An adventure as big as the universe awaits you in EARTH TO ECHO

32 years ago my parents took me to see E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg’s amazing film about a boy who befriends a lost alien and with the aide of his family and friends attempt to help return the alien home. Taking my 2 oldest daughters to Relativity Media’s latest action-adventure/sci-fi release “EARTH TO ECHO” (in theaters July 2nd), I was hoping to maybe…just maybe, recapture with my own kids, a modern day experience like I had when I was 9 with E.T, with ECHO.

In “Earth to Echo”, after receiving a bizarre series of encrypted messages, a group of kids embark on an adventure with an alien who needs their help. Read ahead to see what my kids and I thought of the film and gauge for yourself if “Earth to Echo” is right for you.

And if you missed our post from earlier this week, scroll down to the end of this review to watch our Junior-Reporter Lindalee Rose as she talks to the stars of EARTH TO ECHO at the World Premiere of the film last weekend.

NOTE: This was our first Relativity Media screening for Beyond the Marquee and first impressions being everything, I was not disappointed. The publicity/promotional staff were friendly and incredibly helpful, they offered not just giant custom designed chocolate bars for everyone who attended the special VIP screening, but also complimentary vouchers for anything we wanted from the theater’s concession stand. This was a movie experience being offered right!

The Synopsis: Tuck, Munch and Alex are a trio of inseparable friends whose lives are about to change. Their neighborhood is being destroyed by a highway construction project that is forcing their families to move away. But just two days before they must part ways, the boys begin receiving a strange series of signals on their phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they team up with another school friend, Emma, and set out to look for the source of their phone signals. What they discover is something beyond their wildest imaginations: a small alien who has become stranded on Earth. In need of their help, the four friends come together to protect the alien and help him find his way home. This journey, full of wonder and adventure, is their story, and their secret.

“Earth to Echo” is full of fun for the whole family. It has all the elements that you’d expect in a PG movie of this genre; action, friendship, mystery, sci-fi, humor, a bit of danger and a lot of adventure. While the movie was fast-paced and enjoyable, it did not have a whole lot of the warmth and emotion I was expecting in it. Though what it may have lacked in heart, it definitely made up for with the theme of close friends on one last adventure together, a scenario that not only works, but personally I loved from one of my other favorite Spielberg movies’ “The Goonies“. Of course in that film, the residents of Astoria, Oregon were losing their home to greedy land developers, in Echo, there was a similar plot about a California suburb losing their homes to a giant freeway being constructed thru their neighborhood. BUT…the there was a twist in that concept that caught me off guard which I won’t give away, but  thought was pretty cool and tied the whole film together in the end in a huge way!

One thing I did honestly feel was missing in the alien of ECHO was any sense of organicness. (My auto-correct doesn’t seem to think that “organicness” is a word, but I digress). What I’m eluding to is that, to bring E.T. back into this, E.T. was “real”, he was a living, breathing creature with big innocent eyes, friendly smile and a heart that glowed. ECHO reminded me more of “Bubo” the mechanical owl from the 1981 movie “Clash of the Titans”. Even though ECHO was cute and mischievous at time, there was something missing in that character design that I think had it been an organic owl-like alien with a shell of technology protecting it, maybe I would have felt more for him when his life was in peril. That all being said, you can bet your bottom dollar that if they made a cool Electronic ECHO toy with lights and motion and real sounds from the film, I’d be buying one for myself…and, um, yeah, one for my kids too.

Now though this wasn’t as epic, dramatic and coming of age a film per-se as Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me“, I did love the feeling that there was some sort of homage paid to that great 1986 movie buried within the context of this premise. By the end of the movie you realize that both the kids and the alien are outcasts and together on this epic adventure. Through their journeys and circumstances they discover similarities in themselves that reinforce their friendships as they all prepare to say goodbye to each other one last time…or is it the last time?

Now as far as my kids go, my 4 yr. old daughter was clutching my arm and burying her head into it at some points. This movie has a lot of loud noises, zippy action, tense moments and explosive visuals. That all being said, other than saying afterwards that parts of the movie were “scary”, she did sit thru the whole thing quietly chomping on popcorn, eating a hot-dog and slurping down a Hi-C Fruit Punch (and was VERY happy that there was no 3D glasses she had to wear!). Oh and I think she has a kindergarten crush on “Munch” now.

My 6 yr. old going on 12 absolutely loved it and was laughing a lot during the movie. She also seemed to really like actress Ella Wahlestedt who played Emma in the movie. Afterwards walking to the parking lot she was trying to convince me that ECHO was real, because the kids were real, and they were touching ECHO and was hoping she could meet ECHO one day! Wow, maybe this was that E.T. moment for her, instead of crying and being emotional, this movie really hyped her up with excitement and an adventurous spirit!?!? Or it could be attributed to the fact that she devoured her entire giant “EARTH TO ECHO” promotional chocolate and marshmallow filled candy bar while watching the film. I’ll have to see if she loves it as much on home video when it comes to Blu-ray.

Note to parents. A friend of mine with the Media, who I saw after the screening said she had to walk out because she was getting motion sickness from the hand-held camera movements. So if the shooting style of past film’s like Chronicle, Super 8 or Cloverfield have made you feel woozy, then just a word of caution before taking your kids to see it, maybe send your spouse in your place instead, or read the film’s novelization. I’m sure there has to be one right?

In closing, as a dad who grew up in the Spielbergian era of story-telling, you could easily draw comparisons and say this is a modern day E.T., but “EARTH TO ECHO” I feel stands alone as it’s own imaginative and fun film that harnesses traditional story-telling elements with a wonderful blend of current day technology. No doubt this will be family favorite for years to come.

An adventure as big as the universe awaits you in EARTH TO ECHO