August 4, 2013

I saw "Europa Report" yesterday

I think it's great that you can rent a movie before it hits the theaters. It seems iTunes makes you pay 6.99 for a pre-release rental, just a bit more than their typical price. Fine by me.

So, Keith, how was the movie? You know, I was disappointed while watching it. I wanted "more", whatever that might mean. But a day later, my reaction is kinder. It wasn't bad at all.

The best thing is that it seemed real. The scenes looked like something out of a real mission to Jupiter's coolest moon. Since the story is told through the ship's camera system, there are many split-screen images, which isn't a bad thing. In fact, it adds to the realism.

Europa, Jupiter's icy moon, looked terrific. I felt like I was there. And the story they laid out, while not great, is adequate. It paints in extraordinary detail what it might feel like to be so far from Earth -- and the possibility of help. I certainly wasn't bored.

On the other hand, the script and character development were a bit absent-minded. When you watch a movie like "Alien", you know those characters. That's not true of this movie. In fact, I hardly cared about the characters. And as for the script, there were things they should have skipped because they weren't essential to the plot.

But hey, it was a realistic-looking sci-fi movie -- and you don't see many of those anymore. Out of 5 stars, I'd give it about 3.4. Did you see the movie? What did you think?

2 comments:

Anna Guess Pick said...

OK, before all you blog-readers moan and say "not again" - Yes, Keith and I are conjoined twins, sometimes we fight, but most of the time we just stick together.

I got to see Europa Report first as I was already facing the screen when I hit the play button, but K. gets to do the blog first because he controls the keyboard...figures.

I enjoyed the movie as well despite it being slow moving. I felt the camera work and over-all photography and realism made up for the script and character weaknesses.

Good and non-gimicky sci-fi movies are hard to come by so overall this little independent film didn't do too badly.

And now you have it from both Frick and Frack.

writenow said...

In my Italian family, they would say we were like "Creek and Croak" rather than Frick and Frack. Note that you MUST roll the R's when you say Creek and Croak. (No clue how they're spelled; that's how they sound.) Thanks for your two cents, A.