Eden Log (2007) User Reviews

Some good ideas, but just not gripping enough.

[teresaband · 4/10 · 24 February 2008]

It all starts off in atmospheric style, pitch blackness pierced by the occasional flash of light, only giving you brief glimpses of the strange subterranean world the amnesiac protagonist awakes in. It fills you with the same sense of intrigue and unease that "Cube" did so brilliantly, but whilst that movie managed to sustain it, the constant darkness and drawn-out pace of "Eden Log" soon starts to grate.

There's some nice looking shots in here, and a genuinely interesting premise, but the movie literally keeps its audience in the dark for far too long about the details, meaning that it outstays its welcome and by the time the admittedly impressive finale comes around you're unlikely to care anymore.

Too much fumbling in the dark and unrealized ideas make this an interesting misfire

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 18 May 2009]

A man wakes up in a dark cave uncertain who he is or how he got there. He then begins a long climb to the surface through a cave system and through a buried city.

Dark (literally and figuratively) quest tale that plays kind of like an arboreal-Matrix film. Operating at time like a classic quest tale the film also has echoes of films like Tarkovsky's Stalker and Solaris, not to mention the martial arts film Circle of Iron. It's a heady mix of ideas that only occasionally springs to life. The problem is that the films pacing is erratic at best. Some sequences move along at a good clip but others drag on and on. I understand that we're suppose to be following his slow progress but at the same time there is only so much fumbling in the dark that we can watch before getting bored. Yes I understand this is a dark environment but at the same time I'd like to have a sense of place (beyond the dark underground) and direction until we get to the areas with the stairs we have no real sense where anyone one is moving.

I know I'm picking but at the same time this could have been and should have been a better film, There are pieces that work and the visual style is often dynamite. I think the problem is that when I got to the end of the film I was kind of left hanging. I was like that's it? And while I will freely admit I may have missed something I 'm pretty sure I didn't.

Ultimately I'm mixed about the film. As much as I can pick at the film there is something about the film that is haunting. There is something that has stayed with me some twenty plus hours after seeing it. Perhaps it should be chalked up to being an interesting misfire. I recommended it for those who want heady scifi over guns space ships and are willing to take a chance.

A very original but strange film experiment

[masterandcommander · 6/10 · 19 December 2012]

I was very impressed by this movie after a first viewing. That being said, my background in films is a lot of movies like this. I love things that take place in strange worlds with mysterious and dangerous enemies lurking in the shadows. I love post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories. I also am a huge fan of video games in this genre which I think also paints this movie in a certain light if you watch it with certain survival horror RPGs in mind. The director even admits some of that influencing his work.

I'd have to say, this is not really a movie for the average moviegoer. It is not exactly "entertaining" in a typical sense. It is sort of like experiencing a very odd and perplexing dream. I feel like film enthusiasts or gamers might enjoy this one.

I found this movie to be very original. It has a very non-typical theme it is trying to get across but an even more extreme style. It is crushing in its atmosphere and the ambiance. It is certainly a movie that is heavier on style than substance at times but the substance is still there.

If I had any complaints, it would have to be that we don't learn much about our protagonist. He is presented with an interesting choice at the end, there is an interesting twist about his character, but I feel like we don't get to know him very well throughout the whole movie. Not much of a personality is revealed despite a strong performance from the lead actor.

There are also some silly effects that I'm not sure should have been included in the movie. The movie is very strongly in its shot composition, sets, costumes, and style. The effects felt very out of place. You have to really bite the bullet to enjoy what they are trying to say with those scenes and not focus on what is actually being shown.

If you are a fan of movies like Pandorum, Silent Hill, or maybe I am Legend you can probably enjoy this movie as a lower budget version of those. It even does a few things better than those movies while falling short in other categories. If you are into very atmospheric, slow- moving, violent, and convoluted movies you should give this one a try. But, be warned that it is not a movie for everyone. It is primarily trying to be something very unique. I believe it accomplishes this well, and is frankly a very awesome piece of challenging cinema.

