On paper, Europa Report has a ton going for it. The director is Sebastián Cordero, who gave us the brilliant 2005 drama Crónicas. The script, penned by Philip Gelatt, is impressively heady, following a crew of astronauts as they make the first manned voyage to Europa, one of Jupiters moons. Even just the basic idea of telling a deep space story through the lens of found footage is intriguing. Amazing, isnt it, how a single decision - or rather, nine tiny decisions - can completely derail whats an otherwise terrific production? The choice to cast almost universally household names in all of Europa Report's key roles wouldnt have mattered had Cordero simply elected to shoot the film normally. Yet as presented through found footage - a genre that thrives on authenticity and the facade of reality - the presence of stars Michael Nyqvist, Sharlto Copley, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Embeth Davidtz, and Dan Fogler, as well as familiar faces Anamaria Marinca, Karolina Wydra, Daniel Wu, and Christian Camargo, prove exceptionally distracting, robbing what could have been a terrific sci-fi movie of any of its legitimacy. It all makes for a tremendously frustrating viewing experience, especially when one can literally see the movie that they wish they were watching instead, obscured through the delegitimizing filter of found footage. When it comes to famous actors showing up in found footage movies, Europa Report takes the cake for sheer bogusness. Which other famous faces popped up in found footage films? And did they end up as distracting as these examples? Have your say in the comments below.
