Europa Report
Europa Report (2013)
I fully admit, I almost turned this one off ten minutes in. I didn’t know it was found footage and really have to be in the mood for those type of movies (shoutout to the amazing Grave Encounters). But, I persevered, and quickly found myself fully engrossed in the tale.
The movie is about a crew of astronauts heading to one of Jupiter’s moon––Europa––as they believe there could possibly be life on the planet after the discovery of water beneath the ice on the moon. Along the way something has happened, but we don’t really know what straight away as the film puts the timeline together slightly out of order.
Despite my initial hesitation I always tend to enjoy movies where we get to spend time with the crew. This one had plenty of that, even if it was done in a slightly different way using fixed cameras and choppy editing as we flicked between the found footage and expert opinions.
It’s a movie where no-one is the bad guy, but there’s always some tension in the air. Something happened to Sharlto Copley and its fucked Michael Nyqvist up. But what was it? The crew all have their own areas of expertise and therefore are willing to take risks if that overlaps with the situation. It’s nothing groundbreaking––excuse the pun, IYKYK––but it is all told with the upmost seriousness which adds to the films charm.
It’s clearly low budget, but it doesn’t allow that to stop it from trying to tell a big story. All the helmet camera stuff massively adds to the tension rather than just being a cheap workaround, and while the ship set isn’t incredible, they try plenty of creative blocking with the seat positions and gravity.
My favourite scene was when the oceanographer went to collect the samples after another member of the crew thought he saw something on Europa. Super tense, with so many moments where you want to shout at her to get the hell back to the ship. But, it didn’t feel like a stupid moment, I think anyone would be awestruck and have tunnel vision when in such an incredible situation.
Honestly, this one really won me over. I liked all the characters and something always seemed to be right around the corner to make the pacing work––helped that it was ninety minutes too, more of that please. I’ll watch anything with Daniel Wu in it, and wasn’t expecting him to be the Captain in a found footage low budget sci-fi. Some might find the movie a little slow, but it’s worth sticking with. Definitely an underrated flick.
