Spend enough time skimming around Hulu and you could find all manner of forgotten but hugely entertaining films to sit through. One treat worth adding to your watchlist is a great sci-fi movie that blends a bunch of subgenres on a daring trip into space. Directed by Sebastián Cordero in 2013, “Europa Report” stars Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra, and Sharlto Copley, star of one of the best sci-fi movies ever, “District 9.” Also making an appearance is the late, incredibly great Michael Nyqvist, who caught attention after appearing in “John Wick” and playing Mikael Blomkvist in the original adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Told through found footage, Cordero’s film chronicles a secret mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s four moons that shows signs of extraterrestrial life. Just like many dangerous ventures out into the unknown, “Europa Report” isn’t about the destination, but the perilous journey to get there and accomplish their mission. Even before the crew comes close to making contact with another life form, they find themselves battling other various hazards that come with trekking out into the great unknown beyond the stars. It’s this kind of danger and how it’s executed that both Cordero and Philip Gelatt were praised for handling so effectively.
Europa Report earned an impressive score on Rotten Tomatoes
Following its release, “Europa Report” managed to obtain a commendable 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. As Cordero’s first English-language film, it earned credit for its impressive level of realism, which put the science front and center before the fiction came into play. The San Francisco Chronicle said this of the film: “Low key and earnest, Sebastin Cordero’s ‘Europa Report’ makes compelling use of familiar genre material to create an intelligent science fiction thriller.”
The New York Post explained: “The real treat here is the science, not the fiction,” highlighting the film’s use of surveillance cameras that weren’t just a bit of creative flair, but one of the many choices fueled by research. Not only did the movie draw heavily on footage from the International Space Station, but the Europa design was inspired by NASA’s actual maps of the moon itself.
It’s an impressive effort from Cordero, who has only directed two films since. After “Europa Report” in 2013, it would be another three years before he got behind the camera again for the 2016 thriller, “Such Is Life in the Tropics,” followed by “Behind the Mist” in 2023. Limited directing stint or not, “Europa Report” is a daring, underrated sci-fi entry that is definitely worth a watch if you enjoy nerve-shredding space walks or squid-like space beasties.
