Viagem à Lua de Júpiter

Imagine NASA making a documentary about a hypothetical exploration of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Now add elements of high drama to make the documentary a little more entertaining. Et voilà! Europa Report.

In many respects this film reminded me of 2010:The Year We Make Contact: It has much of the feel of 2001 but the decision making, along with the science, is less credible than 2001. So that's about the same as 2010. The film is based on our actual scientific knowledge of Europa which is a big plus for the film.

Europa Report is presented as a retrospective assessment by a mission controller on Earth. It is well done but somewhat flat and predictable. The attempts at drama are equally flat and predictable.

So how to sum up? Europa Report is a well crafted movie and you can easily imagine this is an actual space mission. It makes a refreshing change from space soap operas and silly adventure films like Armageddon. However it will appeal most to scientists, engineers, teachers and those with a genuine interest in space exploration. If all you want is another episode of Star Wars you should look elsewhere, but personally I kinda liked this movie. Of course I'm an engineer.

I loved the movie, mostly because it dealt with topics that I am very interested in. Space exploration is just.. Awesome. I think this movie was aimed in a very great direction and was executed well; however, in areas it seemed to show that it was lacking power of a bigger budget. At other times that is not the case at all, As there are many great visual scenes, and a fantastic conclusion.

I think the acting was very unexpectedly good, not a single person was a bit unbelievable or annoying or anything like that.

The story is great, and is very much intelligently woven with modern theories and discoveries in science.

There is one thing I will say in a somewhat negative vein. There are certain kinds of scenes that I wish they did way more of, like outside on the planet. Not that they don't do it enough, but you can never have enough of that.

I highly recommend this to any sci fi/ space fanatics

It is one of my favorite movies in the last couple years.

Hope you enjoy it.

"Europa Report" is relatively authentic in its details about the large, icy moon of Jupiter called Europa, But it is not perfect, and it will strike many viewers as, at first, slow and claustrophobic. After all, as one of the astronauts observes, the space inside the ship is extremely limited even while the space outside is vast.

That said, I recommend "Europa Report" for being sufficiently adventurous while not making the intelligent viewer cringe over obviously fake science. In fact, it is a horror movie made more horrifying by the plausibility that, just as there are dangers in nature here on earth, there might be equal or worse horrors lurking on the many moons and planets we have yet to explore.

There are some tropes here that are similar to those of other space movies, but many that are different, too. No, crew members do not become infected with an alien bug that makes them kill each other. Yes, they argue, but it is mostly about taking chances versus safety. The crew cooperates, and they take care of each other in admirable ways--if ultimately futile ones.

There are however, several don't-go-down-those-stairs moments. ("Actually walking on the surface of Europa was always a question mark," says one astronaut as the crew is about to vote on whether one of the scientist-astronauts should go outside.)

The scene that confused me most was the one about the attempted repair of the communications system; I thought they were all in the lander on Europa's surface, but apparently they left two astronauts on the orbiter high above the surface. Anyway, that is the first genuinely scary scene. There are subsequently some more scary scenes including the ending.

For those who do not know. Europa is Jupiter's fourth largest moon (Jupiter has well over 80 moons and moonlets), and it is one of three big Jovian moons that have liquids on their surfaces. In fact, Europa has an all-ice surface with nothing much other than a salt-water ocean beneath that ice. While the surface of this planet-sized moon is absolute zero degrees (utterly frozen), its innermost core is molten hot so that the salty ocean between the hot core and cold surface is relatively warm--warm enough that some of the creatures in earth's oceans would probably be able to live in Europa's ocean. So, does Europa have life of its own? That is what the astronauts in "Europa Report" want to find out.

There are some scientific quibbles: Although the movie acknowledges that radiation is a huge problem, it seems rather cavalier about it. (Europa is pretty close to Jupiter and is hit by 5.40 Sv of radiation a day; as I understand it, that quickly translates into deadly exposure.)

Another problem is that the movie assumes that the surface of Europa is rough but relatively flat; yet recent data suggests that the icy surface is made up of huge, closely interspersed ice-spikes; making landing a ship there similar to throwing a tennis ball at the sole of a boot cleated with sharp metal spikes.

Many advocates of a mission to Europa insist that we should send robots, not people. However, the filmmakers should be forgiven because danger to robots would not be as exciting as danger to humans. "Europa Report" gives us a crew of diverse humans who turn out to be relatable (if somewhat generic), who are nevertheless admirable in their determination and bravery.

As a science/space enthusiast, I found this movie to be really interesting and enjoyed it. I think all the viewers who like these types of plots would enjoy it, but the directorial approach may be annoying to some viewers. The shaky statics videos and limited angels of camera view might not be too popular. There wasn't any character development or focus on the characters, it was pretty straight forward. The documentary style used was reasonable. The best thing about this movie was it was a low budget indie movie which did a wonderful job. A lot could have been better. Humans traveling to space and land on Europa, a moon in Jupiter, that itself is a reason to watch it, Do not expect a typical Hollywood style movie. However this movie takes a very realistic approach to present the complex space mission depicting the psychological and the physical strains on the astronauts.

Not every sci-fi movie is an action-packed super-hero popcorn flick. Luckily! And Europa Report shines among those, lately rather rare examples.

Europa Report follows the line of a documentary and does that so successfully that I, throughout the movie, kept forgetting that humans actually have not yet landed on Europa. While the search for extraterrestrial is in fact the focus of the mission, it is not the focus of this movie, but rather human behavior and psychology, the magic of exploration and the steps we are ready to take for something that is larger than individual life.

The story flows beautifully and, yes, with time-jumps demands full attention from the viewer. And as a consequence also delivers a great deal of excitement and enjoyment. Have the last minute or so of "the storyteller's" explanation and commentaries not came across a bit patronizing and unnecessary, somewhat spoiling the spirit of this pretty intelligent movie, I would consider giving it a 10.

I definitely recommend to all the science, space exploration and old- school-sci-fi fans. And for those after Ironman and the Avengers - probably not a movie for you.