“Europa Report”, which is available to rent on VOD, is a sci-fi gem that has me conflicted. On one hand, it does what many similar films have not – it delivers a unique story, rooted in actual science, that examines the sacrifices some are willing to make in the name of exploration and discovery…but on the other hand, it is a film weighed down by a format that begins to overshadow the human element and the themes mentioned above.

The film follows a crew of astronauts on their two year journey to Europa, an ice covered moon around Jupiter that scientist believe contains an ocean of water right below the surface; and as one scientist in the film points out, where there is water there is also usually life. The possible discovery of that life is the crew’s mission. They are to explore the ocean below the moon’s surface in hopes of finally discovering that we are not alone.

To tell the story the film is played out like a documentary. It consists mostly of archived video footage of the ship’s crew, as well as interviews with the earth based mission control members who organized the operation. It is this format that on one hand is a brilliant way of documenting the crew’s journey, but on the other really hampers the themes and suspense of the film.

Through these recordings, we get to see the crew bonding and encountering tragedy on their journey to and on Europa. It turns out to be a really wonderful human tale of a group of people who without any hesitation or pretensions are willing to give anything and everything in order to make a discovery that could change the way we view ourselves, life and the universe. This portion of the film is a wonderful thing to behold, especially when their treacherous journey has some truly thrilling moments, including one gut wrenching scene played beautifully by Sharlto Coley. This is made all the better by the fact that unlike other similar sci-fi films (“Sunshine”), it doesn’t cop-out in the end and actually contains a third act that is tonally in tune with everything that comes before it.

Sadly, this documentary style also means that the story is broken up by interviews with scientist and mission control members on earth explaining the crew’s goal. The issue here being that everything these individuals say in their interviews is simply exposition that is already clearly expressed through either the words or action of the mission’s crew in the recordings. So although the video footage and central story and themes are pretty clear cut, the addition of the interviews makes it feel like the filmmakers are trying to beat you over the head with them. It just ends up feeling unnecessary and breaks up the tension which is really disappointing.

Luckily, for me at least, this didn’t ruin my viewing experience. In the end the film still works, with a core story and themes that are still expressed and earned that lead to a brilliant ending; where the result of their mission is made clear and as ridiculous as it initially may seem, everything really comes into perspective and it ends up having an emotional punch and staying power one wouldn’t expect. Because of this I highly recommend this ambitious little gem of a film. If you can look past the interviews, and focus on the central story as I did, then you are in for a real treat.