If it did not have some of the visual issues, a very uneven pace, and some scenes that don't move the plot forward or tell us anything about the characters or world, this would be one of the better movies out there. As it is, it is still very cool for fans of this genre.

My subjective breakdown of the movie's major elements: Cinematography 9/10 Editing 7/10 Art Direction 9/10 Sound 9/10 Special Effects 4/10 Acting 8/10 Pacing 7/10 Characters 5/10 Theme 9/10 Music 7/10 Overall 8/10

They Call Me Mad

[bemyfriend-40184 · 2/10 · 2 April 2021]

But I'm brilliant! They just don't recognize my genius. But I'll show them. I'll show them all. I'll make a 1920's style film; in the style of Nosferatu or Metropolis. I'll show them I'm a genius. Gets two stars; because it sucks. Yes genius, you CAN make a movie. You just made a boring one.

Under-Dog

[kosmasp · 3/10 · 10 August 2008]

I'm not gonna tell you how the movie ends (if you've seen it you'll already know that sort of), but I'm gonna call this movie "Eco-Matrix". Because that was my first thought when I watched it. It is clear, what the intention of the director were here and they are very noble. The visuals are mostly stunning too and he dares to give/show you something else, something that you haven't seen quite like that in another movie.

The problem is, while it starts off great (with a suspense level that tries to match titles/movies like CUBE), it starts descending into a mess, were it seems not to know what it wants to tell you or where it's heading for that matter. It's a shame, because it does have quite a few good ideas as I stated above. But the downfalls are just greater/of more importance than the positive/new things it does show you. I would love to give it a better rating, for it being an Under-Dog (in more than one sense), but I just can't

Warning: Contains lots of walking in a cave and grunting

[lovecraft231 · 1/10 · 21 June 2009]

Man wakes up in a cave and doesn't know who he is. He walks around in the cave. Runs into a guy with tree roots in him. Walks around in the cave some more. He's pursued by storm troopers and some mutants. He walks around in the cave some more. He rapes a woman and fights mutants. He walks around some more. We get a lot of interesting ideas that go unrealized. He finds out whats going on, and it all involves a tree. He gets to the surface and something happens. It ends and I wasted 98 minutes of my life on a movie where hardly anything happens.

Did I mention that he spends much of the movie walking around in the cave?

arty sci fi movie with a descent budget

[Tybaltv6 · 7/10 · 30 December 2007]

Eden Log is somewhat of a good surprise for a french scifi movie. Think of a arty and elaborate form, beautiful black and white photography with rare under lit colors.

What matters here is the mood more than the script, the first half of Eden Log is just the claustrophobic graphic story of a guy covered in mud trying to get out of a dark and low-tech labyrinth, with no memory at all of how he got there. There are very few dialogs, and there aren't even necessary.

Unfortunately, the last third of the movie doesn't quite lives up to it's beginning, the script is somehow too confuse and too explicit at the same time, and the dark and mysterious image of the beginning vanish due to the necessity of writing an acceptable end.

Still i would recommend this movie, it has a very original tone and form, rarely seen these days, and manages to create something on its own, aside from both the Hollywood scene, and the overall shitty genre french scene (if you've seen Chrysalis, you exactly know what i mean !) More than that : If you're fan of graphic and kind of arty movies like Tarkovsky's Stalker, Cube, Aronofsky's Pi, Caro & Jeunet's Le Bunker De La Dernière Rafale, that Forsaken thing or Guy Maddin's pictures you should definitely check it !

If you see this film in a video store RUN AWAY!

[celr · 1/10 · 4 February 2010]

There are bad films and bad films. Some have good acting and production values and still turn out to be pretentious or shallow. Others are made on the cheap and look it. People like to say "Plan Nine from Outer Space" is the worst ever made. It's not, this is worse. This movie is bad in every way possible and you can't even laugh at it. Let me count the ways: It's dark, filmed in monotone, the protagonist is a moron (even after he starts to wake up which takes forever), the set is cheap and badly lit, mostly dangling plastic tubing and rubber tree roots, the dubbed voices are as bad as any 1970s Hong Kong martial arts flick, and the story makes no sense at all.

