Europa Report blew my mind, put it back together again by gravity, and then blew it up again.
This movie was so much better than I anticipated. I watched it for my Astronomy class, and didn't have too high of expectations since the week before we watched Mission to Mars. *sigh* Europa Report was everything I wanted Mission to Mars to be.
The movie chronicles a space mission funded by a private corporation (
not NASA!) to Jupiter's moon Europa. Instead of sending a probe their first, the company has only one shot of doing this, and decides to send six humans on a mission to discover if Europa has life.
Knowing the background of Europa was really helpful before watching this movie. I wouldn't have been confused per se, but I definitely grasped the concepts more and got a lot out of it. Basically what you need to know about Europa is that it is a massive moon that suggests that there is flowing liquid on the moon. Europa is encased in a thick layer of ice, and many astronomers believe that there is an ocean underneath said layer of ice that might have
more water than all the terrestrial planets put together! This causes a great deal of speculation about whether or not there is life on Europa.
One thing I really like about this movie is that
it isn't too far fetched. Europa is believed to have water, and it's not short of the imagination to suggest that we might go there one day in search of life. The movie accurately depicts how life threatening these mission are. Getting to Mars would be at least a two year mission, so travelling to Europa would be even longer.
As said before, the movie follows a crew of six and their ill-fated mission. Before even reaching the moon, one of their crew has passed. A cool thing about this movie is that it isn't in chronological order. That may bug some people, but it drew me into the story even more and really worked for me. There was never a slow moment in Europa Report, but the movie also never felt rushed. I felt as if
I really knew the characters; I started connecting with them.
Another aspect I absolutely adored in this movie were the camera angles! The angles used in the movie reflect what camera angles there might be on a spaceship. There are times where, Rosa, one of the crew members, is filming a diary-esque vlog explaining the mission. Throughout the movie, we also seem camera angles really close to the characters faces, as if the camera from the spacesuits of the members were transmitting to us. The angles drew me in more than I already was, and
I felt as if I was there with all the crew.
Throughout the movie, some weird stuff has been happening to the crew while on Europa. There is this distant light, seemingly luminescent. The plot
kept me on the edge of my seat. While watching, I was making all the theories and predictions about what everything meant. I had a really fun experience watching this.
The best thing about the movie though, was the
ENDING. HOLY CRAP. It was soooooo good! I raved to this to anyone who would listen to me. Seriously, the ending of the movie makes the film so much more better. It blew my mind. It was so good and creative, and was left reeling (in a good way!) afterwards.
To put it short, I definitely recommend this movie! There were minor issues I had, but nothing major. Europa Report is everything I want a sci-fi movie to be. It's fun, plausible, believable, has great acting, and actually has science in it! Imagine that!
With that, I give this movie
4.5 Stars (or 90 percent!)
Have you guys heard of this movie or watched it? If so, what did you think? What are some of your favorite science fiction movies?
Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you guys soon with another post!
Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!
(Or not..I might just be binge-reading all of Winter! Haha!)
1) My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
