Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Earth to Echo Blu-ray Movie Review

The echo seems to be saying "phone home".

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 30, 2014

If E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Super 8 were to mate and produce cinematic offspring, chances are it would look very much like Earth to Echo. This appealing if awfully formulaic film offers a stranded alien much like the “phone home” film while wrapping it all up in a found footage format that echoes the ambience if not the actual technique of J.J. Abrams’ homage to “home video” technologies of yore. As with virtually every science fiction film positing a lost denizen from another world tooling around our little corner of the sky, there are nefarious government agents out on the hunt, putting the alien’s human friends in danger. Earth to Echo traffics in a number of well worn tropes but manages to find a fairly sweet spot for its intended demographic that plays upon fears of change, the ephemeral quality of contemporary life and what it means to be a true friend.

Part of Super 8’s charm was its depiction of young would-be filmmakers working on a project which then unexpectedly folds into a more traditional science fiction plotline. In Earth to Echo, scenarist Henry Gayden and director Dave Green exploit the fact that in today’s world everyone seems to be a “filmmaker,” or at least a video producer, courtesy of technologies like smartphones and Go- Pros. Earth to Echo is told resolutely from the “point of view” of these sorts of elements, but perhaps surprisingly it doesn’t have the overly artificial and even precious climate that often afflicts other found footage offerings. This is due at least in part to the charmingly natural performances by the young cast.

The film quickly sets up its underlying sense of melancholy by revealing that a trio of childhood friends, nerdy Munch (Reese Hartwig), street smart Tuck (Brian “Astro” Bradley) and foster kid Alex (Teo Halm), will soon be saying goodbye to each other since their Las Vegas suburb is about to be razed to make room for a new freeway. That sense of angst soon takes a back seat when a strange phenomenon starts afflicting the boys’ smartphones. Suddenly their home screens start (in their inimitable words) “barfing,” showing a bizarre, almost abstract, aggregation of pixels instead of the usual generic startup imagery. When the boys discover that the anomaly seems to have something to do with a boundary of sorts in one of their backyards, they’re obviously intrigued. When a couple of supposed freeway construction workers show up apologizing for a construction snafu that has affected cellphone service, offering to replace their phones for free, the kids are more than intrigued—they’re a little frightened.

Some online research reveals that the main image burned into their phones looks eerily similar to a map of a nearby Nevada desert, and so the boys hatch a plan to investigate on what will be their last night together before the impending construction forces them all to move. That of course sets the film upon its main course of adventure, when the trio uncovers a stranded alien (which itself resembles technology) they name Echo. The rest of the film is a kind of combination treasure hunt crossed with a cat and mouse scenario as the three boys (soon joined by Emma, played by Ella Wahlestedt), attempt to help Echo rebuild his (its?) spaceship while simultaneously attempting to avoid those always nasty, scheming government official types.

Earth to Echo can’t quite escape the fact that at its core it’s one of the more patently derivative science fiction (or at least science fiction-esque) offerings in recent memory, and yet the film actually ends up being surprisingly engaging in spite of this inherent deficiency. The young actors are quite winning, and manage to convey both the vulnerability of the pre-teen psyche as well as a sometimes ill advised bravado. The few adult actors actually pale a bit in comparison, but they also don’t have much to do other than stand on the sidelines or occasionally offer a threatening presence.

The found (or at least raw) footage aspect works reasonably well, though there are certain aspects that don’t quite make sense (most, but not all, of the footage comes courtesy of things like “spy glasses” and cellphone video). The constraints that usually hem in this subgenre tend to also limit the point of view here, but with Tuck’s seeming obsession to document his every move, there’s at least a passing glance at providing motivation.

What actually works best in Earth to Echo is the bittersweet emotional undercurrent which plays out even as the boys and Emma attempt to reunite Echo with his downed (and destroyed) spaceship. These are kids who aren’t quite on the cusp of adulthood, but who are having to face what they see as an epochal transition which none of them really wants to experience. Echo may be desperately trying to “phone home” in his own way, but these young humans have to come to the realization that home is where the heart is. Luckily, Earth to Echo, despite its Xerox copy aspects, offers a surfeit of heart.

Earth to Echo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Earth to Echo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.85:1 (a few isolated "archival" moments are in 1.33:1). While Earth to Echo doesn't really pop in any traditional way, it's obviously not supposed to, being sourced as it supposedly is from things like smartphone video, camcorders and even spy glasses. There's a rather large gamut of looks here, from the relatively sharp and clear (see screenshot 1) to rougher, even pixellated, moments (see screenshot 2), and everything in between. The daytime and late afternoon sequences tend to look the best throughout the presentation, benefitting from better lighting conditions than the bulk of the film, which takes place overnight. Those nighttime scenes can suffer from anemic contrast, milky blacks and a generally murky appearance. Detail is rarely at exceptional levels, residing instead in a kind of middling though acceptable range. CGI elements are decent, if somewhat soft looking. When not affected by deliberate post production tweaking, colors are natural and nicely saturated.

Earth to Echo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Earth to Echo's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix isn't the showiest piece of sound design in science fiction (or quasi-science fiction) history, but it gets the job done with a reasonable amount of immersion and some excellent sound effects. A couple of big set pieces, including a manic car-truck chase, as well as the big climax where Echo's spaceship reassembles itself, provide the biggest sonic "oomph" in the film, and offer robust low end and good surround activity. All of the dialogue is presented very cleanly and clearly, and the track shows no signs of any issues whatsoever.

Earth to Echo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Creating the Truck Scene (1080p; 5:22) is a fun look at the scene that features the kids attempting to drive, long before any of them have gotten their driver's licenses.


• Casting the Characters (1080p; 6:47) details the casting process.


• We Made That!: The Making of Earth to Echo (1080p; 9:01) is a standard issue EPK with interviews and scenes from the film.


• Friends No Matter How Far (1080p; 8:05) explores the film's themes of friendship and loyalty.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:25)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:13)

Earth to Echo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While older viewers are going to see the looming shadow of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial hovering over large swaths of Earth to Echo, younger folks—admittedly this film's chief demographic—may frankly not care one way or the other, swayed instead by the sweet and accessible story of childhood friends feeling like they're about to be torn asunder by forces beyond their control. The "found footage" aspect gives this film a relatively distinctive approach (at least in terms of kids interacting with an alien), and while obviously incredibly derivative, Earth to Echo manages to work better than it probably should. Given an understanding of the limitations inherent in presenting a supposed "found footage" offering, Earth to Echo's technical merits are quite strong, and this release comes Recommended.