Sunday, July 7, 2013

Europa Report: Actionless Videogame Cut Scene

Europa Report: Actionless Videogame Cut Scene
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(– ***Spoilers For The Above*** –)


Europa Report is a film bursting with ideas and narrative techniques that are utilized effectively and proficiently yet do not always serve the story being told. The editing is impeccable, highly accomplished and professionally cut, with the sound design not far behind that. Kudos all around to those teams, unfortunately they could not overcome the limitations of the third act. The screenplay is competent, especially in regards to the dialogue and character design, the science is believable, at least it sounds believable, until the second half of the film. Which is to be expecting because the second half is where our knowledge of how an actual manned flight ends. As the film points out no human has ever gone past the moon, and this is where the film starts to lose credibility. However not only does the science become faulty the character motivations and the plot points become mechanical and forced, and the film loses our trust. Upon completion we find a film whose entire construction was predicated upon the final image. Every action every story beat was meant to lead us to this final moment and unfortunately the payoff is not worth the trip.


Prior to the half way point there is plenty of fun character interaction that all rings true with lines delivered by actors whom seem to embody their characters well. No one is out of place or a bad fit for the crew. They have a collective charisma that I found interesting and fun, and would not have minded just watching the relationships between the crew play out rather than the silliness that follows this initial setup. However the intro is broken up with footage of the scientists on earth responsible for the mission, and their explanation and celebration of the mission at a press conference. The unfortunate problem with this, and the rest of the film, is none of it seems cinematic. They have chosen to present the images as a found footage film in the vein of Paranormal Activity, or VHS, yet they have removed the hand held quality of those successful franchises and opted for more static framing. Every shot is either a news camera or a camera attached to the walls of the ship. Occasionally we see the cameras on the space suits but this is not really utilized until the third act, and in varying degrees of success therein.


The final problem with the film is the time manipulation aspect of the editing. We jump from the middle back to the beginning, then the whole film is inter cut with interviews from people after the mission is over kind of documentary style, but not as entertaining as a documentary would be. All of this editing and jumping around and switching narrators and it is unclear what the purpose of all this technical gymnastics actually is. Again they have executed these techniques in a proficient manner, yet I am left wondering why didn’t you just tell a good story? Then if it required and could be enhanced by the shifts in time, so be it. The story just isn’t good enough to merit all the technical wizardry. The flat framing, the lack of any depth of field, bores the eyes, and unlike Paranormal we are never searching the flat frame for a sign of a monster or ghost or clue to anything. The few moments when we are prompted to investigate the flat frame, we are never rewarded for our participation. We are shown a dark image or a fuzzy screen, indicating that we have wasted our time, and should no longer trust this story. Our mistrust is substantiated when we are finally shown the creature at the end of the film. A creature beautifully designed and rendered, but ultimately unexploited in the visual storytelling of the film.


Coupled with the poor decisions being made by the characters, over and over again, the film becomes unbearable and less Space Odyssey and more actionless video game cut scene.


2 out of 5 stars

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