Europa Report

Europa Report is a pretty damn good movie.  I would say it's a must see for any Sci-Fi lovers who enjoyed films such as Sunshine or Moon.  The production information wasn't available online but I guess it to be quite low-mid budget, yet it's so cleverly shot/edited it's barely noticable.

The film follows the first manned space exploration flight to travel farther than the Moon. Its destination is Europa, one of Jupiter's moons believed to potentially contain traces of life after water is discovered under the icy surface.  Nearly the entire movie consists of footage edited together from the ship and astronaut camera's.   Don't be put off if you're not a fan of the 'found footage' genre, this one plays out quite differently and with virtually zero 'shaky cam'.

I'm no expert on the intricacies of space but to me the entire film feels quite realistic.  The tag line for the film is "Fear. Sacrifice. Contact." so I won't be giving anything away by saying there is an element of alien discovery here, however it is not over done or cheesy and becomes just part of a number of challenges faced by the crew. 

There's a couple of actors in it you might have seen around the place. Probably the most recognizable for me is Sharlto Copley who played Wikus in District 9.  Quite interesting seeing him hiding his quite distinct South African accent but he does a good job actually.

One other thing worth noting is the very clever use of sets and special effects.   They created a few very detailed and beautiful looking sets to represent the inside of the ship and combined these with some quite static yet crisp special effects for outside.  It worked well throughout and presented the effect of a larger budget film.

This movie has made very little revenue so if you get a chance to go see it, hire or stream it I highly recommend giving it a chance.

8/10

IMDB Info