On fiction: Europa Report review
A short while after I saw Prometheus, I also saw (I think on Phil Plait's recommendation over at Bad Astronomy) a trailer for Europa Report. Brief, minimalistic, but I just knew then, that this little film would be 2013's Prometheus for me: a film I will absolutely like, despite its faults. Well, I finally got to watch Europa Report. Did my impression, based on the trailer, turn out accurate?
Oh, yes. And no, but in a good way.
First, Europa Report is my favorite SF film in quite a while (Andromeda Strain, if you're wondering; I don't class 2001 as a film because it would be unfair to everything else). It lived up to my expectations of a smart, hard SF film like they don't make anymore (except rarely).
Indeed, if the film has a fault, is that it's so ... different from what we've come to expect.
There's no army of robotic suits punching up explosive people in this. No epic battles between hordes of orcs and knights, no city-levelling brawls. (No blue aliens ripping heads off either, some would add.) The pomp, bombast and plain ol' bombs of speculative fiction films are lacking here, replaced with the stately pace of something you can almost believe is a real documentary about a space mission that actually happened.
The attention to scientific detail is refreshing. I'm sure that on a closer look some holes in the way they've handled the physics will appear. No doubt someone right now is doing just that. But I'm happy to report that looking at the details of this, I find them at least plausible and even correct. They handle weightlessness well. Space behaves like space. The subject of the mission- Europa- is a longstanding dream of xenobiology for precisely the reasons stated in the film.
And they even use the phrase orbital transfer when referring to maneuvers in space.
All of this is background. There's no moment when some guy sits the audience down to deliver an infodump heavy, technobabble laden expository speech. We get to know what the mission is about at the start, sure, but as far as technical details go, they are second nature to the characters so they don't dwell on them.
What makes the mission also feel real is that you don't quite spot the usual screenwriting beats. Oh, sure, they are present, but nothing blatantly happens just because the plot needed a boom-boom moment. There are no characters acting stupid just because the plot needed a way to move on.
There are moments when characters act in ways that endanger their self-preservation, but those moments make sense. "Compared to the knowledge yet to reveal, what is your life worth" is the persistent theme in the film. The people on the mission are there to advance human knowledge first. They will not endanger themselves recklessly, but mere survival is not the point.
And none of the characters is painted with broad strokes. You can't really pick one and say, this is the comic relief guy, That one's the strong, silent type. This one's the ditz. This one's the stoner geologist who gets lost despite having mapping balls.
One should at least admire, if not enjoy, the film's commitment to understated realism. Admire, because it required a lot of courage from the filmmakers. I say, good on them that they made the film the way they did. It's what allows it to stand apart, and quite likely become a classic.
It's also what constitutes the film's one flaw.
Remember that stoner geologist who gets lost despite having mapping balls? Of course you do. You may have hated that film. You may have hated that the characters acted stupid. But you sure remember them (or at least the core ones).
Meanwhile, you can play this game with the characters of Europa Report: what if Rosa were the captain, not the pilot? What if she were the science officer, and Andrei were the captain? Pull these switcheroos for a while, and you'll forget who played what in the actual film.
The characters, while realistic, do not quite separate as distinct individuals. They interact in low-key, realistic ways, and you don't see too much of them to make a clear picture of each, as a separate person. They are, in aggregate, Competent SpacePerson Seeking Knowledge. It has been said that fiction needs characters to be larger than life so as to seem alive, and it's certainly true. Say what you want about Holywood's formulas, but they have perfected the art of presenting a character that is at once bombastic, larger than life, yet seemingly subtle.
Don't believe me? Just look at reality TV if you can stomach it, and all the manufactured drama. Why do people on reality TV go up in arms at the smallest provocation and generally behave like jerks? It's in an attempt to capture that larger than life quality a film character has. It's because real people, the strangers you'd only bump into for a few minutes, by and large are boring. A few exceptions exist of course, and getting to actually know someone real is (or should be) a much more rewarding experience than engaging with a fictional character ... but that takes time, and effort, and a bit of risk, sometimes.
Film characters can bypass that- there really is such a thing as movie magic. Placing characters that are just a bit too magnetic in situations that are just a bit too contrived, and yet it works to capture your attention.
Europa Report uses none of that. It deliberately plays down every magic trick in the screenwriting book. And while the result looks original and so real it might as well be real, it's also why it will, at least for a while, fail to find an audience. "It's not engaging enough," most movie goers would say.
And they'd be right. Unless you care about the science behind it, unless you also look towards Jupiter, Europa, and questions unanswered about our place in it all, unless you use the characters' blandness as an opportunity to put yourself alongside them on their journey, there's little in this film for you.
