Europa Report: a highly-satisfying, slow-building space thriller

"Fear. Sacrifice. Contact."

The near-future. A privately-funded, international team of astronauts set off on a mission to search for life on Europa, Jupiter's largest moon. Despite a systems failure that leaves the spacecraft out of communication with Earth, the mission goes on, leading to a surprising discovery. But at what cost?

Told in found-footage style, the film is a pretty convincing look at what a real-life, deep space mission might look like. To my knowledge, this is the first movie to capitalize on the possibility of life on Europa, something that's long been believed but never confirmed. Is Europa Report a bit science-heavy? Yes. Is it slow-moving? Yes. Is it a horror movie about evil aliens on a distant world? Most definitely not. Instead, Europa Report is more of a chilling 'what-if' film that leaves you wondering about the possibilities.

Almost all the footage is shot using wall-mounted or hand-held cameras, interspersed with earth-based scenes of scientists later analyzing the mission. This aspect really adds to the movie's feeling of 'authenticity', since no real space mission has room for a full-fledged camera crew. In true found-footage style, Europa Report doesn't really feel like a movie, but instead like a collection of roughly-edited clips from the ship's data recorders chronicling the mission. It's not fancy, but it gets the job done.

Despite the movie's modest budget, the special effects are more than adequate. The visuals aren't quite on-par with other sci-fi films that have come out recently, but fit the context of this movie well. It's nice to see a movie that's not so heavily reliant on special effects for a change -- that's obviously a major trend lately, but would have ruined the 'feel' of the film had it been done that way.

Verdict: Europa Report is a very well done and scientifically intriguing movie, much more so than what I was expecting from a (fairly) low-budget production. It's especially worth checking out for those of you who want to put the 'science back in science fiction', or are looking for a more realistic portrayal of near-future space exploration. In addition, fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact will feel right at home with the movie's pace and feel.

I'd love to see something like this happen for real someday, but for now, we'll all just have to settle for films like Europa Report. Don't miss it!

Ender's Game: a worthy adaptation of a classic tale?

"This is not a game."

Set a century in the future, an unusually brilliant young man, Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin, is recruited and trained to lead Earth space forces in a final battle against an alien race.

For those of you unaware, Ender's Game is based on the 1984 military sci-fi novel of the same name by author Orson Scott Card. The highly-successful book spawned several sequels following Ender's later exploits as an adult. These dealt with the ramifications of Ender's actions in the original novel and his taking on the role of 'speaker for the dead'. I was originally introduced to the series by my seventh grade English teacher, and after a pretty long hiatus, I started re-reading them in anticipation of this movie. If you're looking for something new to read with really well-developed characters and a highly-engaging story, check out this series.

As far as book adaptations go, Ender's Game is surprisingly close to its source material -- it probably helped that the original author co-produced the film, but even so, it's unusual to find 'good' adaptations of even the best novels. For example, for those of you familiar with Burroughs' classic novel A Princess of Mars and it's recent Disney film adaptation, you know what I mean.

As close an adaptation as it is, Enter's Game does condense the plot considerably to fit a two-hour window, but manages to do so without loosing too much of the original story. I'm pleased to say, though, that in the process of condensing, few plot details where altered to fit the faster-paced story. The only major tradeoff is a story that feels a bit rushed and forced at times.

Aspects of the story such as Ender's time at the Battle School is (somewhat) glossed over in favor of focusing on the latter half of the novel. Other elements, like Ender's empathy for the alien queen and his relationship with Valentine, are only touched on. The book's Earth-based sub-plot involving Valentine and Peter's political writing endeavors and Peter's rise to power are completely absent. There are others, but suffice to say, it's impossible to fit a few hundred pages worth of material into a one two-hour movie. Overall, the producers did a decent job of finding compromise.

Like many sci-fi movies this year, Ender's Game is pretty special effects-heavy. Although the story involves very little space travel, much of the computer technology talked about in the book was updated for a 21st century audience and looks quite stunning. The film, for instance, replaces references to dots on a radar screen (in the simulator scenes) to completely immersive holographic displays controlled by hand movement. This was clearly an excuse to show off cool starship designs and space combat, but I'm definitely not complaining. It's unfortunate this movie wasn't released in 3-D since the visuals could have benefited from it.

If you're looking for a sci-fi action film, Ender's Game probably isn't for you. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the book series or like military sci-fi films, definitely check out this movie. It's taken nearly 30 years, but we finally have a fairly solid, big-screen adaptation of this classic tale and a good sci-fi film in its own right.