MovieChat Forums > Europa Report (2013) Discussion > Last shot of the 'report' tanked the ent...

Last shot of the 'report' tanked the entire film. Obvious spoilers.

posted 11 years ago by glacier1982
28 replies | jump to latest

It was already is serious trouble by the end, using horror movie cliches to keep the story interesting, but the last shot of the beast was the smack in the face. Up until that final shot, the film pretended to have a brain. The point I really want to make is that the film wants so badly to be competent science fiction, but it really is just a boring horror movie.

About the beast itself-
A giant squid with lights all over it, existing in an ocean on a moon with no atmosphere, adapted to break through the ice to grab prey that had not existed before man set foot on it. I mean, surface prey COULDN'T exist, yet this thing(s) is fully capable to hunt that way, and does successfully three times out of three.

So rather than have a smart science fiction film with just the obstacles of space travel be the main problem, we get a creature feature in disguise. It can be argued that the alien was meant to inspire our imaginations about life elsewhere, and not be some movie monster antagonist, but the moment the credits roll the creepy "The Thing"-esque music starts playing. Is that really the emotion the filmmaker wants the audience to leave with? Dread? Fear of a foreign world? What a waste of a concept that could have been really moving.

[–] texasbeast-38912 8 years ago

glacier1982 wrote:
Up until that final shot, the film pretended to have a brain. The point I really want to make is that the film wants so badly to be competent science fiction, but it really is just a boring horror movie.

I believe it was what you perceived to be a boring horror movie precisely because it got so much of the realistic science right that you were not entertained, and in your non-entertained state, you misidentified the film's genre.

Pay attention to the main spokeswoman's words at the end of the movie. While this adventure was a tragedy in terms of the many losses, it was also a triumphant victory in terms of proving that life, both simple and complex, positively exists elsewhere in this star system and universe.

And that's great science fiction.

Perhaps more of the film's viewers should, as you say, pretend to have a brain.

Oh wait. You already did!

About the beast itself-
A giant squid with lights all over it,

What's wrong with that? They were exploring an ocean and they found an ocean creature. Duh!

And as far as it appearing to have lights all over it, google "bioluminescent cephalopod". They're very real animals right here on Earth. It's not a stretch at all that something very similar might evolve elsewhere.

existing in an ocean on a moon with no atmosphere,

If they're aquatic oceanic creatures then they would breathe chemicals in the water. Why would they need an atmosphere outside of their ocean? You've heard of gills before, right?

adapted to break through the ice to grab prey that had not existed before man set foot on it. I mean, surface prey COULDN'T exist, yet this thing(s) is fully capable to hunt that way, and does successfully three times out of three.

Daniel fell off the broken ladder outside the ship into what he called broken ice, which was broken because the ship has crash landed onto the target area, which was characterized by thinner ice to begin with. There is no suggestion in the film that the creature had anything to do with that.

Andrei wandered about in that same region of thin ice, not far from the crash site.

And Rosa let the thing into the ship so she could catch it on video. It didn't break through at all.

Sometimes I think there should be an IQ requirement to watch movies and post on imdb. "You must be THIS SMART to come here." It would have spared us all from this nonsensical OP.

[–] shurbanm 8 years ago

it was not organic

[–] megaruda 8 years ago

It was their money shot and I thought it was great, otherwise I wouuldnt even remember this film. As far as a sub-genre goes, it cant be considered a creature feature, the alien is simply there, is not like is a crazy hunter like Sunshine did.