Earth to Echo
Why I Walked Out of This Movie

…A Christian Movie Review (Half of One)!

Writer Kevin Ott At Rocking Gods House

Earth to Echo is the first movie I’ve ever walked out of, and it was a PG movie with great actors (talented kids!) and a fun plot. The film tells the story of four kids who find a cute little robot alien (E.T. meets Wall-E with the adorableness of a thousand kittens), and the whole adventure is witnessed from their phone cameras and handheld camcorders. It’s a found footage shaky cam movie, but the shakiness is so relentless that at about 30 minutes into it I left to take a break and walk off the motion sickness, and then I re-entered the theater to continue watching. About 15 minutes later, I rushed out of the theater to the bathroom and almost threw up (thankfully, I didn’t). I didn’t go back into the movie. I walked groggily out of the theater, swaying on my heels a little, feeling intense motion sickness. It took awhile for me to return to normal before I could drive home. And apparently it’s not just me: in the news I read that a 10-year-old kid threw up while seeing this movie and other people have reported the same reaction.

If you have an iron stomach and you can get through Earth to Echo then you’re lucky because I was enjoying the plot, the acting, the special effects of the alien Echo (very cool — the audience in the theater loved his tiny little feet!), and every other element of the film other than the camera work — though the non-stop narration in the first 20 minutes of the movie was a little incessant. I wished I could’ve seen how the movie turned out. I was actually angry about it. If you’re ever prone to the slightest amount of motion sickness, do NOT go see this movie — or at least consider taking some motion sickness medicine beforehand. Or maybe just watch E.T., then Wall-E, then Super 8, in that order — it’s basically a blend of those three films. It had a fantastic nostalgic feel to it, like a Spielberg movie. It’s really a shame, frankly.

To anyone in Hollywood reading this: please don’t film movies using the found footage technique anymore — at least not to this extent. When Earth to Echo Nausea comes out on DVD, I might call YouTube to see if they can use their handy video stabilizer technology to remove all the shakiness for me. (I wish.) Or maybe I’ll watch it while riding a bike on a very bumpy road, and then the shakiness will seem normal? Hmmm…

Because I only saw 45 minutes of it, I am not offering any formal review, other than the parental guidance summary below based on what I did see. It seemed like a great family film — as far as being a clean PG movie — but only if your family enjoys bonding over the horrendous sensation of unbearable motion sickness that precedes vomiting.

Parental Guidance Issues at a Glance(for the first half of the movie, the part I saw)

Sexual Content/Nudity: A teenage couple makes out at a house party.

Violence/Gore: Two kids fight (wrestling and pushing each other). An alien causes metal parts two fly around and destroy several rooms. No one is hurt.

Language: Some mild bathroom humor. There were no noticeable swear words in the first half of the movie.

Alcohol/Drug/Smoking Content: Teenagers are seen holding red dixie cups (with, presumably, alcohol) at a house party.

Frightening/Intense Content: When the kids first find the alien, it is presented in an intense, suspenseful, even a little frightening way. A boy stows away in a truck, and he is being taken to an unknown, frightening location, and he is so scared that he is crying. It is not meant for laughs; it is actually quite a serious, intense moment.

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