Earth to Echo-E.T. as Found Footage (that somehow avoids death by cute)

See that precious little guy being pointed to in a poster that Oh So Much calls out hard to E.T The Extraterrestrial. Yeah, the comparison is intentional.  If that was all Earth to Echo was, it would not be worth your time.  There already has been a string of lame E.T. knockoffs. In fact, many of them came out around the time E.T. first made its impact on the culture (Mac and Me, Pod People), but folks still remember the original.  Earth to Echo is counting on that, but fortunately, the makers did aspire a little higher with this tale of an alien robot of some kind being shot down by government authorities on Earth (presumably the United States), seeking to repair itself and go home.

Done in found footage format, the film follows a group of high school kids who are anticipating being forced to move from their neighborhood.  Some sort of organization is forcing the families to relocate, reason unclear.  So the boys make a pact to do something epic on their last night.  At the same time, they begin getting weird signals on their portable phones which they eventually decide is a beacon to follow.  Follow they do, and when they get out to the site, they find what looks like a missle casing of some kind, as well as more of those "government" types, seemingly looking for the same thing.  When they get the casing, the get another signal.  They follow it and find another piece, which joins with the first and slowly, the casing, or the entity inside, stirs with life.

This film is not groundbreaking by any means.  But the young actors are fun and you can easily buy the adventure, especially if you were the sort of young person who went on a few adventures yourself.  As I kid, I sometimes fantasized about finding an alien spacecraft.  Or fantasized about Skylab landing in our neighborhood intacts.  And flying it again (I had a big imagination and relatively little knowledge to kill it then).

"Echo" is full of personality, which is good, because the little guy is made just too precious (obviously to engender toy sales).  They went too far with it, but fortunately, in personality he avoids being too annoying and the kids are convincing and fun.

It is a summer adventure which hearkens back to childhood quests.  If those bring back fond memories for you, or you have kids of your own who love that kind of thing, this is a movie for you.