Some Sci-Fi movies are about ideas and the science of the future. Some, or rather most of them are about high-tech action based in the future. This movie is about the the pursuit of discovery, and how far can a team of humans go, in order to make that discovery...
I am a sucker for Sci-Fi movies. The ideas and the science in them appeal to me. While trawling through the net for prospective Sci-Fi movies of this year, the name "Europa Report" caught my attention. The title itself sounded so appealing. I have always been fascinated by Europa. With its shiny white surface covered with red patches and what looks like scratch marks, I find it most intriguing among the four famous "Galilean Moons" of Jupiter (so named because they were first discovered by Galileo). So I dived in without even looking up its trailer...
When the movie started, I was a bit disappointed to know that it used the Found Footage format, making use of footage from various stationary and hand-held cameras to tell the story. I have seen one found footage Sci-Fi movie before - Apollo 18, and I was a bit disappointed by it. No doubt it had its share of thrills and suspense, which are a hallmark of any good Found Footage movie. But the basic premise, the idea behind the story did not appeal to me at all. Plus, Sci-Fi movies are a lot about eye-candy - VFX, beautiful outer-space locales, a spanning panorama of stars, fancy space-ships, the works... And one can't expect good VFX in the found footage format because of the stationary camera and its comparatively mediocre ability to capture good visuals.
But by the time the movie ended, it left me feeling mildly enthralled. The movie's story had managed to invoke in me the awe and wonder I had felt as a youngster, every time I would let my imagination soar at the prospect of travelling through space, wondered what we would find out there...
The movie does not weigh itself down with an over-ambitious scientific idea. Its premise is quite simple. A team of six astronauts embark on a voyage through interplanetary space to Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter. Their mission: to search for signs of life under Europa's crust of ice.
The mission is being sponsored and executed by Europa Ventures, a private firm. For a welcome change, NASA is nowhere involved - its a privately funded mission. The footage from the various cameras on board the spaceship are being broadcast back to earth.
The first half depicts their journey through the vast chasm of space that lies between the planets. The movie captures well the enthusiasm of the crew. And its infectious. After all, they are going farther than any Man has ever gone before. But like any ground-breaking voyages, this one is full of perils. The first disaster strikes, when halfway through, they loose all communications. While trying to repair the comm modules, one of the crew members is lost. All the exhilaration of the unique voyage suddenly dies out. The harsh reality of the perilous nature of the voyage suddenly dawns upon them all. But this will not be the last disaster they face... The stakes are high, for, if successful, they believe that their discovery could prove to be a most profound one in Human history. So they press on. How the crew members face one difficulty after another, and how they press on against all odds, and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of their discovery, is what fuels the rest of the story.
The found footage format does put a damper on what could have been a very good movie experience. But there are moments in the movie which not only justify the found footage format, but actually take advantage of it to give an entertaining movie experience. For example, this is one of the very few rare Sci-Fi movies which explains and portrays the use of centrifugal force to generate artificial gravity in zero-G. Its a nice little scene where a guy is shooting a personal tour of the ship for his kid. The guy hands the camera to his colleague, and then climbs the stairs from the ground (which is the inner surface of the rotating ship) towards its center of the ship, and as he ascends, he begins to float. And while he floats, we can see beyond (or above?) him, another astronaut descending (going upwards in reverse) at the opposite end of the ship.
There are moments when the found footage format does get on the nerves though. And it doesn't help that during the first half, the story keeps toggling to and fro between flash-back and flash-forward, giving us a sneak-peek of impending disaster. It gets a bit confusing at times. One has to concentrate on the timeline displayed in months : days : hours format every time the story switches back or forward in time.
If you have seen the movie Mission to Mars, then you will recognize the similarity of the plots. To be frank, Mission to Mars scores over Europa Report, because it was shot in normal format. So it was able to render some really awesome sequences (the space walk rescue attempt is one of my most favourite sequences in that movie). But it loses to Europa Report in one aspect. Its climax was too over-done for my taste. But Europa Report has managed to maintain rationality in its somewhat action-wise subdued but utterly realistic and believable climax. And in the end, it does manage to answer a question raised within the movie itself: "Compared to the breadth of knowledge yet to be known, what does your life actually matter?"
