A classic case of orbital trash in the foreground.
Europa Report (2013) asks the deceptive question What is success and what is failure in deep space exploration? This is the central theme haunting this story of a manned mission to Europa, a real moon of Jupiter thought to harbor liquid water, and enough heat, generated by tidal stresses brought on by the gravitational field of nearby Jupiter, to nurture one-celled organisms. The mission’s goal is to discover whether or not such organisms exist.
The price? Space is a cold and dangerous place, as has been stressed by innumerable story-tellers over the years, but the story-tellers have made a critical error – we’re not invested in these characters manning this mission. The story becomes an objective investigation into the question of success, rather than a subjective and emotional realization of the question, the answer, and the price of playing the game of exploration.
Not that there isn’t a lot to like here. Having paid the price of traveling from Earth to Europa – in what appears to be record time, I might add – they manage the landing on Europa’s desolate surface sans communications, which has been damaged in an accident. This facet of the story could have been clarified, as I did not pick up on the possibility of repair, at the price of their rocket systems, and so was a bit puzzled – although this wasn’t a suicide mission.
But in the end, the story makes the point that a chosen goal does not define success or failure; it’s attaining knowledge about the state of the system. This is where our lack of bond to the characters really impacts the story, as their sacrifice to get that information back home in the face of the overwhelmingly unexpected could have been far more impactful if we had felt connected to these characters and their hopes, dreams, and private feelings.
But in other respects, this is well done. The special effects seem flawless, and the cinematography is beautiful, in particular the extreme close ups of the characters in their spacesuits – unless skin pores bother you.
In the end, I cannot give a strong recommendation of this story, but it certainly is interesting, and you won’t be shouting Stupid! at the screen. If you have some time, give it a shot.
