Review of Europa Report (2013) by Bill F — 17 May 2014

Shot in the style known as found footage , which began with The Blair Witch Project, and has been used often in horror films such as Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, this kind of movie gives the false idea that audience is not actually watching a studio production, but a real film "rescued" from images made by the characters themselves.

Many people complain of movies made this way, arguing that there is excessive use of hand-held camera and blurred images. To these people, I have only one thing to say: forget everything you've seen done in this style. Europa Report raised this way of making movies to a whole new level, both from a technical standpoint as content.

If you like sci-fi movies and you miss the days when these films meant more than just fancy visual effects, something with more content, such as Hollywood dared to do at the beginning of the ´70s (still under the influence of the revolutionary 2001 - A Space Odyssey), films such as The Andromeda Strain and THX-1138, be happy! Europa Report is one of the best sci-fi movies in years. Everything featured in the movie is plausible, believable - creating a near future using technologies very close to those already known today - without the excesses of most sci-fi movies.

Europa Report unites the typical elements of cheap found footage movies - simple story, no stars in the cast (the only known name is Michael Nyqvist - from the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) - but with a smart production (amazing art direction and soundtrack). The movie has no spectacular visual effects, but a technique in the service of a good idea - the plot is intriguing, the images show an elaborate exercise in style while soundtrack music and editing helps create that right stuff the good thrillers are made of.