We take a look at the pick of the new releases at cinemas this week
EARTH TO ECHO (PG)
In 1982, ET phoned home, and now another stranded extraterrestrial requires assistance from pint-sized heroes to return safely to the stars in Dave Green’s fantastical family-orientated adventure.
Earth To Echo begs obvious similarities to Steven Spielberg’s classic coming-of-age story and the 1987 fantasy Batteries Not Included.
Green’s special-effects-laden picture lacks the emotional wallop of the former and the unabashed charm of the latter, but does tread a familiar path through fresh eyes by employing the found-footage format a la Paranormal Activity.
Characters address an omnipresent video camera, verbalising their excitement and fear as a night-time bicycle ride into the desert becomes a rescue mission of galactic proportions.
“I’m Reginald. I’m a bit of an acquired taste; that’s what my mom says,” confesses one of the boys in his endearingly nervous introduction.
Like all examples of the genre, the lens invariably points in the right direction, regardless of realism, to capture important conversations and push forward the storyline.
“What you’re about to see is what happened to me and my friends one year ago,” explains Tuck (Brian “Astro” Bradley).
In fragmented footage, we meet Tuck’s best
friends, Alex (Teo Halm) and Reginald, aka Munch (Reese Hartwig), after they learn that a highway construction project is going to tear apart their community of Clark County, Nevada.
The lads will have to relocate to different parts of the country, signalling the end of their balmy childhood.
On their last night together, the boys follow strange signals on their mobile phones into the desert.
“I never understood why people like the outdoors,” wheezes Munch.
They uncover a friendly robot, who has become stranded on Earth, and the boys pledge to help their otherworldly friend locate the missing parts of his spaceship so he can return home.
Plucky classmate Emma (Ella Wahlestedt) joins the trio as they evade shady government officials led by Dr Lawrence Masden (Jason Gray-Stanford), who are also hunting Echo.
“He just wants to go home,” pleads one of the children.
“That will not happen,” sneers Masden, “that thing is far too valuable.”
Earth To Echo is a state-of-the-art ode to ET and its imitators that ups the technical ante for a generation that prefers to swipe at tablets and smartphones rather than go outside and play.
Green employs special effects at key junctures, but, for the most part, he’s reliant on the young cast to carry his film.
Halm, Bradley and Hartwig are appealing without being too winsomely cute, and there are some genuinely touching scenes of the boys choking back emotion as the enormity of the situation and the risks become clear.
The titular robot’s personality is encapsulated in a few beeps and trills that should, if nothing else, remind audiences to keep their mobiles switched off for the duration.
HERCULES 3D (12A)
Dwayne Johnson flexes his pecs as the eponymous hero of lore in Brett Ratner’s testosterone-fuelled adventure based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars.
Greek demigod Hercules (Johnson) completes his 12 mythical labours, which include slaying a hydra, capturing the Cretan bull and defeating hellhound Cerberus, which guards the entrance to the underworld.
The deposed King of Thrace (John Hurt) hires Hercules and his band of mercenaries to train his army and bring to an end a bitter civil war that has stained the land with blood.
Unimaginable villains test Hercules’s mythical power and he rages against his fate to be blessed with the strength of a God but enduring the suffering of a mortal.