Earth to Echo (2014)

My oldest who is twelve wanted to see this and so over the July 4th opening we went with the family to see "Earth to Echo".  A film about four kids on a search for extraterrestrials.  This is not ET, or a re-hash of it.  This is a bit different.  The movie focuses on the kids, and the film is seen through video that the kids record as they go about their adventure.  I thought the way the film was presented was kind of cool, and was a different take on movies with the same plot line.  The movie reminds me a bit of a Spielberg produced movie entitled "Batteries Not Included", but their are differences such as the main characters are kids and the movie is marketed to younger teens and kids that are a bit younger.  The movie is not great for children younger then 8, or that's how I felt.  My youngest who is ten liked it, and thought the alien was cute, and there is the movies problem.

For all the promotion of the movie there aren't enough scenes in the film with our little alien friend.  There should have been more scenes involving the teens and the alien.  ET is the movie standard that the filmmakers needed to overcome.  Spielberg knew what made his film and that was ET's interaction with the children in the movie.  Here in Earth to Echo there isn't enough of that.  The scenes with the alien and the kids are classic, but again not enough, and therefore I think the younger audience wouldn't care about the film.  I believe the filmmakers made a mistake here, but one that isn't fatal.  Maybe for their box office, but not for the film.

What the filmmakers have in their favor is that the movie is one if not the only movie that is out this summer that is for kids.  I implore the studio to push hard on the kid friendly movie aspect, and maybe then they'll have better success at the box office.  After all it seems as though this summer Hollywood is experiencing tough competition from other entertainment outlets, and it just being summer and kids have better things to do then going to movies.

The movie is like a puzzle and feels almost like a video game.  Echo needs parts, and he is rebuilding himself.  He has a mission to take back a long buried star ship under the earth.  Now how the ship got there, and why we humans haven't found it until recently is a bit of a mystery to me.  Also it seems that our government knows of the aliens existence and had shot it down, but how they knew it was heading to the ship, and why they shot it down in the first place is a mystery.  The plot holes in the movie are big and confusing.  Maybe something was lost in the editing of the film, but both my wife and I looked at each other and just shrugged our shoulders and went with it.  The government agents don't show themselves in black, and carrying guns, which I believe is because of the demographics the movie is trying to appeal to.  After all you don't want to scare your audience that you're trying to appeal to, so again I didn't make it an issue.

There's a lot to like though in this movie.  I really was rooting for the alien, and really thought the children in the film were really good.  I loved how they presented the movie.  Like it was a video you would find on the Internet.  A sort of found footage movie, but it did have scenes where we the audience were taken out of the footage the actors supposedly shot and into a conventional movie scene.  But the filmmakers (Dave Green, Henry Gayden and Andrew Panay) do this skillfully, and it helps the movie.  I think what sells this movie are the actors performance.  They are good, and the four actors have chemistry together.  It helps with the story line.  Teo Halm, Brian 'Astro' Bradley, Reese Hartwig, and Ella Wahlestedt all do a great job in the film, and it is because of their performances that the film works.

I think this may even have some fans among the young ones it s marketed to.  After all the message is that "your important" and "you can do anything".  It addresses emotions that young teens and teens for that matter feel that no one takes them seriously, and the film doesn't preach the message.

All in all I enjoyed seeing it with the family.  We all had fun, and we laughed even my mom had fun.  So if you're looking for some family entertainment don't hesitate to go and see "Earth to Echo".  Great family fun.