A man who remarkably resembles the Incredible Hulk awakes in a dank, dark underground garage with no memory. He staggers around among wrecked equipment and dangling roots. This goes on forever. He is trying to get to the surface. We have no idea where he is, who he is, or how he got there.

He meets a girl. They are attacked by pasty zombies, or mutants. Unlike him, she manages a couple of intelligible sentences and then she disappears into the tunnels. She believes she's turning into a mutant, I think. After a while I didn't care what was going on, I just wanted out.

But what I hated most about this film was that the filmmakers had no story to tell and no concept of what kind of world they were supposed to be creating and they went ahead and made a movie anyway. I couldn't make out what the characters were saying so I muted the TV so I could read subtitles, but then I realized that the characters were just shouting meaningless slogans like: "They're not getting energy from the Tree, they're getting it from the humans in the cubes!" ...What?

Evidently there was some experiment where a Super Tree was being cultivated in an underground complex (for unexplained reasons) and something went terribly wrong, maybe the Tree exploded and turned the workers into mutants. The protagonist who forgot who he was, was sent down to find out the damage and report. But evidently he turns up in a different body. Why was that? What went wrong is never explained.

Maybe they were trying to get energy from the defunct Tree but in a later scene there is a city above the tree and all the lights are on and so they're getting energy from somewhere else. The humans in the cubes maybe? None of it made any sense. If there was any spoiler I could actually give about the film I would do so just to get people to stay away. If I could explain the lame ending I would, but I couldn't even understand that. Eden Log is worse than bad because the filmmakers were lazy, cheap, frivolous and inauthentic. Some films try and fail, this film didn't even try.

Looks cool, but is it overall?

[ElijahCSkuggs · 7/10 · 20 September 2008]

Imagine waking up in an futuristic underground cavern, in a mix of soupy mud. You don't who you are, what you're doing there, or anything. And to make matters worse, there are mutants and high-tech forces who are anything but friendly. Finding a way out, realizing who you are and what type place this is all while trying to survive is basically what's going on in Eden Log.

The flick has an undeniably cool atmosphere and look to it. Shot in a sort of black and white manner, with good lighting and a truly cave-like, claustrophobic feel, the movie definitely succeeds in creating a life-like, but nightmarish environment.

With unique ideas and a cool look the movie succeeds. But overall the movie just didn't grab me. I was never really creeped out, drawn into the story, or pretty much anything. I was into the whole mutant dilemma, and I was curious about who our mysterious guy was, but it's obvious those issues will be resolved, and when they were, they were less than mind-blowing. You may think otherwise.

Eden Log had loads going for it visually, but when it came down to what matters when you're supposed to care for a film, it kind of just exists. Very average in anything else besides the look, but nevertheless the flick was original and I wasn't bored for any of it. It just had so much potential, I felt kinda disappointed when it was done. Kind of a head-scratcher as well, but it's not brain surgery. 6.5 rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Artsy sci-fi with zero entertainment value ................

[merklekranz · 1/10 · 2 February 2010]

"Eden Log" explains nothing. The actors barely speak, The underground monochrome setting becomes intolerably boring. Mudman wakes up in a cave with no memory. As he ascends through the maze of rooms and tunnels, nothing is revealed, the film simply becomes more and more bizarre. Eventually this turns into nothing more than a mutant freak show, but by that time you will have lost interest entirely, only hoping for some gigantic payoff with the finale. When the end finally does come, nothing, and I mean nothing becomes any clearer. After being in the dark for 98 minutes of total nonsense, you will rightfully conclude that "Eden Log" has zero entertainment value. - MERK

Man wakes up in a cave, sets on a journey to the surface discovering all sorts of wondrous and weird things and is finally presented with a decision.

[dex_90 · 8/10 · 11 April 2009]

Didn't expect much when I started it and thought it might be some kind of horror like "The Descent" to pass some time...

At first, especially during the first 5 minutes I was kind of confused and might've even turned it off, the constantly flashing light and the grunts of the main character put me off quite a bit, until the story started to unfold and I got to watch one of the better Sci-Fi's I've seen in the last few years.

