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Such a frustrating disappointment

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

EUROPA REPORT is another disappointingly wishy-washy Hollywood science fiction movie about a spaceship full of astronauts who pay a visit one of the moons of Jupiter, only to encounter aliens, madness, and death on arrival. It's amazing that Hollywood is still copying ALIEN all these decades later, but EUROPA REPORT is a poorly-directed exercise in predictability that lacks excitement and finesse. I appreciated the film's found footage aspect, which is hard to pull off, and the cast isn't bad either, although the best actors - like Sharlto Copley and Daniel Wu - are criminally underutilised. But after some good mystery-building early on, this falls apart and feels dragged-out and cheesy in equal measure.

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.

A solid B-movie sci-fi flick. Done in a video-diary format, that takes place primarily on a cramped spaceship. Far from a game changer but when considering its low budget, this was a competent little space horror. However, I wouldn't recommend this to anybody who dislikes found footage movies.

The first half of the film seemed unnecessarily confusing (did not need use as many time jumps). But when the plot begins to settle down and go filling in the gaps, we find a great movie very attached to scientific guidelines we know so far. This film gives us a chilling trip into one of the most striking Jupiter's moons. Note that the characters are not very attractive. However the story unfolds in a captivating environment full of mysteries.Most notable are the images so well achieved Jupiter and its moons. This film is a journey that every lover of science and astronomy should do.