"Europa Report" is about the first manned expedition to the titular moon of Jupiter, where scientists have long speculated that there may be a chance that life exists underneath the ice of its vast, deep oceans. While the destination is of course the highlight and takes up the back half of the film, it's just as much about the journey as it's a long damn trip of some two years to just get there, and a lot can happen in that time to people stuck in a tin can in space.
The film doesn't go all "Event Horizon" on us or anything, although that would have been freaking awesome, but there are enough things that happen on the voyage there so as to make the entire trip seem like a wholly bad idea. The film showcases just how unpredictably and quickly absolute disaster can happen, which often has a point-of-no-return of a couple of seconds and inches. There is no room for mistakes anywhere out in deep space, and often when a mistake happens, it means someone is going to die, which a rather horrifyingly effective sequence near the middle of the film that is hinted at throughout the beginning (as the film is told slightly out of chronological order) illustrates. It really puts the viewer on pins and needles any time anybody does pretty much anything.
Lots of this expression going on here.
This tension carries over to when they land on the planet where things go pear-shaped almost immediately, and every single decision they make turns into a life-or-death situation. As the "or death" part of that gets more and more accurate as the film progresses, there's a distinct overarching sense of doom and hopelessness that takes over the film. And that may not be comfortable watching but it's certainly effective.
From that perspective "Europa Report" is a well done work of science fiction that may be somewhat bleak, but it's an interesting, suspenseful ride while it lasts. It's paired with solid performances all around, particularly from Embeth Davidtz as the astronaut who becomes our lead, Sharlto Copley who provides the film's most dramatic and heartrending moment, and Michael Nyqvist as the slightly unhinged guy who may or may not be losing it. And while I'm sure there are plenty of gaffes in how things would work in the real world, there's enough of a sense of realism so as to make it seem legit.
It's also quite pretty on occasion.
Where the issue, and it's the only big issue, in "Europa Report" comes into play is when we talk about how it was filmed and put together. Now, I was not expecting this, but to my surprise it turns out that this is a found-footage movie. I'm still not sure how I feel about that, since I've found the success rate of that genre to be shaky at best. I'd have to say that out of the found-footage movies I have seen, "Europa Report" is an example of a decently put together one, but that's not saying a whole heck of a lot, and it's certainly not as good as the best the genre has to offer.
At least this made some sense in terms of the "How are we seeing this?" question goes, as the footage is transmitted back to Earth. And at least there's really no hand-held cameras to speak of, which means that at least it's not headache inducing or incomprehensible. But the question remains as to why this is a found-footage movie in the first place. It doesn't add anything to the film. Shooting it like a normal film would have been just as effective, if not more so because then it would have eliminated the need for the other aspect that wasn't very effective: The talking heads.
Interspersed throughout the film, functioning as our narrators so to speak, are interviews with some of the people who had been overseeing the mission from Earth. This makes "Europa Report" come across more like a program on the History Channel or something, which tends to underplay the drama and, instead of having the clearly intended effect of grounding it in reality as if we were watching a documentary, serves to only shatter the fourth wall and break up the flow. It doesn't help that all they really do is pop up and explain to us what we just saw and already know, which makes them not only annoying but useless as well.
Helmet-cam also means we get freaking clinical with a number of the crew's faces.
In all honesty that's the only real issue with the film. Granted, "The way it's put together" is a fairly big issue, but everything else is pretty solid. It's a good science fiction story. It's just a shame that it couldn't have been filmed like a traditional movie instead of trying to use a gimmick that really comes across as pointless and somewhat distracting.
Check out the trailer.
THE BOTTOM LINE - "Europa Report" is worth a look if you like sci-fi, but if you really hate the found footage genre, it's probably not going to be to your liking. At the very least it's not going to win over any converts. Worth a look for some pretty memorable and tense scenes, but overall it feels like it could have been put together more efficiently.
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