I guess the movie is either underrated because people turned it off in the very first few minutes or because they expected a horror-movie/didn't pay enough attention to understand the plot.

It was great to see the hero start with a completely clean slate, while discovering what is going on all around him and uncovering the plot and the setting of the movie-world to finally even find out about his true identity and still do what he deemed right with all of his newfound experiences and pieces of information in the back of his mind.

For me it's somewhere between a 7 and a 8, I gave it a 8.

A Nocturne Trip

[SanAndrez · 7/10 · 5 August 2008]

Hands down. A truly interesting picture held in the gripping nocturne atmosphere of the dark sci-fi. Very simple, little dialog and few action-filled scenes with lots of details and original ideas. Eden Log is something like a debut from the french director and with this stylish calling card I am helluva sure we will be hearing from this guy again. The story is compelling the viewer making him no less confused than the main protagonist and that was the whole point. The viewer becomes the main persona searching for answers while tripping balls through the dark corridors of the tech cave. The director could easily made it clear with one sentence in the beginning like the most of the crapbag movies today. "The year is... this is... he is... an experiment... and he... " and the rest would be just blank silence with no reasonable point at all. Indeed. Different approach is needed worldwide. I can't even remember the last know good sci-fi movie I've enjoyed and Eden Log came like a small shotgun blast in the head. The black/white editing is very convincing, make-up effects, acting and the ambient sounds and music are very horrific. Man, I really loved the deep voice and look of the Guards. Reminds me of F.E.A.R. from Monolith and this is the funky thing. The whole movie seemed like a filmed game to me. So, if you like sci-fi, this is the movie for you.

Dark, dreary, slow, boring

[OddesE · 2/10 · 11 April 2011]

I just had to write a review of this after reading so many positive ones. The score this film gets is actually flattering. The positive reviews are hilarious!

Spoilers ahead (as far as there is any plot to be spoiled)

A guy wakes up in a cave, covered in mud, not remembering who he is. This scene takes long, has flashing lights and is very dark. He climbs to the ground from level -4 and the plot unfolds as he ascends.

Some of the scenery looks nice but everything is too vague and disorientating. A lot looks like cheap building material (pipes, ropes, low tech stuff not befitting to the 'lab' he is supposedly in).

The guy goes unconscious for four or five times, I lost count. He keeps walking towards lights but never arrives at them. You keep hoping the next scene will be a bit lighter but it never is. I could not really tell whether it was black and white or color because at this darkness there is no real difference.

There are some interesting things in the plot... but the problem is there hardly is any plot at all. Let alone dialog, the guy hardly ever speaks.

Even if you like long, dark, boring movies that have no plot or dialog about guys fumbling around in caves forever, you still should not watch this movie. And everyone giving a move that they had to fast-forward through a score over 3 is crazy!

Man wakes up, is confused, confuses viewer, ends movie

[thinker1717 · 1/10 · 27 May 2009]

If you are in to long pauses between random non sequitors, enjoy epileptic fit inducing flashes of light on your screen, mosters hat are about as scary as a racoon on a Scooty Puff Jr, then this is the movie for you.

Honestly, this movie deserves a negative 4 (those who watch the movie will get this). The protagonist is a simpering moron who communicates mostly in grunts and rape. His supporting cast includes monsters that are as threatening to his health as a squirrel on a Scooty Puff Jr. and some faceless soldiers who all sound like they need to lay off the cigarettes. The "plot" is uteerly incomprehensible, and makes me think there was no script to begin with, just a man armed with a camera, a sewer, and a dream. A dream of making people suffer. Suffer through this movie, which can only fairly be compared to such cinema masterpieces as A Guy in the Sewer With a Camera 3, I Don't Like Communicating; the sequel, and They Paid me to Make This! Honestly, its like watching a silent movie with all the helpful exposition slides removed, and replaced by heavy breathing, blinky lights, monsters that are never clearly glimpsed except through mesh netting (our post-apocalyptic future seems to involve a lot of mesh netting), and some kind of tree.

In conclusion, go watch Cube. Or anything else really.

