Found Footage Sci-Fi Indie —
At last! A low budget Sci-Fi movie that understands the science. The fact that what we see is in actual fact plausible, it has far more impact, and I sat engrossed for almost the whole movie, almost. It had a reasonable first act. The second dragged its heals a tad, but the final was a peach. It really is the fact that it didn’t have guys in bad rubber suits biting large chunks out of astronauts faces, made this far more memorable to the Sci-Fi fan, like myself.
Europa Report is about a crew of international astronauts, who go on a privately funded mission to one of Jupiter’s moons. It’s the ice moon Europa, which is believed to be able to harbor primitive life, and that’s precisely what they search for. Because liquid water has been detected in Europa’s ice covered surface, they take with them plenty of equipment to look for signs of life and it’s also very interesting watching them work with it. Nothing extraordinary but being a fan of Sci-Fi it kept me interested and enjoying it even more.
*****
The acting by the whole cast was great, and not once was there anything but solid performances. In actaul fact, there were a few great scenes that stood out. like when an untethered astronaut (Sharlto Copley, District 9) attempts to save his crew-mate (Michael Nyqvist), he ends up floating slowly away, running out of oxygen. His performance was very good. The outside shots of Jovian space, with the gas giant in the background were stunning, as were almost all space shots. They looked as realistic as the Hubble space telescope images, they were that good.
Apart from some silly things, like gravity working when it suited, or the take off inside the craft being a bit unrealistic, there really was nothing to point to and tsk tsk at, because it was as good as it could be, in my opinion. A worthy Sci-Fi movie that I strongly recommend.
Grade: B+
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