Europa Report

One of the better sci-fi films I have seen in recent years.

Never mind that this is a 'found footage' film, which are usually pretty blah (no explanation needed, because the footage is so sketchy. Well, *shrug*, we tried.). Here, the images are clear most of the time because they are supposedly transmitted with high tech equipment and filmed with steady cams from within a spaceship.

An international group of astronauts if on a mission to collect probes from the fourth largest moon orbiting Jupiter, Europa. There is supposedly water under the icy surface and in space travel terminology water = life.

After having gone the furthest for any human ever, the crew eventually loses contact with mission control. While the head of the mission is shown in an interview detailing when they lost contact and what the findings and failings of the mission were, one crew member (Rosa) also talks straight to the camera in an interview setup, This initially made me think that maybe the crew - at least in part - survived. It is only later that it becomes clear that is is part of the footage that was sent back home after communication had been re-established. But it was already too late for them at that point.

The deaths of the crew members are rarely extremely violent, and if they are, there are no clear images of it. Some deaths are heartbreaking - in particular the first one, when James cannot return to the ship because he got hazardous matter onto his space suit and even as it dawns on him what this will mean, he still pushes Andrei, whose glove has ripped and who is losing oxygen quickly. back into the safety of the inside of the ship.

Also, and thankfully, there are no big arguments as so often appear in films involving a group of people in a dangerous situation and confined space.

Some of the cast I don't know and some are rather well-known - Embeth Davidtz is the head of the mission, Michael Nyqvist (of the Swedish Millennium Trilogy) is Andrei, Sharlto Copley is in this as the unfortunate James and Daniel is portrayed by Christian Camargo (the ice truck killer from the first season of Dexter).

Not sure why this film stayed well under the radar last year. It deserved a wider audience.

8/10

Open Grave

When Sharlto Copley (whose name, turns out much much later is actually Jonah but we will go with "John Doe" for the time being) wakes up he has no clue who he is or what is going on. But that's alright, because neither do we.

And why is he in a pit full of dead people (hint: this is the open grave from the title)? This will be later explained.

Why are his joints cracking? This will not be addressed.

He digs himself out of his grave and stumbles after a Japanese woman he has seen looking over the edge. When he comes upon a house he finds a group of handsome strangers. They are not quite sure who they are, either, but they have found pictures and hints from which they have deducted their names.

One is quite handy with weaponry while another appears to be speaking several languages fluently (French, Italian, Latin). The Japanese woman, meanwhile, doesn't speak at all. The consent is that she does not know English, but later is said to be mute (but not deaf, mind you).

Piece by piece the handsome circle of, um, friends? co-workers? random strangers? start remembering out of context bits of informatiion. When put together, these probably make a pretty clear picture of what happened. But, alas, they only exchange their recollections too late in the film to be of much help.

They also get attacked by obviously sick people that like hurting themselves. One of them is entwined in a barbed wire fence and lures the weapons expert (he is there to protect the group) with cries of help. As soon as he gets the chance, however, he offs him and laughs hysterically.

Some of the locals are not sick but hurl insults at the Copey character. They are the ones that call him Jonah and tell him to get away from them with his injections. Our group of handsome survivors start doubting themselves, because everything points to them - or maybe only Jonah - having conducted some sort of experiment that caused the whole dilemma.

But, luckily, as more memories return, they are the good guys, after all. They are there to help the infected people. Alas, they failed. When some sort of (untested) medicine wears off, they start forgetting again. Rough.

As their numbers dwindle, only three scientists and the Japanese woman are left standing. When they hear the helicopters coming, they believe themselves to be safe at last. But the soldiers are their to dispose of any witnesses of the disaster. Of course they are.

John Doe/Jonah flees and hides in the - you guessed it - open grave where all the bodies get dumped. The Japanese woman is remarkably self sufficient. She escaped the soldiers unscarred and rescues him out of the pit. At this point he is back to where he started - with no memory of what happened.

Luckily, another scientist (his lover, but he has forgotten that and she is dead now) wrote him and herself a note. Unluckily, he doesn't even see it among the bodies.

Lucky for us, then, that her now-deceased off-voice reads it to us and explaines that they were there to help and the Japanese woman needs to be protected because she is immune to the plague (their words, no mine). She urges Jonah to keep up the good work.

But how will he ever know?

As ridiculous as the storyline gets at times, this is surprisingly decent. Most of all, it is well made. The sound of the joints cracking in the beginning alone is very intriguing.

Good bit of entertainment. Just don't think too hard about the little things here and there. They are inconsequential, anyway.

7/10