Europa Report

Here is some context about Europa for you: it is a tiny, as in tiny, ice ball located 390 million miles away from Earth. It has essentially no atmosphere and a temperature of -260 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees colder than Mars gets at night). It is one of the most dangerous places in space with a radiation level 1,800 times that of earth on its surface. As has been pointed out before, sending humans to this moon without extreme protection is suicide.

I think this film could have captured the sheer terror of deep space, the deadly environment of Europa, and the possible deadliness of whatever creatures it may, or may not, contain if it ditched the found footage motif entirely. I never liked the found footage format it just never seemed as frightening and in your face scary as experiencing it "live". It's like watching a youtube video of the scary thing instead of being in the scary thing.

Another drawback of the found footage is we lose a wider view of the environment, a big problem here because you want the audience to see Europa and the massive nearby Jupiter. I think I saw more of both in the movie's poster than I did in the actual film. The film loses a few stars for these reasons.

On the other hand, the movie earns some kudos for fairly good acting, reasonably realistic portrayal of astronauts, some stressful and frightening moments, and a generally intriguing look at what could be lurking out there in space. If only it wasn't found footage.