On the whole a really nice Sci-Fi flick. Worth watching at least once...
I am a sucker for Sci-Fi movies. The ideas and the science in them appeal to me. While trawling through the net for prospective Sci-Fi movies of this year, the name "Europa Report" caught my attention. The title itself sounded so appealing. I have always been fascinated by Europa. With its shiny white surface covered with red patches and what looks like scratch marks, I find it most intriguing among the four famous "Galilean Moons" of Jupiter (so named because they were first discovered by Galileo). So I dived in without even looking up its trailer...
When the movie started, I was a bit disappointed to know that it used the Found Footage format, making use of footage from various stationary and hand-held cameras to tell the story. I have seen one found footage Sci-Fi movie before - Apollo 18, and I was a bit disappointed by it. No doubt it had its share of thrills and suspense, which are a hallmark of any good Found Footage movie. But the basic premise, the idea behind the story did not appeal to me at all. Plus, Sci-Fi movies are a lot about eye-candy - VFX, beautiful outer-space locales, a spanning panorama of stars, fancy space-ships, the works... And one can't expect good VFX in the found footage format because of the stationary camera and its comparatively mediocre ability to capture good visuals.
But by the time the movie ended, it left me feeling mildly enthralled. The movie's story had managed to invoke in me the awe and wonder I had felt as a youngster, every time I would let my imagination soar at the prospect of travelling through space, wondered what we would find out there...
The movie does not weigh itself down with an over-ambitious scientific idea. Its premise is quite simple. A team of six astronauts embark on a voyage through interplanetary space to Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter. Their mission: to search for signs of life under Europa's crust of ice.
The mission is being sponsored and executed by Europa Ventures, a private firm. For a welcome change, NASA is nowhere involved - its a privately funded mission. The footage from the various cameras on board the spaceship are being broadcast back to earth.
The first half depicts their journey through the vast chasm of space that lies between the planets. The movie captures well the enthusiasm of the crew. And its infectious. After all, they are going farther than any Man has ever gone before. But like any ground-breaking voyages, this one is full of perils. The first disaster strikes, when halfway through, they loose all communications. While trying to repair the comm modules, one of the crew members is lost. All the exhilaration of the unique voyage suddenly dies out. The harsh reality of the perilous nature of the voyage suddenly dawns upon them all. But this will not be the last disaster they face... The stakes are high, for, if successful, they believe that their discovery could prove to be a most profound one in Human history. So they press on. How the crew members face one difficulty after another, and how they press on against all odds, and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of their discovery, is what fuels the rest of the story.
The found footage format does put a damper on what could have been a very good movie experience. But there are moments in the movie which not only justify the found footage format, but actually take advantage of it to give an entertaining movie experience. For example, this is one of the very few rare Sci-Fi movies which explains and portrays the use of centrifugal force to generate artificial gravity in zero-G. Its a nice little scene where a guy is shooting a personal tour of the ship for his kid. The guy hands the camera to his colleague, and then climbs the stairs from the ground (which is the inner surface of the rotating ship) towards its center of the ship, and as he ascends, he begins to float. And while he floats, we can see beyond (or above?) him, another astronaut descending (going upwards in reverse) at the opposite end of the ship.
There are moments when the found footage format does get on the nerves though. And it doesn't help that during the first half, the story keeps toggling to and fro between flash-back and flash-forward, giving us a sneak-peek of impending disaster. It gets a bit confusing at times. One has to concentrate on the timeline displayed in months : days : hours format every time the story switches back or forward in time.
If you have seen the movie Mission to Mars, then you will recognize the similarity of the plots. To be frank, Mission to Mars scores over Europa Report, because it was shot in normal format. So it was able to render some really awesome sequences (the space walk rescue attempt is one of my most favourite sequences in that movie). But it loses to Europa Report in one aspect. Its climax was too over-done for my taste. But Europa Report has managed to maintain rationality in its somewhat action-wise subdued but utterly realistic and believable climax. And in the end, it does manage to answer a question raised within the movie itself: "Compared to the breadth of knowledge yet to be known, what does your life actually matter?"
On the whole a really nice Sci-Fi flick. Worth watching at least once...
My Rating: 3.5
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