Earth To Echo

One of the hallmarks of sci-fi is the curiosity and amazement the genre instills in audiences.  Earth to Echo knows its audience, namely children, and does well to appeal to their sense of wonderment. It’s a modest and fun sci-fi story about rescuing an alien creature that does little to expand beyond that simple premise. For those who aren’t the intended audience, however, the film may be a little boring.

Earth to Echo follows a group of teenage friends who stumble upon a crashed alien life form after receiving strange messages in their cellphones. Naming it Echo, the kids embark on a journey to help their new friend rebuild his ship and return him home. It’s nothing more and nothing less.

For kids that premise is fine, but adults will be left wanting more out of the film. Echo has no backstory. He’s just this alien metal creature with bright blue eyes who happens to find himself on Earth for no apparent reason. The film does fine without much explanation, but I couldn’t help but want more out of it. In the end, it’s not about the story itself anyway, but the friendship between the four kids.

Alex, Tuck, and Munch are all best friends and spend most of the film goofing off and playing around just as you would expect most kids to do. They’re later joined by Emma who is a bit wiser and more adventurous. They’re just having fun making videos and fooling around, and the “found footage” style of filming brings audiences down to their level. Yes, it can be somewhat distracting at times but for the most part it works.

Personally I was hoping to get a little more out of Earth to Echo, but I think it’ll suite the Nickelodeon type crowd just fine. Echo is an interesting and cute enough character and the story meets the bare minimum necessary to keep things moving forward. Just don’t in expecting the next ET and you should be okay.