Europa Report

Directed by Sebastián Cordero, Europa Report follows the crew of a privately-funded space shuttle, including Sharlto Copley’s James Corrigan and Christian Camargo’s Daniel Luxembourg, as they travel to a distant moon in search of extraterrestrial life – with the mission encountering a whole host of problems and malfunctions along the way. Filmmaker Cordero delivers a found-footage thriller that admittedly does suffer from the various problems one associates with the genre, including somewhat underdeveloped characters and a handful of less-than-enthralling stretches, and yet there’s little doubt that Europa Report generally manages to make a mildly positive impact due to its inherently compelling subject matter – with the mostly watchable atmosphere heightened by Cordero’s gritty, authentic-seeming sensibilities (ie the movie feels real, for the most part). And although the picture contains more than a few segments that are hardly as gripping as Cordero has intended, Europa Report ultimately progresses into a compelling final third triggered by an electrifying sequence involving an EVA mission that goes horribly awry – with the film’s entertaining climactic stretch cementing its place as an erratic yet rewarding sci-fi endeavor.

**1/2 out of ****