If you distilled this not intolerable film into a bottle, you could happily market it is as Essence of Spielberg. Actually, that's not quite fair to the senior film-maker. Earth to Echo lacks so much of what made Spielberg's early films so precious that you would almost certainly be sued under some statute covering the marketing of overworked critical constructs. Essence of Speelburg, perhaps.
Where was I? Dave Green’s film concerns a bunch of kids in suburban Nevada who happen upon an alien robot that looks a little like a mechanical owl and more than a little like ET. Like the earlier visitor to our planet, Echo – as our pals call him – needs to locate a few mechanical parts before he can make his way home. Soon the kids are riding their bikes in and around building sites, fleeing obscure government officials and engaging in their first romantic encounters.
We could fill a Panavision screen with references to Spielberg (and post-Spielberg) films that Earth to Echo draws from. The gang reminds us of The Goonies. The charming robot suggests those in Matthew Robbins's undervalued *batteries not included. Wheels within wheels bring us to JJ Abrams recent post-post-Spielberg adventure Super 8.
The innovation (such as it is) here is the use of mobile phones, cameras and other devices to tell the story as found-footage. There is just enough juice in the editing and just enough charm in the performances to win the picture a little oxygen of its own.
That said, it's hard to see why you'd bother when Close Encounters of the Third Kind is available on DVD.
