Europa Report (2013)

I'll tell you why so serious

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I met accidantally this film in tv this afternoon. And I took my arm-chair right in that moment. This film seemed so "different", with perfect cutting, realistic shots, punched in the middle.This film is exactly the type which most of the movie guttlers find unbearably boring. That is why this grabbed my feelings at the first sight, I think. This is really rare case. Not a block buster, no spectator magnet effects, no world wide stars (although some of the actors are familiar), no big entrance. Only continuous thrill, with eye-candy, documentary style steady shots, professional setting, artless actions.This seemed a rather "European" film for me. (Also I am.) This is not for a joke only. Other people would call this "indie". Somehow I also felt some actors European, too (and I was right.) Actually I should have to see mostly American films and trite tv series, this is the world now, this is why I don't spend too much time on tv. But sometimes I meet something different, and I enjoy those occasions. This film is really a different American movie. This is why you will love this, if you are a little accomplished sci-fi reader.In the middle of the time I noticed that the style of the story took into my mind the Polish grand master of the sci-fi, Stanislaw Lem. The final track of the story {SPOILER} turned to the side-thread of Arthur C. Clarke's 2010.{/SPOILER} But this is an early work of an almost beginner writer, inspired by a Laird Barron story, reportedly. It worked well.I was sorry to see that the makers did not earn serious money with this film. There isn't justice in the world of movies.If you like sci-fi, and not only space actions and aliens, then seek for this film. Don't let the dragging reviews disadvise from a fine, although slightly saddening entertainment. You will meet a rememberable experiance.

This is a TERRIBLE movie, completely unsatisfying and very irritating to watch. The characters are so monumentally STUPID! Scientist 1 - "Your radiation is at max levels, come back now"... Scientist 2 - "I see something"...Scientist 1 - "Come back now, you have to come back"...Scientist 2 - "I'm going to stand on the ice"... Scientist 1 - "Come back now"... Scientist 2 - "Oh no, the ice is breaking"...Aaaarghhh! This movie is full of these ridiculously moronic character decisions - instead of caring about the characters you don't give a damn when they die. Coz they're all idiots. The found- footage style jarring camera cuts are SO heavily overdone that the entire movie is just extremely annoying to watch. I barely made it through, having to fight urges to turn it off several times.I love sci-fi, but this is COMPLETE GARBAGE. Avoid this, you'll never get back the 90 minutes this lemon will take to watch.

Becoming a fan of "genre" cinema in Europe from the Giallo,Nordic Noir and French Film Noir after seeing the original version,I was sad to learn about Dragon Tattoo star Michael Nyqvist's death. Wanting to pay tribute with a Nyqvist viewing,I re-read a positive review Kim Newman gave to a Nyqvist's Sci-Fi movie,which led to me filling a report in.The plot:Joining up to go on a mission to explore Jupiter's fourth largest moon, astronauts William Xu/James Corrigan/ Daniel Luxembourg/Katya Petrovna/Andrei Blok and Rosa Dasque set off on a rocket (covered in cameras so control room can keep records) to explore the surface of the moon,and find out if it is inhabitable. Landing on the moon,the crew find it to be entirely iced. Going out to explore the lonely moon,the crew find their planned report into the exploration to be interrupted by a radioactive wave.View on the film:Drilling orders into the team like a well-oiled mechanic, Michael Nyqvist gives a terrific performance as Andrei Blok,whose gruff orders to the rest of the crew are softened by Nyqvist keeping it based round Blok's focus on the completion of the mission. Grasping the threads of the research as they are iced up, Anamaria Marinca gives a very good performance as Rosa Dasque,who is given a quick- witted thoughtfulness by Marinca.Largely playing by the rules, ( with a few exceptions being stylish shots of the crew looking out across the galaxy,and the score by Battlestar's Bear McCreary bringing an eerie mood up from the surface) of the Found Footage genre,director Sebastián Cordero & cinematographer Enrique Chediak impressively find space for gripping tension with pristine editing and realistic placings of the cameras landing on the isolation of the ship. Looking towards Horror,Cordero holds back for something more psychological,with an excellent use of sound bringing the unknown things on the planet into the ship.Making the first 30 minutes of the mission a success,the screenplay by Philip Gelatt superbly grounds the Sci-Fi in realism,from the astronauts taking great care to fully explore the planet,to the care that they have for each other never being spoken,but coming across in the tiny gestures they do for each other. Recording over the gory horror of the "Found Footage" genre, Gelatt cleverly makes the terror uncovered be one which actually gives meaning to their exploration,as Europa files a report.