Absolutely awful

[arjwest · 1/10 · 22 March 2009]

This film doesn't even deserve a 1 id give it 0.5 as the back cover makes it sound interesting.But it really isn't I've seen some bad films and this is right up there with the worst. Every scene is dragged out to the absolute max, walking down a corridor or going up some stairs is a slow painful journey.nothing happens or is explained i could make this film in a day. The acting isn't much better The main actors constant annoying noise making is enough to drive you crazy. Avoid at all costs. How you are meant to write a ten line review about this film is ridiculous i can some up every thing that happened in this film in about 5 lines.And then the rape scene,what was that about. Don't waste your time even thinking about buying this.

So aptly named!

[hoytyhoyty · 1/10 · 17 August 2014]

I feel like somebody dropped a log, that's for sure, and then they or somebody else filmed it.

I only made it to 20 minutes in. Is that good?

Rookie, rookie film making. Folks - you need to stand back and look at WHAT exactly is being seen and heard. All there is for the whole first chunk of the film - and it makes you not care what there is in the rest of it - is grunting, a flashing white light, mud, more grunting, and some inexplicable, unintelligible computer voices - oh yeah and then more mud and grunting.

Aaaand it's BACK TO FILM SCHOOL YOU GO!

Impressive.

[hersh-mail · 7/10 · 10 July 2008]

A very impressive first feature. It has the shortcomings of it's qualities, but the overall feeling is that of being immersed in an alien landscape for a journey before regaining the planet earth again. It's obscure, not very clear of it's intentions, maybe even a little naive at moments, cold and detached most of the time, but it has the balls to be different. I must admit that i was only a few times during the film awed by what i witnessed, but constantly admiring the fact that it didn't compromise the fact of not searching for the approbation of the largest number. Whatever my feelings at the end, and i'm still not quite sure, i did feel intrigued during the whole duration, and i'm glad that films like this exist and get to be made. The other commenter's have labeled this as "arty", but i'd rather say it has a style and sticks to it, for better or worse. Sure it's eye-candy, and as such doesn't hurt the viewing, but i wouldn't say it's style over substance, i really felt it like an uncompromising vision of of a first time director. It's no Dark City, but it's a pretty damn fine effort, and i'll be waiting for the next one from the director. The music was excellent as well, not really your typical movie score, and added to the immersion. And all this for a certainly meager budget...

All in all, i'd recommend it, a very serious effort, and for that it gets a 7 out of 10. I guess i did like it after all...

I have a theory

[davidfurlotte · 1/10 · 16 June 2011]

My theory is that the writer of this...story ate some magic mushrooms and then sat down and wrote the script. IF the intended audience were to consume some 'shrooms before watching this, everything would make sense.

I don't know, maybe I'm old fashioned. I kinda like a movie to have some kind of plot, a storyline, characters that I either like, hate or have some kind of feeling for what happens to them. These are all things that I think are good things and are nowhere to be seen in this movie. I don't want to watch a movie where I have to now pretend I'm in one of my film classes from college and have to write a treatise about it because it's a THINKER film. Do not let anyone confuse you and say that if you were intelligent the film makes perfect sense, it does not. However, I honestly do believe that after viewing this...movie, my I.Q. lowered and I really should have done what I was asked to do and simply switched it off after the first 15 minutes, but I kept watching it in the vain hope it was going to suddenly make sense of everything.

To put it plainly, it could be taking place on Earth or an Alien planet, it could be in our far distant future or it may be something out of a parallel universe. I think basically it was written by a kid who discovered that he could make a light bulb glow with a potato and took it a few steps further.

Either way, save some time in your life and give this flick a pass if it shows up near you. Unless you want to test my theory.

Unique, artistic, progressive to an extent, but insufficient.

[greg197-1 · 20 November 2008]

--> !NO SPOILERS! <--

* The verdict.

Eden Log could be the first in a series of films on the topic and, if that were so, it could herald a project ambitious enough to rank among history's top Sci-Fi features along the likes of The Matrix and Artificial Intelligence. At present, it feels like an artistic short film and a 90 minute long one at that.

