straight to DVD instead. It's that type of movie, with a very weak, predictable and uncreative story, obviously made only to earn a couple of quick bucks with, without ever putting that much effort and creativity into the actual movie.

Well, it's still a good looking movie though but that's about the only thing that this movie has going for it and is the only reason why it still feels a notch above most other straight to DVD releases. It still looks like a high profile movie but when you actually decide to watch it will soon start to become apparent to you that this just isn't a very good movie. Not a good movie at all!

Sure, you can say; at least young kids will still enjoy it but that's of course not saying much about the actual quality of the movie. It's colorful and flashy and has some fun looking characters in it but that's of course just the surface of things. Thing with the story is that it's not just an incredibly formulaic and predictable one but also a horrible executed one as well.

It's crazy, the way this movie is build up or rather said, how it isn't build up at all. It lets things just happen without ever really building up- or setting anything up properly. So here we have a story about a little crop-duster, who wants to compete with the fast planes in a race. After one race he's accepted to the bigger race and after just one training he's ready to compete with the big and fast 'boys' and 'girls'. And guess how the movie is going to end...Everything is so convenient. It's really as if the writers weren't even ever trying to turn the movie into a surprising or remotely tense and exciting one. It's such a bland movie, without any good side-plots or even some other decent classic story structure elements, such as having a villain in it. Toward the end one of the planes suddenly becomes somewhat hostile and evil but even that doesn't last for a very long time. Like all of the plot lines; it isn't ever going anywhere interesting with things.

These type of animated movies, aimed toward very young kids, normally have some type of message in them but again, this movie isn't even trying. It perhaps sounds like a good thing, since these type of messages often tend to annoy and feel forced but in this case, the absence of it only adds to the reasons why this feels like a very bland and ultimately also very forgettable movie.

A very lazy animated, by the numbers, movie that besides is a terribly executed one when it comes down to its storytelling. It's a terribly non-involving movie without any real excitement, good comedy and creativity in it. So just do yourself a favor and go watch something else. Don't even show it to your kids, even though they will probably still really like it. Just don't support this sort of effortless mediocrity and overall lazy way of film-making, by buying or renting this movie!

4/10

Watch trailer