Earth To Echo (Cinema Screening)

(Spoiler free)

Earth To Echo was released a few weeks ago and amongst a whole variety of other films, including the likes of Boyhood and The Purge Anarchy. I decided that Earth To Echo would be the film that would have to wait so that is why I have only got round to seeing it now. I will admit that my expectations were fairly low for this film, but that is always a good thing.

I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed Earth To Echo. Everything about the trailers made me doubt how much I would be able to enjoy this film but to my amazement I was drawn in from the get go. Now saying that I was still able to notice the unoriginality of this film, it just seemed to be like a modern day version of E.T., even the style of the neighborhood felt similar. However this in no way bothered me, and sure maybe this generation needs their own E.T., although Earth To Echo isn’t as good as that but you know what I mean, basically this unoriginality really isn’t an issue. The only other problem I had with the film was the design of Echo, I just thought it looked pretty naff. It didn’t help with the more childish feel that the film had at points, I’m not quite sure how you would get round this though. Of course you wouldn’t want a blood-thirsty alien however I feel the designers have gone too far the other way and ended up with some sort of space owl, it serves its purpose but I wasn’t too keen on it.

Anyway that is literally all the negatives that I have to say about this film as I had a great time! This film doesn’t really explicitly focus on Echo, the events concerning this robot alien provide more of a frame for the themes of adventure and friendship to be explored which I loved. I was glad that the film took this approach due to my issues with the design of Echo, less focus here was exactly what I wanted. It was genuinely just really enjoyable to watch the three lads explore and hang out with each other. The sense of adventure was great and the setting was perfect. It was the guys ‘last night together’ and as much as their intention was to explore you couldn’t help but feel that the guys were just trying to make the most of the little time they had left together. I’m sure that Earth To Echo will encourage many to echo their own memories of childhood, growing up and experiencing change etc. This is where I connected with the film most and why I enjoyed the focus on the friendship so much.

There were other elements of this film that impressed me too, I thought that all of the child actors did a fantastic job, I believed ever part of this movie and they performed well easily crafting a great film. I thought the way the film was shot may irritate me but I quickly got used to the video camera style and began to really appreciate it, there were some other nice touches to which included more modern technology. The soundtrack was also a great addition and especially in the final scenes, I really enjoyed this aspect.

Earth To Echo joins the list of surprises for 2014, I found myself engrossed in this film and I was just able to enjoy it so much. It’s a film less about aliens and more about friendship, adventure and dare I say it – Boyhood!

BIGGEST FLAW – Design of Echo

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Themes of friendship and adventure

Rating – 8.5/10