I had to pay a $10 premium to see this movie. (I think because it’s a pre-theatrical release?) And I feel I got my money’s worth.
Part of what caught my attention in the previews, is that, it is being dubbed as one of the most scientifically correct movies out there. And they weren’t kidding either. Seriously, I’d like to see the Science Snobs thumb their nose at this one.
Also, this aint no alien slasher movie. So if you’re expecting to see some muscle clad guy with a cigar hanging out of his mouth as he chases down the alien with a flame thrower; save your money, this movie aint for you.
This is more of a what would really happen if we sent a crew out into deep space.
I first heard about this movie as an ad on Facebook. I watched the trailer and was initially excited about seeing the movie until the trailer devolved into the standard “horror movie in space” theme. When I read a review that compared it to “Sunshine” which is a complete mess I decided not to watch this movie. I even thought about starting a post lamenting why so many current space movies resort to horror.
When I saw that your post said this was not a slasher movie, and you wrote so highly of it, I decided to rent it from iTunes. I am very happy that I saw your post because this was very good!
First of all, I’m glad they picked Europa as the setting. I personally believe that Europa is probably the most interesting place in the solar system for us to visit and I can’t wait until we finally get there. All of the scenes around Jupiter and Europa were stunning in this film. Especially looking through the chasm on Europa at Jupiter and its other moons.
I found the ship and mission to be believable. The characters were “professional astronauts” which you’d need on long missions instead of the crazy lunatics so many other science fiction movies insist on using. I agree that when we send a mission to Europa the crew may look similar to this one.
Overall, a very solid movie and an outstanding science fiction movie.
It’s tough because the more realistic a space movie is – and I applaud this one for its authenticity and beautiful effects – the less chance you have for drama.
There’s a reason there’s no movie about Apollo 11, Apollo 12, or Apollo 14; everything pretty much worked (yes, I know 12 was struck by lightning, which had no effect). But when an oxygen tank explodes and you’ve got three men in a lunar lander “lifeboat” built for two, you’ve got an amazing true-life story.
So the filmmakers were faced with making a realistic film but including some sort of conflict or unforeseen events. I thought some of those made sense and others felt like “This is a movie so let’s stir things up.” The found-footage aspect increased the realism but, again, decreased the narrative possibilities and suspense.
I did have one question that I’ll put in the spoiler box:
The solar storm knocked out the orbiter’s communication system. But on Europe, Andrei said he could somehow fix the lander’s system to link up with the orbiter’s, which is how the ground crew eventually learned what happened. But the orbiter’s comms were still fried, so what was Andrei doing? He could do whatever he wanted to the lander and the orbiter still wouldn’t work. Did I miss something?
Overall, though, a very interesting film The Europa and Jupiter scenes were indeed breathtaking.
When I mentioned I was thinking about starting a thread about space travel movies, my first realization is that space travel is inherently boring - and I say that as a huge fan of space flight. The other Apollo movies you mentioned were served well by the HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon” but that story revolved around the people and the accomplishment of reaching a nearly impossible goal rather than on the missions themselves.
I’ll spoiler my specific comments but just note that the moments that drive the drama in this movie are at least all plausible. The story took a few liberties to make the consequences a little worse than they needed to be but sometimes that’s what’s necessary to drive a story so it’s forgivable.
Why do so many science fiction movies insist on putting circuit boards in hard to reach places outside of the crew compartment? Especially circuit boards that have fuses attached that could blow from a solar storm? The other thing about that circuit board that is irritating is that everything that’s needed to fix it is already on the board - all it appears the characters need to do is pull some wires and reattach elsewhere. And as you noticed, I couldn’t figure out the link on how fixing it on the lander fixed the orbiter.
As for the marine life on Europa, I just got the impression that it was an animal that was hunting food which is a big plus. It didn’t seem overpowered or particularly malicious. The radiation signature was maybe implausible but for a sense of dread to be added it served fine. My main beef with those scenes was the crews lack of preparation for working on the thin ice - it would seem that would have been well thought through and prepared for in advance since that was the entire purpose of the mission. For the same reason, I didn’t accept that they would suffer from a frozen fuel line.
I agree about the ice. When the probe was being lowered, we saw it go to a depth of 2800 meters. But when Katya walked outside, she fell through the ice like it was a Wisconsin lake.
Europa Report has already made its way to Netflix.
This is bittersweet news for me. On one hand, I’m glad I don’t have to purchase this movie, on the other, it’s sad this movie didn’t get the recognition it deserves.
Where are all the snobby sci-fi fans when you need them? They should have been praising this movie to death!
I missed this in theaters (yes it had a very limited run but I did know about it) but eventually did catch it. It’s somewhat understandable that it doesn’t have mass appeal, but I think those who like it are really going to like it. I know Bad Astronomer Phil Plait was helpful in promoting it but that probably connected to more science people than movie people.
It is similar in a way to Sunshine, but whereas Sunshine kept getting stupider and stupider, this one just gets better as it goes along. I liked the way it was framed as well; it’s an interesting take on the ‘found footage’ movie.
If you only see one movie set in space that has Sharlto Copley in it and a Latin American director this year, make it Europa Report.
All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.
I dug this movie, although I do have a Europa fetish. I liked how there weren’t any love triangles or overly forced conflicts. Loved when the girl was walking around on the surface and looking up at Jupiter from the icy canyon. Only major complaint was the cameras flickering to the radiation to add suspense but I just found it annoying. Do cameras even do that?
And how irradiated are those squids to do that from so far away?
I thought it was funny during the launch when the news ticker said the mission cost 3.7 billion. I hope they just mean that last piece, because the whole thing would probably need a couple more zeroes.
It’s crazy how good this and Moon are, considering their budgets. Is it even 10 million put together?
I saw it on Netflix and liked it a lot. I particularly liked that there were no cliched characters, no “bad guy” astronaut who tries to sell the others out. Just a bunch of professionals slowly getting deeper in the shit. It was better that 80% of the movies that came out this year.
