Found footage movie about a doomed manned space mission to explore Jupiter's ice moon Europa. Despite a low budget we have a riveting, claustrophobic and suspenseful film which at times made me feel like I was actually on board with the crew. One of the most memorable scenes involves one of the astronauts floating away from the craft to his inevitable death. Truly haunting. As others have pointed out there are goofs, such as the ability to communicate with Earth without any time delay, but these don't detract from this being a really good, intelligent sci fi movie.

Ever since Blair Witch, one of the hip trends in the horror genre is the "found footage" concept. One gets the impression that the producers of Europa Report wanted to glam on to that concept and be one of the first sci-fi movies to do so. Unfortunately, it doesn't work here, as the editing makes the story line erratic, disjointed and confusing. I'm still trying to figure out how/why the Rosa Dasque character (the last victim of the failed mission) provides a calm solo narrative supposedly AFTER her apparent death.The basic plot has the potential to be a great one, as I love sci-fi movies that rely on actual science. The filmmakers of ER made a noble attempt at weaving a relevant story, but here, too, they come up short, mainly due to the ensemble. The characters are one dimensional and I found it difficult to care for them. There's about a ten second spot where one of the men is trying to communicate with his three year old son, trying to establish some humanity, but it comes across as cheap and disingenuous. The writers used the right scientific lingo, but the actors couldn't deliver it with any conviction or authenticity. You just didn't get the feel that these people were highly trained scientists.Then there's the mechanics and physical aspects. Presumably, since this space vessel is going to Europa (about 400 million miles from Earth), this film is set in the distant future. The sets, CGI and FX are all products of 2013 production techniques, so that the feel and technology seem grossly out of place. For example, with HD photography and the forward direction it's going, wouldn't you think that the ship would have better on-board/exterior cameras and computer graphics? This, of course, may be explained by the limited budget, as I understand this is an indie film.I didn't totally trash this film because there's a few relatively suspenseful scenes, and I'm extremely forgivable with the suspension of disbelief. I think the filmmakers and actors had their hearts in the right place. But there are other much better sci-fi movies out there. Two I recommend are Ex Machina, one of the most thought-provoking sci- fi films since The Matrix and AI; and Under the Skin, an interestingly quirky film that I found held my attention in a mesmerizing way, despite its lack of action.

The basic premise and the story the movie is trying to tell is certainly compelling. However, it is told in a wholly unconvincing way.The drama arises almost exclusively from hard-to-believe incidents:– A solar flare destroys communication. Sure, because nobody would expect solar flares to occur.– The attempt to repair results in the death of one and the almost-death of another crew member, apparently because they performed the repair in a haphazard way and didn't even bother to tether themselves.– No other attempt to restore communications is made. I guess they didn't have spare parts?– Radiation from Jupiter makes leaving the craft extremely dangerous. Just leaving when Jupiter is on the other side of the moon didn't occur to anyone.– A fuel line freezes. Because nobody would expect outer space to be *that* cold.– When an important event occurs, we are not shown what happens, but the face of the person it happens to.– Images are mainly derived from cameras installed in the craft. One of them happens to be installed directly behind what appears to be a valve.– Image distortions are typical of analog signals. Apparently, I in the future video is not transferred digitally.And so on and so on. One or two of these I could ignore, in sum they make for a deeply annoying experience.

This found-footage movie is quite low-key for a sci-fi thriller - meaning there aren't giant robots fighting monsters or nuclear bombs countdowns. It's a space exploration yarn with an old-school, "Rendezvous with Rama" vibe, where action takes a backseat to mystery and awe.The main problem is structure. The movie opens with a flash-forward, then alternates between two different time-lines, both the first and the last days of the mission. It's a mistake; not only jumping back and forth is distracting, it also spoils the death of a crew member, an effective scene which would have carried more tension if we hadn't already watched its aftermath.This also muddles other characters' arcs; they start off as morose and disillusioned, then we jump back to before the incident, when they are still optimistic. Playing with time like that is a dangerous storytelling choice; with a few exceptions (think Memento), the dramatic progression works better as a chronological crescendo from good to bad to worse.Maybe I'm sounding like The Europa Report is a mess, but it's not. Like Duncan Jones' Moon, this movie looks neat in spite of a slim budget; the cast is composed of competent character actors. After the first two thirds of Interstellar, this is probably as close to a "hard sci-fi / space exploration adventure" as fans of the genre are likely to get in a long time.6,5/10