Glib Reviews of Kind Of New Release DVDs.
-Directed by Sebastiàn Cordero
Europa Report, I approached with some trepidation, as the ‘found footage’ movie ‘genre’ has worn past thin for me. This film, though makes effective use of the technique, and it didn’t seemed as forced as most of the more recent entries in that genre. Instead of crazy jump cut found footage, we have the re-piecing together of footage thought lost, communication from an Earth space ship bound for Europa, the moon on Jupiter, that has a lot of water, and possibly life. Six people spending a couple of years in Deep Space, what could possibly go wrong?
A lot of things of course go wrong, and the film builds tension successfully despite some weak dialogue here and there. Not all the characters are evenly written. But it’s really all about the tension, in this movie; the ending was effective for me, not to spoil it, is really all about the last image sent from the ship.
There is a lot to like in this low budget-ish, kind of old school despite the found footage conceit, and maybe because all the actors, while familiar, are not movie stars as astronauts. They all look like real people, who just might be astronauts. Probably the best thing about the movie, and the script, are the things that get left out. There is very minimal techie talk, no long winded explanations of how they get so far so fast, thus you don’t even think about it.
The actual portrait of Europa was clear and very sci-fi-believable, and the ending, inevitable. I like this film much more after a couple of days thinking about it, than I did just after I watched it. Let it sink in.
An interesting thing, my watching these recent New releases has become its own mini festival of minimally populated characters movies. The Wall, was basically one character, DGG’s Prince Avalanche, was basically two maybe three actual characters. Jupiter Report had seven characters, none of whom had much more screen time really, than any other. I seem to have gravitated to films with small casts, where intimate portrayals outweigh the demand for action. I am pleased with these choices. It’s nice to watch some recent thoughtful movies amongst all the old classics, that I watch and re-watch so much.
8.2234 ill advised trips across thin spooky alien ice that glows in the dark outta 10
Is this the one with that Sandra Bulloch girl and Sam Clooney floating around in space? Or the one with Judy Dench and Steve Coogan. You know, the one in 3-D...
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