Europa Report (2013)

When it's over, the visuals were the most memorable. Europa Report impressed me with its camera work, set design, and space photography. Six astronauts travel to one of Jupiter's moon, Europa, in search of life. What they find is both magical and frightening. The film used found footage photography, similar to films such as Apollo 18, Cloverfield, and Blair Witch Project. Adding further to the docu-drama was narration and interview style filming, which were all utilized to fool the viewers into believing they were watching a documentary. There was no linear storyline and sporadic scenes confused more than informed, but thankfully, the jumps in timeline flattened half way through the film. The acting was good, especially from Sharlto Copley and Michael Nyqvist, but not engaging, primarily due to character development in the script. The story evolved, but the characters did not. Part exploration film and part science fiction horror, it was crucial for me to like the characters in order for me to accept their fates as they were eliminated one at a time, following the classic horror formula. Unfortunately, I found myself routing for no one. I liked that the characters had diverse personalities, but disappointed the filmmakers failed to explore those differences, which would have made the story more compelling. Still, the film's attention to details held my interest to the very end, and served to be an intelligent science fiction film for science fiction lovers. 

My rating: 3 out of 5