But if you do care, if you do look, and ask, and put yourself along the journey, this film is the best thing to come up in years. "A film I will love despite its flaws" I expected. Turns out I love it for those very flaws.
Oh, yes. And no, but in a good way.
First, Europa Report is my favorite SF film in quite a while (Andromeda Strain, if you're wondering; I don't class 2001 as a film because it would be unfair to everything else). It lived up to my expectations of a smart, hard SF film like they don't make anymore (except rarely).
Indeed, if the film has a fault, is that it's so ... different from what we've come to expect.
There's no army of robotic suits punching up explosive people in this. No epic battles between hordes of orcs and knights, no city-levelling brawls. (No blue aliens ripping heads off either, some would add.) The pomp, bombast and plain ol' bombs of speculative fiction films are lacking here, replaced with the stately pace of something you can almost believe is a real documentary about a space mission that actually happened.
The attention to scientific detail is refreshing. I'm sure that on a closer look some holes in the way they've handled the physics will appear. No doubt someone right now is doing just that. But I'm happy to report that looking at the details of this, I find them at least plausible and even correct. They handle weightlessness well. Space behaves like space. The subject of the mission- Europa- is a longstanding dream of xenobiology for precisely the reasons stated in the film.
And they even use the phrase orbital transfer when referring to maneuvers in space.
All of this is background. There's no moment when some guy sits the audience down to deliver an infodump heavy, technobabble laden expository speech. We get to know what the mission is about at the start, sure, but as far as technical details go, they are second nature to the characters so they don't dwell on them.
What makes the mission also feel real is that you don't quite spot the usual screenwriting beats. Oh, sure, they are present, but nothing blatantly happens just because the plot needed a boom-boom moment. There are no characters acting stupid just because the plot needed a way to move on.
There are moments when characters act in ways that endanger their self-preservation, but those moments make sense. "Compared to the knowledge yet to reveal, what is your life worth" is the persistent theme in the film. The people on the mission are there to advance human knowledge first. They will not endanger themselves recklessly, but mere survival is not the point.
And none of the characters is painted with broad strokes. You can't really pick one and say, this is the comic relief guy, That one's the strong, silent type. This one's the ditz. This one's the stoner geologist who gets lost despite having mapping balls.
One should at least admire, if not enjoy, the film's commitment to understated realism. Admire, because it required a lot of courage from the filmmakers. I say, good on them that they made the film the way they did. It's what allows it to stand apart, and quite likely become a classic.
It's also what constitutes the film's one flaw.
Remember that stoner geologist who gets lost despite having mapping balls? Of course you do. You may have hated that film. You may have hated that the characters acted stupid. But you sure remember them (or at least the core ones).
Meanwhile, you can play this game with the characters of Europa Report: what if Rosa were the captain, not the pilot? What if she were the science officer, and Andrei were the captain? Pull these switcheroos for a while, and you'll forget who played what in the actual film.
The characters, while realistic, do not quite separate as distinct individuals. They interact in low-key, realistic ways, and you don't see too much of them to make a clear picture of each, as a separate person. They are, in aggregate, Competent SpacePerson Seeking Knowledge. It has been said that fiction needs characters to be larger than life so as to seem alive, and it's certainly true. Say what you want about Holywood's formulas, but they have perfected the art of presenting a character that is at once bombastic, larger than life, yet seemingly subtle.
Don't believe me? Just look at reality TV if you can stomach it, and all the manufactured drama. Why do people on reality TV go up in arms at the smallest provocation and generally behave like jerks? It's in an attempt to capture that larger than life quality a film character has. It's because real people, the strangers you'd only bump into for a few minutes, by and large are boring. A few exceptions exist of course, and getting to actually know someone real is (or should be) a much more rewarding experience than engaging with a fictional character ... but that takes time, and effort, and a bit of risk, sometimes.
Film characters can bypass that- there really is such a thing as movie magic. Placing characters that are just a bit too magnetic in situations that are just a bit too contrived, and yet it works to capture your attention.
Europa Report uses none of that. It deliberately plays down every magic trick in the screenwriting book. And while the result looks original and so real it might as well be real, it's also why it will, at least for a while, fail to find an audience. "It's not engaging enough," most movie goers would say.
And they'd be right. Unless you care about the science behind it, unless you also look towards Jupiter, Europa, and questions unanswered about our place in it all, unless you use the characters' blandness as an opportunity to put yourself alongside them on their journey, there's little in this film for you.
But if you do care, if you do look, and ask, and put yourself along the journey, this film is the best thing to come up in years. "A film I will love despite its flaws" I expected. Turns out I love it for those very flaws.
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