MovieChat Forums > Europa Report (2013) Discussion > Similar to what happened in Sunshine?

Similar to what happened in Sunshine?

posted 10 years ago by stalkingvengeance
2 replies | jump to latest

There shall be spoilers, of course.

I had some high hopes for this film. The CGI was incredible, and it had a nice and slow (but not too slow) pace through most of it, which created a very nice atmosphere. I was cruising through this, stoned and drawn in by the imagery. Was great.

Then the "monster." Why? I was starting to think this would be a thoughtful, thought provoking sort of movie. Not on the scale of 2001, but at least in that direction... Nope. A monster under the ice. I felt that the film, like Sunshine, dropped off into stupid-land once that became apparent. I was even hoping that perhaps it was just a curious creature of a semi-intelligent (at least) species under the ice, wondering what the hell was popping into its domain. Nope, just a creature that kills everyone one by one. Lovely.

At the end of the film, I somehow still held out hope that these guys weren't being killed off, but abducted/saved from their doomed mission by a helpful creature from below. That scene of the girl going under the ice with a shocked yet ALIVE look had me really hoping... The very end, showing the creature, I thought perhaps it was a robot (looked like one of those critters from the Matrix)... I'm not sure if the film was explained in depth somewhere, or if it's left open to interpretation.

Disappointed, but for the visuals alone it was still worth the watch.

[–] emvan 10 years ago

I think this is a complete misreading of the film.

There's no monster. There's an indigenous life form of shocking sophistication, given that they were thrilled to find one-celled life, but it doesn't kill anyone directly.

One astronaut goes to investigate it and falls through the ice to her death, presumably because the curious creature, responding to her helmet light (which would resemble the bioluminescence of one of its own species), cracked it. After two more astronauts die while restoring the ship's communication (falling through ice that is being cracked by the ship's weight), the final astronaut opens the hatch, hoping that the life form they've been seeing will swim into camera range. Which it does. She's already chosen to drown herself in freezing water.

I too was wondering if they'd have the creature save them, but I was hoping they wouldn't, because that would have not been credible. It's not smart enough to know what's going on; it's just exploring.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] stalkingvengeance 10 years ago

I think the only difference between what I said and you said, is that I referred it to as a "monster." The only reason I used that word is because it fits with other movies which have the same basic idea, like Sunshine, and I think many of these sorts of movies. People are killed off one by one by a presence of some sort.

I just hoped it was going to be more of a thinking film, which I suppose it was for about half of it... Like Sunshine :P