Earth To Echo

[stuartboy]

Pleasantly surprised by this movie as it wasn't the Pixar-type animation that I'd expected it to be. I think from the poster I was thinking another Wall-E.
This, however has more than a passing resemblance to one of my favouritest films ever - E.T.
Even the locations looked familiar. Also the "alien" and the kids on BMXs. The list goes on.

I do have to say that the film is lacking in both originality - a twist of some sort would have been good, and the story does rather peter out without any real ending or "lesson", so has to be a bit of a disappointment in that respect.

That said, the wee actors play their parts (better than the wooden actors in Pudsey!) and the cgi/animation is acceptable too.
Whilst not geared for wee tots either - it is a PG - I was also disappointed that there was nothing that might make a parent blush and kids giggle about like there was in E.T. I remember one line in that that had us all tittering as kids.

A poor-man's E.T. then so only getting 6/10.

[asamaic]

A poor-man's E.T.

Spot on. stuartboy!

[rawsalsa]

A poor-man's E.T.

Spot on. stuartboy!

Agreed. I can't say it better stuartboy!

[prettyxcool]

I thought the hand held camerawork was a real pain. I suffer from motion sickness, so I was green, and queasy by the end of the film, at one point I thought I would throw up.

The story was a good one, but like stuartboy says a poor-man's ET. I too was misled by the poster thinking it was an animation. I loved Wall-E. I did not think it was suitable for the very young either, which we had quite a lot of in our screening, although, all I heard from my right hand side from the little girl, probably about 4-5 years old, beep, beep, beep, echo, beep, beep, echo! Probably best for 10 upwards, I think. 5/5

Wembley Cineworld is nice, but a fair way from Wembley Park tube station, as it is right at the other end of the London Designer Outlet, plus lots of escalators up! Thanks ritamistry for the company!

[LondonCityNights]

Couldn't have put it better than a poor man's ET either. Didn't think it was awful - just a bit uninspired. At least the performances were pretty good.

I liked it when the truck dissembled and reassembled around the car - that was a neat special effect.

http://www.londoncitynights.com/2014/07 ... -dave.html

★★★

[deb1]

A poor-man's E.T. then so only getting 6/10.

Thought this was a perfect summation.

Saw this with my nephew. Both of us expected much better from what the trailer showed. Wasn't nearly as good as anticipated.

On top of this it was filmed for the most part through a camcorder (similar to the way Blair Witch Project was filmed) - this made for a very dizzy experience! I understand that it was necessary to the plot but just wasn't for me.

6/10.

[yogi]

A poor-man's E.T.

Spot on. stuartboy!

Agreed. I can't say it better stuartboy!

I've tried to think up something better, but 'poor-man's ET' really does hit the nail on the head.

Maybe add a dash of Chronicle or Super 8 in for the found footage element and its exactly as you'd expect.

As others have said performances were good, shaky cam was annoying and some effects were decent, but certainly not a must see.

Probably best to wait and watch it one Sunday afternoon on Channel 5. 5/10

[raj101]

weakly plotted, keeps jumping about without filling in the how and where - found footage is becoming a weak excuse for not filling in details re - the scene where they escape confinement..doesn't exist. so how did they do it? like watching half a movie at times. This is not the way to make a movie!

horribly unconvincing metal furby type alien.

probably better on small screen, when the extreme close up of kids faces aren't 10 feet tall. not an imax film for sure!

[sikmansam]

It doesn't make many changes from the kid-meets-alien plots of E.T. and Super 8, but thanks to good performances and some fine found-footage gags, I think this was charming enough in its own right. I was also pleasantly surprised with how sturdy the special effects were.

7/10

[missgotty]

Definitely ET-esk but I liked the characters, didn't mind the shaky camera so much and thought it was a sweet film.

7/10