Earth to Echo (2014)
Directed by Dave Green
After a construction project begins digging in their neighbourhood, best friends Tuck, Munch and Alex inexplicably begin to receive strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they go to their parents and the authorities. The three embark on a secret adventure to crack the code and follow it to its source, and discover a mysterious being from another world who desperately needs their help. The journey that follows will change all their lives forever.
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4 films that influenced Earth to Echo
What critics say influenced Earth to Echo
But where "Earth to Echo" falls short of a film like "E.T.," or even "The Goonies," is in developing its characters.
Reminiscent of J.J. Abrams' 2011 picture, " Super 8 ," with a modern, effectively used found-footage bent, the film incorporates plot elements from 1982's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," 1985's "The Goonies" and 1986's "Stand by Me" in an affectionate if derivative medley.
The movie is jockeying to be, as producer Andrew Panay has said , this generation's " Stand by Me "-meets-" The Goonies ."
Producer Andrew Panay ("Hit and Run") wanted to make a movie like "E.T." and "The Goonies" for a new generation and he's done just that.
And it also packs a lot in from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and maybe just a non-scary touch of Poltergeist along with The Goonies and a smidge of Super 8.
For better and for worse, there’s nothing to match the crass comedy of the film’s spiritual cousin “The Goonies,” or the darker developments of something like “Gremlins.”
Reminiscent of J.J. Abrams' 2011 picture, " Super 8 ," with a modern, effectively used found-footage bent, the film incorporates plot elements from 1982's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," 1985's "The Goonies" and 1986's "Stand by Me" in an affectionate if derivative medley.
Elle Fanning's super-awesome "Super 8" performance only proves the exception to this rule.
"Echo" sprints out of the gate, and sometimes relies too much on its influences (which unabashedly show tinges of " Super 8 ," "E.T.," "The Goonies" and "Stand by Me") to sell its story.
And it also packs a lot in from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and maybe just a non-scary touch of Poltergeist along with The Goonies and a smidge of Super 8.
The movie’s lack of invention includes its “Transformers”-style action sequences and plot and characters that parallel 2011’s much better sci-fi adventure featuring kids, “Super 8.” The story and the cast in the latter film — retroactively set in 1979, written and directed by J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek Into Darkness”) and co-produced by Steven Spielberg — exceed the dumbed-down “Earth to Echo” by light-years.
One doesn’t need to go too far back to find a superior Spielberg homage: J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8” was released the summer before “Earth to Echo” commenced production, and even that film’s ardent detractors would have to admit it’s far more engaging and full-bodied than what Green and Gayden can muster here.
Reminiscent of J.J. Abrams' 2011 picture, " Super 8 ," with a modern, effectively used found-footage bent, the film incorporates plot elements from 1982's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," 1985's "The Goonies" and 1986's "Stand by Me" in an affectionate if derivative medley.
As are the parallels to "Stand By Me": The friendship between Alex (Teo Halm), Tuck (Astro, aka Brian Bradley) and Munch (Reese Hartwig) is meant to represent the kind that can only exist among 12-year-old boys and that is about to be shattered by an inexplicable freeway expansion poised to obliterate their Nevada neighborhood.
The story is a small-scale (cheap) jumble of ideas filched from “E.T.,” “Goonies,” “Super 8,” “Stand by Me,” “Men in Black” and “Explorers.”
With 2008's "Cloverfield," J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves showed that the found footage aesthetic—comprised of shaky, you-are-there camerawork and rough cutting and usually relegated to hardcore horror films like the "Paranormal Activity" series and, of course, "The Blair Witch Project"—could also be employed to evoke moments of wide-eyed awe and wonder.
Unlike the very successful Spanish horror thriller "[Rec]" or even the nausea-inducing "Cloverfield," which "Echo" more closely resembles, this film doesn't maintain a consistent point of view or any logic about what's on screen.
Although it's technically not a so-called "found footage" flick (like "The Blair Witch Project" or "Cloverfield") as one of the juvenile protagonists is showing us the footage from a year earlier, the visuals are so bouncy that anyone prone to motion sickness had better stock up on Dramamine or something similar before seeing this.
The lack of interesting characters and a patchwork plot leave "Earth to Echo" less of a new "E.T." and more a "Cloverfield" for kids.
Clearly, “E.T.,” “ Cloverfield ” and “ Super 8 ” are driving the bus here, and those are all good movies from which to borrow, but the only thing this movie adds to the mix is a little innocence.