A little boy, named Elio, is in a museum café with his aunt, Olga, who is now legally responsible for him since his parents just died. She is trying to get him to order some food, but he refuses.

Then a museum exhibit that is not yet open to the public attracts Elio. He sneaks into it and watches a presentation about the Voyager 1 spacecraft. It talks about the idea of life existing outside of Earth.

Years have passed, and Elio is now, presumably, in his tween years. He wishes to be abducted by aliens. He even builds a special machine to communicate with others. Unfortunately, two mean boys, Bryce and Caleb, destroy it. This angers Elio to the point where he fights with them.

The next scene switches to Elio leaving the doctor’s office with his disappointed aunt, who puts him down for skipping school and fighting. He even has an eyepatch over his injured eye that he is not supposed to handle for two weeks.

Aunt Olga takes Elio to her job and has him wait quietly in another room for ten minutes. She then goes into her work meeting. The staff end up discussing something that intrigues Elio. So, he sneaks in and listens while hiding inside a garbage can.

After everybody leaves, Elio goes onto the computer in that same room and produces a message to send to outer space. This, however, causes a power outage.

Aunt Olga is tired of Elio causing trouble. So, she sends him to a camp that she hopes will change him. But he dreads it because Bryce and Caleb are there, too.

While at camp, Bryce, Caleb, and a few other boys pull a prank on Elio, which scares him away to the beach nearby. However, before they hurt him, everything around him freezes. Elio frees himself. He also sees a spaceship nearby, which sucks him in. He discovers a whole new world of aliens and their ways of living. And it excites him a lot.

But the bad news is that there is an evil alien, called Lord Grigon, on another planet nearby, who is threatening the extraterrestrials that welcomed Elio. Elio lies about being the ruler of the earth and claims that he can work things out with Lord Grigon. So, they send him to that planet.

Elio tries to convince Lord Grigon to leave the other aliens alone. However, he messes up and ends up angering Lord Grigon. So, he gets sent to a dungeon.

While locked up, Elio finds a way to escape—only to run into a giant worm creature. Luckily, that creature turns out to be a bubbly little kid worm, called Glordon, who wants to be friends with him. Glordon also reveals that Lord Grigon is his father.

Glordon helps Elio escape. He also adds that his dad is making him train to be a warrior against the other life in the universe. And he does not want to do that.

After Elio and Glordon spend some quality time together, Elio decides to have Glordon cloned, like him earlier, right after arriving on the spaceship. It works for a little while.

However, after the ceremony of becoming a war machine, Glordon’s clone turns into goo. This infuriates Lord Grigon.

Elio is forced to have his mind read by an alien he’d met upon arriving, named Questa. She finds out that the real Glordon is inside a tiny spacecraft.

A battle erupts inside the spaceship that had previously welcomed Elio. A portal forms, and Elio is forced to go back to Earth.

What will happen next?

This movie kept my attention all the way through due to its fast pacing. Aside from that, it also exceled in its concept, especially the worldbuilding.

I found a lot of elements to be creative. One is how a mini holographic computer greeted Elio once he was on the spaceship. Elio also received powers to control his gravity and communicate with the aliens. I particularly admire the idea of having him cloned and sending the clone to Earth. Elio’s clone was sweet and polite with those the real Elio knew, including Aunt Olga.

As usual, the character development was strong. Each character was also memorable and unique. Perhaps, my favorite was Elio’s friendship with Glordon. I really loved how kind and relatable they were to each other.

One part that stood out to me was how Glordon cried through his mouth, because he didn’t have eyes. Although it shows the creators thinking outside the box, I will admit that it was kind of gross. A few other moments grossed me out, as well, such as when Elio had to hide inside Glordon’s mouth in order to keep him safe from something dangerous. I ended up holding my hand over my eyes.

But those were minor flaws. I will admit, though, that the plot was a little too predictable, particularly the basic premise of the story. The good news is that there are still lots of twists and turns to surprise the audience. I won’t say what, however. You’ll have to see the film to find that out.

Overall, I enjoyed Elio very much. It was a fun, action-filled story that may keep you engaged throughout it.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.