I've been irritated with science fiction films of the past few years for their lack of vision, lack of imagination, and lack of respect for the wonders of the actual universe. They've always been more fantasy than science, but lately it's just seemed more like sheer laziness and contempt for reality than creative license. So I was excited to see a trailer for an indie science fiction film, "Europa Report," that was not only a new entry in a much-neglected subgenre - space opera - but has been roundly extolled as being a highly accurate depiction of space exploration. Today the film became available on iTunes, so I'd like to share some spoiler-free observations.
First, watch the trailer so you can get a sense of why I was excited about this:
I will say that several key scenes are incredibly realistic and have a profound sense of immediacy about them that's very rare. There are moments of genuine vertigo where you sense that you are actually there in this vast deep of space. Most scifi films don't really want you to be engrossed by the environment - they want you to forget the environment is even there, because that way they don't have to spend so much money perfecting it. Or, if it's a big-budget type of film, they want the environment to be fantastical (e.g., Avatar) rather than realistic so that you'll be too distracted to judge what they create. Europa Report seemed to be advertising itself as a film that really wanted to put you in space and in the environs of Jupiter and Europa, and in truth going purely by visuals it does an amazing job at that.
Unfortunately, sometimes impurity amid perfection is a graver sin than full-blown corruption, because for whatever reason the filmmakers just could not resist adding the usual cliched sound effects to scenes occurring in vacuum. The cold background of space is represented by the usual low-pitched hum seen in countless space movies; rocket firings sound exactly like they would in atmosphere; hatches closing after airlocks have been evacuated of air sound exactly the same as they do with air; mechanical apparatus clink and clank as they operate on the surface of airless Europa; etc. etc. It's painfully conspicuous and they really should have known better. The sound effects in general are from stock, including the unnecessary bippity-beeping of computer interfaces that never exists in real systems. They should have gone all the way being hard science fiction instead of just part of the way and then chickening out on the sound.
But the visuals are indeed astounding. The representations of Europa are often breathtaking. Again, unfortunately, the movie relies on premises that are highly scientifically dubious to achieve thrilling plot developments. As a whole, Europa Report comes off as a poorly-integrated series of beautiful vignettes connected by very questionable premises and with an outcome that tries to be profound but just ends up seeming hand-wavy and botched. Granted, I was in a bad mood when I watched it, so in considering my view of it you may want to take that into consideration. But even in a bad mood, I still saw a lot worth watching, so I recommend it.
It's no classic - no Primer of the space opera subgenre as I'd hoped - and doesn't come anywhere near to the potential advertised by its visuals. Certainly nowhere near 2001: A Space Odyssey, to which some reviews have bizarrely compared it. There's some good acting, but it's spotty and disjointed overall. My fundamental criticism is that it lacks the blinding intensity of passion of a work like 2001 or Primer: It unfolds cerebrally and leaves you unengaged rather than mind-blown. There is, in other words, no sense of revelation to it beyond the occasional visual feast. However, someone without my standards might find it to be a lot more inspiring, and hopefully it's the beginning of a rebirth of the subgenre and not just a rare one-off. I do agree with the reviews, however, that many of the technicals are superb - e.g., depiction of artificial spin-gravity, and how a real lethal crisis would unfold in space.
It comes out in theaters in August, or you can watch it on iTunes today like I did.