* The nitty-gritty.

If you decide to watch Eden Log, do not expect a large dose of entertainment. The film can be appreciated as a work of art, can be admired for its unique feel, but it leaves the audience unsatiated.

The world presented in Eden Log is severely limited in scope, awkward and, at times, presents frustrating problems. It takes a moment to adjust to the pace of the film, since the tempo would not have to be slowed down much to make Eden Log run in real time. A word to bear in mind over the first ten minutes of the film is 'patience'. It appears that the strategy employed by the director is to immerse the audience in the world of Eden Log through long exposure to its Sci-Fi elements. As such, one has to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate the attempt.

The plot could be summarised in about four sentences, but, to judge Eden Log on the plot, is to miss the point. The focus here is on appealing to the senses and a more complex plot would be a distraction.

All in all, Eden Log was an experience, but with a dead end. It is just one of those productions, which has the feel of the first part of a splendid trilogy, but which is not actually going to be a trilogy, because of the conceptual limitations placed upon the project at its outset by the director.

* Vote.

None can be given.

Good film, ruined by pacing, problems, and politics

[rgcustomer · 6/10 · 29 March 2010]

There is a lot to like about this film, particularly the first half of it. Like pretty much all films of the "I just woke up here alone" genre, it's thoughtful and captivating. And it moves nicely into the "yet another zombie movie" genre that these things tend to turn into. But the style and the focus are very, very good. This film deserves to be recognized for that, if nothing else. I also liked that, even though you saw the man's identity coming, it was still satisfying when it was revealed.

There were some things I didn't like:

(1) The pacing, particularly in the second half, is dreadfully slow, and for no good reason.

(2) Many, many, many questions are left unanswered. Why is this man biologically special? If the tree roots feed on humans, why do we need to hang humans in boxes from the branches? What is turning humans into these monsters? Why is level -1 so much higher up from level -2 than any of the other levels were apart? Who is the guy who appeared to be integrated into the wall, and how did he think he was sabotaging things? Why would someone so willingly let himself be experimented on by a stranger wearing a mask? How did he get unclothed in the mud? Why bother with an apparently irrelevant religious quote at the start? What good did growing the tree at the end do?

(3) Ultimately, after sitting through a reasonably good zombie mystery, it's incredibly annoying for the payoff to be a lecture on energy use and the world's indigenous poor people. It's not the point of view I have trouble with, but the heavy-handed way it was narrated to us in the last few scenes on level 0. Avatar is a much better example of how to get across a message without being lecturing.

Waste of Time

[p-euler · 1/10 · 12 April 2013]

This movie just wasted a good hour an a half of my time. I went into it expecting a Cube-like experience, but unfortunately it came nowhere near. What's wrong with it?

First of all, half the movie is so dark you can't see anything. Now I'm well aware that often the less you show, the stronger the suggestion and thus the stronger the suspense. But when you can't see what's happening whatsoever, there's no suspense at all.

Second, in any story there has to be something that makes you keep watching (or reading). There has to be something of a storyline and advancements within that. If what's happening (providing you can see it) is so unclear as in this movie, it's making you stop wondering (and caring) at all.

Third, I like movies that are less straightforward (Cube, Mulholland Drive, Pulse (the Japanese one), Pi). Just because a movie is less clear, doesn't mean it's not interesting. But, the opposite is true as well: just because it's less clear, doesn't mean it's interesting. An 'arty appearance' does not equal 'Art'.

My advice: don't bother and do something else with your time(take a nap or whatever).

Archetypal Art sci-fi

[xvoraz · 9/10 · 16 November 2008]

I am glad to read the positive comments about this film, but also I can understand those who found this film slow and were not able to enjoy it. I think film is dedicated to a narrow audience: One must be moved by archetypal imagery alone (I mean the lack of gripping plot here) and enjoying just the atmosphere; without motion, without anything for the conscious mind.

At the beginning I was at once gripped by the atmosphere. Scenery, camera motion is the best part of the film. (If you don't watch this film in the cinema, complete darkness is advised.) The nearly-monochrome images, the play with light and darkness is used artistically and originally to keep us perplexed and uncertain; to show us the struggle for consciousness of man.

