I saw Earth to Echo yesterday afternoon. When I first saw the previews, it looked interesting. It sort of reminded me of Steven Spielberg's E.T. film, you know, alien from space trying to get back home? I thought maybe this was someone's take on that story, only different. It wasn't. The best way to describe this movie is Iron Giant mixed with Wall-E mixed with E.T. mixed with Stand By Me. Except, it's completely different than them at the same time.
A bunch of people are being forced out of their homes to make way for a freeway that's said to be built where their houses are. Three boys in the neighbourhood are the best of friends and are not pleased about moving away from each other. Their relationship with each other reminds me of the four boys from Stand By Me. They seem more like brothers than just friends. It's very sweet and heartwarming, and they way each boy is introduced to the audience is fantastic. Especially Munch (Reese Hartwig), full name Regional Munch. He was my favorite; so quirky and odd, I loved it!! The personalities of the boys meshed really well together, too. They were all so different, but I think that's why it worked. They writers are brilliant.
I absolutely LOVED the camera work in this film!!! The narrator, Tuck (Asrto), is into filming and making movies and things, so he always has at least one camera with him at all times and is constantly filming. The way they film this movie was mainly from his perspective. Unless the camera was placed somewhere (and you could tell when Tuck, or his friends, put the camera down), you never saw all the characters at a time; someone was always out of view because they were manning the camera! I loved that! It didn't feel like I was watching a movie, it felt like I was watching a home-video or a Youtube video or something. VERY COOL!! The also did some shots from the alien robot's perspective, so we could see things through its eyes. The editing in this film, my flying fish. I loved it. LOVED it!! (Can you tell I'm a bit of a film-editor geek?)
I give Earth to Echo 9.5 out of 10!!
