Earth to Echo

Cast: Teo Halm, Astro, Reese Hartwig, Ella Wahlesdet, Algee Smith and Jason Grey-Standford

Director: Dave Green

Release Date: 2014

Running Time: 1hr 31 minutes

Genre: Family/Adventure

Rating: PG

Synopsis:

After receiving some very odd encrypted messages, a group of kids embark on an adventure with an alien who needs their help.

Four friends, Alex, Tuck, Munch and Emma and devastated to hear that a freeway is going to be built right through the middle of their neighborhood. This is the story of their last week together. Like most alien movies it starts with electrical items acting strangely, why one would assume that if aliens came to Earth, everything on Earth would automatically stop working? In their case, there phones start barfing. The most obvious thing about Earth to Echo is that the whole movie is filmed in POV style. It can be extremely offputting for some audiences. In this case it's understandable, Dave Green wants the audience to believe this is essentially Alex, Tuck,Munch and Emma's video log. What's a little bit annoying is the fact that it goes from looking like it's been professionally filmed to making it seem like Green has handed the actors camera's, surely it should be one or the other?

The storyline isn't too bad, but in all honesty it could have been written a lot better. Henry Gayden had all of the right components for a fantastic script but failed miserably. It reminds me a little bit of a cheap family version of a movie filmed very similarly called "Area 51" unfortunately both movies are very similar, which doesn't make this movie very original. The acting isn't fantastic, the actors probably aren't familiar to most audiences, unfortunately it's very common for a movie filmed like this. Sadly as a member of the audience you can't warm to the characters, well maybe Echo, but that's it. It shocks me that Dave Green went from directing this to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the shadows" perhaps he learnt from this movie on how to correctly direct a movie.

Visually the movie doesn't look too good, you may find yourself feeling a little bit sick or dizzy whilst viewing. Although it's filmed from a POV perspective, the camera still moves incredibly fast, you'd be lucky if you understood what was actually meant to be going on for the vast majority of the film. There's no need to shake a camera around so much. You could be easily fooled into believing a famous youtuber produced this movie or fooled you into thinking it was one of their vlogs. The special effects however are actually pretty good, there's a pretty cool scene involving some musical instruments and a couple of flying objects. It's a shame the acting and the storyline aren't as good. You'll be dissapointed to know that for the majority of the movie you see next to nothing, which makes for a pretty boring experience for the audience.

Overall this is a pretty disappointing film. It's a very cheap looking movie, there is next to no production design, the only really cool looking thing is "Echo" , visually it could have been filmed so much better and cinematographer Maxime Alexandre could have produced a nicer looking movie. Most of it is shot in the dark and at the best of times due to the camera moving about so fast, you can barely even see what's supposed to be happening. It doesn't really add to the mystery of the movie, it just makes it look poor. Absolutely fantastic for children and families, or anyone that is looking for a simple movie for a bit of fun. It's a no from me though. Echo out.

2/5 stars