The viewer is so to say forced to identify with the protagonist. Here the camera viewpoint is very important and very well done. The camera shows the scene always from the protagonist's viewpoint or he himself.

While watching the viewer (or at least I) constantly tries to grab a wider view of the actual place, but he can not do that; his view is narrow as is the protagonist's. Thus the viewer is able to empathize with struggle of the protagonist, feel hes fear, anger, struggle, anxiety. This is combined with the lack of information and understanding about what is going on so again we feel uncertain and perplexed.

I love archetypal imagery and I am satisfied by them alone. Thats why I didn't feel the movie lacks the plot. But I cant deny it lacks. I actually love the uncertainty it has. I must admit, that I don't understand everything, and that is maybe not the end I would write to it. But thats it. I still love it this way.

And just because I read in an other comment... The rape-lovemaking scene is just perfect. It is so natural. And again I like the play, the uncertainty.... is it rape? is it love by first sight? is it a natural ground-and-earth way that ADAM and EVE meet? who knows....

So... thank you for this film!

It's Mysterious; It's Suspenseful; It's Interesting - But What Is It?

[sddavis63 · 7/10 · 23 March 2010]

This is a very strange movie - a pretty good one; don't get me wrong; but a strange one. As it begins, an unnamed man with no memory awakens in what can only be described as hell. We watch him explore this place, desperately searching for a way out, and we, too, face the same question he's facing - what is this place? And - of course - how did this guy come to be here? The mystery surrounding the environment, which is very dark and claustrophobic, is a pretty good one. Over the course of the movie, I took 3 guesses as to what was happening. My first was that this was some sort of scientific experiment run amok - this was suggested by repeated references to labs. My second was that we were seeing the desperate aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, which was suggested by the scenes of extreme devastation we see. My third was that this was some sort of religious fable, which was suggested by the opening reference to the Creation narrative in Genesis (although the movie as a whole really seemed to have more in common with the Book of Revelation.) In the end, the movie doesn't really answer those question or give a straightforward explanation of what's been going on, although I thought that a combination of my first and third scenarios seemed most likely.

To me - it seemed as if the movie was making the suggestion that the creation of humanity was caused by some sort of "divine" lab experiment that didn't work, with the unnamed man (and the woman he encountered) being loosely cast as Adam and Eve awakening to the desperate realities of their condition. The title "Eden Log" then suggests that this is a sort of account of how and why "Eden" (in the Genesis narrative) came to be. This was reinforced for me by the end of the movie, which seemed to reference something of the Judeo-Christian narrative - that from this point on (the point at which the man emerges from the earth, just as Genesis portrays Adam as being brought forth from the earth) the goal of the man (and his creators, whoever they were) is to find a way to return them to their original state, which surely must have been better than the hellish state we saw in this movie. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but that seemed to be the only explanation that made sense to me. So, I found it an interesting reflection on and recreation of creation itself.

If U read wiki, then U will understand this movie

[the_doofy · 2/10 · 30 July 2017]

If U do not read wiki, U can watch it numerous times and still not get it

I give this movie a 2 star because I know there are movies out there that cannot be explained even in wiki

The thing is, if U read the synopsis, it makes the reader/viewer mad that a movie w/ such a well thought out 'synopsis' is such a flop in execution

The amount of dark scenes and partial too quick to focus on stuff scenes is also kind of irritating, I guess this allows them to save on vivid special effects

Worst thing I've ever seen

[marccolten-1 · 1/10 · 25 April 2011]

I checked the spoiler warning but there's no need. I defy anyone to make a coherent statement about anything in this film that would give anything away. There's no beginning, no middle and no end. Nothing is explained or makes sense on its own. I watched the French version with English subtitles, but I might as well have watched the Swahili version with subtitles in Esperanto. Worse yet, it's filmed in "seizure vision".

The only good news is I have a new addition to my list of "Why the French should not be allowed to make science fiction movies" which include - Fantastic Planet, Le Jete, The Fifth Element, Immortal and Alphaville.