20131112: SciFi Review--Europa Report

Europa Report

1. Production Fundamentals; reception
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated PG13, 97 minutes.
2. IMDB: 6.5/10.0 from 17,007 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 79% on the meter; 63% liked it from 9,878 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 35,773 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Sebastian Cordero; screenplay by Philip Gelatt.
6. Starring: Christian Camargo as Dr. Daniel Luxembourg, Embeth Davidtz as Dr. Samantha Unger, Anamaria Marinca as Rosa Dasque, Michael Nyqvist as Andrei Blok, Daniel Wu as William Xu, Karolina Wydra as Dr. Katya Petrovna, Sharlto Copley as James Corrigan, Dan Fogler as Dr. Sokolov, Isiah Whitlock, Jr as Dr. Tarik Pamuk.


2. Setup, Plot
1. Europa One is a mission to Europa, a satellite of the planet Jupiter.


2. The probe is sent to find life on Europa.  It encounters an EMP, which takes out its communications to Earth.  James dies trying to fix it with Andrei.


3. They go ahead and land on Europa, despite having lost contact with Earth.  Katya dies after finding proof of life; the ice breaks and she falls through it.


4. They try to liftoff to get back to the main vehicle for the trip back.  This fails since their engines have been compromised.  William dies executing a maneuver that saves the remaining three from an even harsher impact.  Rosa, Andrei, and Daniel survive, but are worse for the wear.  They assess, then set about fixing the ship.  Daniel and Andrei prepare to go outside to do repairs; Rosa stayed inside to prepare the engines for takeoff.  Daniel vanishes into the ice.


5. Will they make it in time?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Bright hopes turn into an heroic one way trip.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Pretty good, but not top of the line.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 8/10 Reasonably good.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Good story, fairly well told.


5. Special Effects: 7/10 Better than many, but low-budget.