I first watched Europa Report shortly after its release. I remember thinking that this was a really good attempt at portraying the horrors that one might encounter during a typical space mission.
This particular mission involves the discovery of water on one of Jupiter's moons, IO…. and the decision for a group of astronauts to go see if they can find any microorganisms in that water.
New life.
Life on another planet.
That sounds pretty interesting in and of itself, but it seems pretty obvious that there is more in store when it comes to Europa Report.
Imdb
Generally speaking, unless a science fiction movie is wildly popular at the movie theater or something like that, in my opinion it has a tendency to receive much lower ratings on something like IMDB then a standard action flick.
Having said that, the 6.4 that IMDB lists for Europa Report stands out to me as a really good score.
These scores don't always tell the full story, but I can also see that many of the reviews are positive, and I have a strong feeling that I will enjoy this movie.
Of course, this being my second watch through…. I know that I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure if it's going to hold up after all these years.
The first thing I want to say is that I don't recognize any of the actors. Even after all these years, I still don't recognize any of the actors. I kind of like that.
It means that you're not basing the movie on people that you already know. You're not giving the movie any extra credit that it doesn't deserve based on some famous actor that you happened to enjoy watching.
Europa Report is very similar to several other space movies in that it involves a group of people in a craft flying through space heading towards a mission. The people then arrive at their destination, the mission completes, there is some sort of incident, and the movie ends.
This movie has a documentary type field. If you didn't already know that we hadn't been to Jupiter's moon IO, then you might actually think that this was something that really happened.
Somewhere along the way to this moon, the astronauts lose contact with scientists on earth. However, they decide to continue their mission. They end up landing at a different site than they original intended. The site that they land on does not have a lot of life on it.
That makes it harder to gather samples, and at first they were upset about it. However, it quickly becomes clear that there is some sort of creature with a glowing dot or something like that on it.
Eventually they try to leave the planet and they end up crashing on a site that is nearer to the original landing site.
A site that has a lot of life on it.
Jupiter's moon IO isn't full of microorganisms, as you might imagine. As it turns out there's something else on this planet. And yes, ultimately Europa Report is a scary movie, or at least it's trying to be one.
Is it a good movie? Yes.
I'd say I really enjoyed it.
However, it is definitely not the kind of flick that I would recommend watching again and again. It’s not the type of flick that you might want to test out your new speakers on, or your giant big screen TV.
Really it's just kind of a puzzle documentary. It's not as though there's any puzzle pieces to figure out, but it's reminds me of a puzzle because you're trying to figure out what's actually on the planet.
When you already know what's on the planet, it doesn't really make any sense to watch the movie again. I’d say this movie is good, and easily deserving of a 7 on IMDB, but I don't think anyone really would need to watch it twice.
So that's my review of Europe Report . I think if you haven't seen it and you like science fiction you should definitely check it out. I also think that if you've already seen it there's no point in watching it again.
That's all folks.
Thanks for reading.
