Europa Report

I like that the creators of sci-fi movies are not afraid to come up with new ideas lately. Europa Report does not break the boundaries with its originality, but it still contains a lot of messages that are worth thinking about. Add in the great international acting crew, filmmaking craft of a great quality, even though it is cheap, and you have a small-scale film about what might one day be pretty important events of humankind. (01/09/2016)

A pedantically down-to-earth Prometheus with convincing behavior from all in this minimalist and incredibly orthodox sci-fi offering for genre connoisseurs. And one of the rare exceptions where the concept of found footage isn’t just a cheap trick hiding a low budget, but an integral component and one of the main building blocks of its effectiveness, which it also owes to the simple fact that it succeeds in creating the convincing illusion (I repeat, illusion, not real-life action) that “one day, when it happens, these people will behave exactly like this". (07/01/2013)

Awesome thoroughbred sci-fi movie, the second this year that made me feel I was watching the adaptation of some classic novel (the first one was Oblivion). In addition to the very attractive premise and the good performances, it is very smartly put together with a mature use of the found-footage format – the interviews with characters and the jumps between different timelines generate false impressions, expectations and surprises. And none of the characters is an idiot, which also counts. For the fans of proper sci-fi who don’t need shiny visuals, space battles, explosions and loads of expensive effects, this is a must. (07/08/2013)

There are dozens or perhaps even hundreds of second-rate horror movies and formalistic exhibitions in the mould of End of Watch that have stripped the found-footage concept (or, generally speaking, the illusion of an immediate recording of events) of any believability. The camera, seemingly in the immediate presence of events, has been degraded to merely a means of superficial ornamentation and spectacular presentation of attractions. In this context, Europa Report is an unexpected revelation. Its makers abandoned the limiting and dramatically retarded concept of a single camera continuously following the action and instead present viewers with footage from dozens of cameras monitoring a space expedition heading to one of Jupiter’s moons. The narrative is conceived as a report composed of footage from cameras aboard the ship and on spacesuits, promotional videos prior to lift-off and commentary assessing the depicted events after the fact. An essential aspect is that the reportage concept makes it possible to not present the events chronologically, but to instead piece them together dramaturgically for dramatic effect. The narrative works brilliantly with viewer expectations and ingeniously doles out and conceals information. Thanks to all of this, the illusion of camera footage in Europa Report returns to its original role as a narrative device rather than as a formalistic means of expression (as in Gareth Evans’ similarly conceived segment from V/H/S/2). Though it looks like the more expensive Apollo 18 in the first teaser, Europa Report ultimately proves to be a brilliant sci-fi movie from the ranks of humanistic stories about the fragility and smallness of man transported from his home planet into the captivating and dangerous endlessness of space. (02/10/2013)

A solid genre film that uses the B-movie found footage space horror schtick, but in addition to clichés, it also uses more serious themes and a more ambitious narrative structure. The film does it relatively cleverly and skillfully, although it cannot disguise the cheap props and scenery. The sentinel really didn't have to be there. Given that the creators have combined several of my big phobias, I rate this film quite positively. Catchy. (07/24/2013)