Films: Europa Report (2014), Star Trek Beyond (2016), and Warcraft (2016)

I had heard good things about Europa Report, but found it difficult to get hold of a copy. Eventually I bought a DVD which turned out to be from a German company. Clicking on the "Spracht" link on the opening page gives a choice of German or English, and also whether or not you want subtitles. At first I assumed that the film had been made in German and that English speakers had a choice of viewing subtitles or hearing a version dubbed into English, but after experimentation it turned out that the actors were actually speaking English and the optional subtitles were in German!

I'll quote part of the plot summary on the iTunes preview page as it gives a fair description:

"A unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller, EUROPA REPORT follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. When unmanned probes suggest that a hidden ocean could exist underneath Europa’s icy surface and may contain single-celled life, Europa Ventures, a privately funded space exploration company, sends six of the best astronauts from around the world to confirm the data and explore the revolutionary discoveries that may lie in the Europan ocean."

The structure of the film is unusual, interspersing interviews with staff back on Earth, face-to-camera recordings by the pilot looking back on what had happened, and both flashback and live scenes aboard the spacecraft.  Some concentration is therefore needed to follow the story, and the structure is cleverly used to mislead viewers as to what happened, until the finale. The scenes on board the spacecraft are deliberately variable in quality, and the interactions of the crew seem far more genuine than the usual carefully polished cinematic dialogue. The pace is slow and deliberate throughout, the appeal of the film being in its realistic feel and in the gradual build-up of tension as the crew struggle with a sequence of problems.

Most of the cast were new to me, the exceptions being Michael Nyqvist and Sharlto Copley. Two key cast members were the pilot (played by Anamaria Marinca) and the team leader back on Earth, played by the American actress Embeth Davidtz - who I was amused to note spoke the kind of flawless, cut-glass, highly-educated, upper-class English which no native Brits speak any more!

This won't be enjoyed by those expecting the feel-good escapism of films like Gravity and The Martian, but Europa Report is a much better SF film than either, and is well worth watching – if you can find it.

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I read recently that the quantity and quality of dialogue in blockbuster films have been declining steadily in recent years, for the simple reason that to maximise the takings the films have to be successful around the world. So they have to be as easily understood in China as in  the USA. Which means simple plots and a strongly visual, action-orientated viewing experience with a minimum of chatter. Which leads me neatly into Star Trek Beyond. Once again, the only vaguely interesting character is the villain (in this case played by Idris Elba) – and he's not all that interesting. Most of the film consists of fighting, chasing, and lots and lots of the 'splosions beloved of the target audience, but is there anything of interest to adults? Well, there's the odd flash of humour – including in the very first scene a good visual joke about relative size and perspective – but that's about it. The rest is completely forgettable and, as I indicated in my review of the first film of this series, the old TV series and films of Star Trek: The New Generation are, by comparison, positively Shakespearean.

One curiosity: the MacGuffin in this film is a supposedly civilisation-destroying secret weapon, yet on the two occasions it is deployed the effect is little more than, and significantly slower than, a typical hand grenade.

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Warcraft is not a film I would ordinarily think of watching – I have no interest in computer games – but I was prompted to do so by two things: it was directed by Duncan Jones (Moon and Source Code) and received a surprisingly favourable review from the BBC's film critic, Mark Kermode.

I hesitate to try to describe the plot, as a quick check on the Warcraft game world showed that it is of bewildering complexity, the plot of this film only being a small extract from it. I will just briefly summarise it as: orcs – huge and belligerent humanoids – have created a magical gate which enables them to pass from their own ruined world to another (Azeroth), occupied by humans (in a medieval stage of development, as usual); the humans fight back; and much of the conflict depends on a contest between the magical powers of a few of the participants. I was amused to note the collection of high fantasy tropes – not just orcs, elves wizards and dwarves, but also in the names, such as Anduin (one of the characters) which I recall from Tolkein, and Azeroth, from a book in the 1970s Morgaine cycle by C J Cherryh (Fires of Azeroth).

Overall, I think that this film is a pretty good example of its type. It suffers somewhat (as do all such fantasy films) in comparison with the Game of Thrones TV series, which is much more grim and adult, but represents a couple of hours of good entertainment. And it includes a very buff Paula Patton whose good looks are hardly spoiled by a small pair of tusks!