Europa Report (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Sebastián Cordero
	Actors: Christian Camargo, Embeth Davidtz, Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-team)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure, Drama, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 30.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: A scientific team has been sent to explore Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and look for signs of life.
Review: I was starting to wonder if we would get any good movies at the Munich Fantasy Filmfest this year! Europa Report belongs to the found footage sub-genre (we see the action only through onboard cameras). They try to sell it like a kind of monster movie in space where you have to face you fears etc... a bit like Event Horizon, in order to attract more audience. In fact the movie feels like a pure documentary on space exploration, and the feeling is confirmed by the list of scientific advisors on the movie, from NASA, JPL... Indeed I couldn't find many scientific inaccuracies throughout the whole movie. It also contains a not-so-subtle reference to 2001, A Space Odyssey. The only annoying element in this movie is the abuse of audio and video noise. The philosophical implications of discovering traces of life in the Solar system are discussed by the exploration team, and the movie leaves you plenty of time to contemplate the stars, the spaceship, Jupiter and Europa so that you can reflect by yourself on those questions. Europa Report is highly recommended for anybody who is still clinging to the dream of humanity exploring the stars, a dream that has been slowly forgotten in the last fifty years.
Rating: 8 /10