Europa Report

[Jon Starr]

This is one film I'm very excited about. It's hard indy sci-fi, and many are describing it akin to Moon.

Now it seems to be found footage and that's the only crux. However reviews have it at 70% on rotten tomatoes.

Also you can check out some cool behind the scenes:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/68225/go-behind-scenes-europa-report-two-featurettes

For the yanks, it's available on Itunes, for everyone else it's coming out in August. Not sure if select theaters or how that'll work. So if you're american and have watched it, or are going to watch it, please warn us before posting spoilers as courtesy. Thanks! And be sure to let us know how it is.

 

[Nektonic]

Looks interesting.

I'm definitely getting a Moon plus Prometheus sorta vibe from it, except with the addition of found footage style camerawork.

 

[Gillvane]

Looks interesting but I really don't like found footage.

 

[Jon Starr]

Finally got a chance to see it. I really enjoyed it. One of the few well done sci-fi films that focuses on the SCIENCE of sci-fi, and plays more to the people vs environment, than the other typical sci-fi tropes. There aren't crew members yelling at each other every two minutes (which makes sense since you'd choose very stable personalities for long term missions), there's no murderous crew member, there's nothing like that in this film. It's refreshing and I love it. It's by no means the most amazing sci-fi film ever made, and not at the same level of Moon, but great nonetheless.

I don't like found footage either, but I didn't mind it here. This comes off as a cross between found footage, and a fake documentary. At times they show the sequence of events for the sake of the story, while other times it's narrated by some of the crew and mission control personnel (mainly talking heads). Most found footage films I find have strange, even nonsensical reasons for continuing to film in the third act when everything falls apart. There's no reason to focus on holding a camera when your life is in danger. However for this film, without giving away too much, has a reason.

I definitely recommend it, especially if you're a space exploration fan like me.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention though, it's not all hard sci-fi. Well it is, but they sometimes throw common sense away just for the sake of the story. There were so many clever ways around it that they could have build tension, but they just opted for some silly ideas. It's just a warning, which is disappointing for a film that tried to be all about the science.