(Joey Paur/Geeky Rant)

Those who grew up watching "E.T." may glance at the trailer for "Earth to Echo" and feel nostalgic for the days when a flying bike was the coolest thing on the screen. 

Those who grew up watching "E.T." may glance at the trailer for "Earth to Echo" and feel nostalgic for the days when a flying bike was the coolest thing on the screen, but make no mistake. The story of a metallic alien that bares resemblance to an autobot is far from that of an earthy, wrinkly creature.

The film was developed and shot by Walt Disney Studios, who then sold the rights to Relativity Media (same company that produced "21 & Over" and "Romeo and Juliette"). It was written by Henry Gayden and Andrew Panay, and directed by David Green.

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"Earth to Echo" follows the story of three friends, Tuck (Astro), Alex (Teo Halm) and Munch (Reese Hartwig). The movie opens with Tuck videotaping his friends as if for an interview, and as a series of clips rolls along, Tuck, who narrates throughout various moments of the films, begins retelling the adventure he had with his best friends a year ago. 

Tuck related that all of them were forced to move out of their neighborhood in Mulberry Creek, Nevada because of a freeway project that will cut through their town. Despite their efforts to oppose the project, they find themselves facing their last week together. 

But then a mysterious phenomenon occured; all of their showed an odd, digitized picture, and the freeway project officials asked for their phones. This pushed the friends to figure out what is going on and their search led them to the desert…and to an alien they eventually named Echo. As the night progressed, the guys roam around the Nevada desert to help Echo find a way home, and are eventually joined by Emma (Ella Wahlestdt), whom they know from school. 

The story is delivered as an edited documentary, with scenes cutting to moments when the friends were googling images that match the one on their phones, and even a live Google map that showed just how far the friends traveled throughout the night. 

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The story is also largely dependent on the footage that Tuck and his friends had collected throughout their night adventure, which provided a lot of dizzying shots and odd camera angles such as in "Cloverfield" and "Chronicle."  The younger generation of kids who grew up in the age of web video would relate to this, especially since the story was covered via spy glasses, bike camera, camcorder and iPhone.  

Showing a story vlogging-style employed is an attempt to make the story feel like it actually happened. In reality, however, it disengages the audience by providing dizzying, frantic shots and can actually make the story less believable.

For instance, at one point in the movie, Tuck and Alex get into a fist fight. We hear Munch off-camera yelling at them to stop, and Emma, who seems to be holding the camera, criticizing them for their attempt at seeming tough. There are hundreds of thousands of fist fight videos uploaded to Youtube, but it seems unlikely that Emma, who's fearless and hates the conservative view of girls, would merely stand to the side and record the fight instead of stopping them herself.

And unless these kids were really dedicated, it is astonishing how they were able to record almost every second of their adventure with Echo. 

The plot was rushed, with one point of the story hitting to the next point, often to the point where the audience has little time to let the events sink in. This is due to the fact that most of the adventure took place over the course of one night.

As a result of this time crunch, there wasn't much time for character development. It seems as if the main characters were archetypes; the fearless girl, the brooding kid with a difficult past, the OCD goody-two shoes, the nerd with a camera and the aggressive government official who underestimates kids, and   stayed that way throughout the movie.

Even though the movie did not produce deep character development, audience members would be able to appreciate the bond between Tuck, Alex, Emma and Mulch. Also, the movie is enjoyable enough, between Tuck's awkwardness and Mulch's antics, where parents would find themselves laughing along with their kids.

"Earth to Echo" may not be the greatest adventure of the summer, but it is light-hearted and comedic enough to provide family fun.

Reach Contributer Heidi Carreon here and follow her on Twitter here.