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!
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