Review: Europa Report
By Steve Wood
An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon.
There are not many films in the science fiction genre which mix fact, and an interesting story to accompany those facts, Eurpoa Report is a prime example of this.
A private organization is sending man further into space than has ever been attempted, their target – Europa, one of the 66 moons of Jupiter. This moon is thought to have a subterranean ocean, below the thick surface of ice. Three years after the initial discovery, the 3.2 billion dollar venture is finally under-way.
The mission – land on Europa’s frozen surface, collect surface data, and subterranean data, if possible. If only things were that easy.
This is not your traditional “found footage” film, with every scene causing nausea and running the risk of having a seizure. Instead, various cameras are positioned throughout the cockpit, living quarters, landing module, and on each space suit, which is transmitting audio/video 24/7. In doing this, the question of “why are they still filming?” is negated completely.
With beautiful CGI, mixed with real launch footage, the idea of this mission actually happening is believable. On top of that, the facts intertwined with the story really help the movie move along. While not everything here is fact, the realism portrayed here will make you wonder if and when this type of mission will actually happen.
As communications are lost before the crew reaches their destination, this leads to a stunningly well done space-walk, which is ill-fated towards one of the crew.
Emotions being to run high as the crew finally arrive at the surface of Europa, which is a barren, frozen landscape that is portrayed hauntingly beautiful with the brightness of the sun, and the darkness of the shadows.
As things being to take a turn for the worst, it is unfortunate that you do not feel closely related to these characters, with an already minimal cast, and the time spent in such close quarters, you would think that the relationships would be stronger, or at least more prevalent. While some performances are stronger than others, the only person with some sort of back story is the first one to die.
This is not a violent film, nor is it packed with action, but the suspense more than makes up for this, with truly believable actions taken by the crew when things start to go wrong, which really goes to show that a smart science fiction movie can be made while in the found footage genre.
While the concept is good, the special effects are what really make this film shine, careful attention was taken with each exterior shot, along with a very believable anti-gravity environment.
Why something like this doesn’t have a major release is a real shame; with beautiful visuals, a primarily strong cast, and a captivating story, there is no reason, while movies with less get the wide release treatment.
Rating: 8/10
floyd
August 6, 2013 @ 2:05 am
sharlto rules my balls