This movie will certainly be on my top sci-fi list. I was amazed how good this film turned out to be. Unlike some films that pretend to be big and ambitious in the beginning and turn out to be disastrous and disappointing in the end, this one is the complete opposite. At the start one can hardly call it a spectacle. It starts off with a tiny screen of some on-board video and you think it's some home made video that will bore your brains and you'll wish you've never seen it.The entire film is shot by wide-angle on-board fixed cameras in a documentary style, interlaced with interviews of mission controllers filling up on the story and a member of the crew talking on camera during the mission. Cameras keeps switching from one to the next showing distorted faces. Mmmm. Irritating. If you have seen How To Irritate People by Monty Python this is it. And since this is low budget the creators used archive footage of US Atlas launch vehicle which cost nothing. The shots from external cameras on the ship, however, show this is all new really well made CGI for the film.It definitely is a sci-fi sister of the horror movie The Blair Witch Project when it comes to the shooting style, and, in fact, the plot. I would consider it probing into something new in cinematography, at least as far as sci-fi goes. But if you can take this docudrama style you'll be just fine.In this an hour and a half long movie there's not much action in the first 20 minutes - a routine talk of a six strong international crew and interviews with flight controllers. These give us valuable information about the goal of the mission and Europa itself, which is an ice world and it is believed that under the thick ice crust some water and even oceans may exist, so the mission is to take ice samples and drill through the ice in the hope to find water and... life. The film is scientifically and technically quite accurate which makes it a truly classic science fiction, reminding of the good old days of the 2001: Space Odyssey.Then it starts getting better. They add footage taken by astronauts with a hand-held cameras. They show the real weightlessness in the ship and it looks like they did a really fine job building a very nice and a realistic spacecraft with all the equipment and spacesuits, which are very well made. The space, the planets are also very realistic and true to life.By now I'm curious if this is not what I expected. I'm also getting used to the documentary style. Without revealing too much let's just say the idea is that this footage reaches Earth and here we are - watching what's happening.* SPOILERS *The ship arrives at Jupiter's orbit, then they transfer to Europa's orbit and they finally land on Europa. They start drilling the ice and then notice something is going on outside the ship. They make their first stunning discoveries under the ice with first tense scenes. At this point the narration takes us back in time when the ship was still on the way to Jupiter and there is an EVA going on to repair some modules damaged in a sun storm. A horrible accident happens outside and there is a brilliantly made, very tense and gripping action scenes. By now this movie got my full attention.Now we are back on Europa. The ship actually landed a bit off target and one of the crew gets out of the ship to get samples after a hard debate if an EVA was necessary (radiation levels on Europa are high and dangerous due to closeness to Jupiter). Then events start to unravel in an unexpected direction and from this point on you are on a thrilling and gripping roller-coaster ride right to the end of the film with the astronauts ready to sacrifice their lives to finding life in our Solar system.* ENS OF SPOILERS *This is a well-written and a very well directed movie with a brilliant story. I would particularly mention the excellent actor's play. I've never seen any of them before and it was yet another pleasant surprise about it. Points off for camera-work with wide-angle shots and some distorted faces and archive footage of the launch for what is otherwise a wonderful feature film. Highly recommended.