Saturday, September 13, 2008

Eden Log (FRANCE. 2007)


A man (Clovis Cornillac) wakes up in a puddle of muck with no memory of his past or location. He sets off to find the exit and discovers that he seems to be trapped in a cavernous maze called ‘Eden Log’. Along the way he meets some friends, enemies and wanders around till he finds the exit. Excited yet?

‘Eden Log’ looks great. It has some inspired gritty costume design, organic looking sets and a blue tinted cinematography to give it that classic sci-fi feeling. All of that kept me going for roughly five minutes. Then I got bored. Imagine sitting in a friend’s basement and watching them play through the most uninteresting parts of a bargain bin third person video-game. The main character finds keys, opens doors, solves simplistic puzzles and meets characters that help him solve simple puzzles, find keys, and open doors. I hope there’s plenty of save points! It would be forgivable if the quest was actually interesting, but it’s not, it’s more of a relaxed walk. The main character does get chased by monsters (who do look pretty cool) but nothing ever comes out of it. They growl at him, he tussles once or twice, and then they give a little chase. Their origin could have served as a cool jumping off point for excitement, but instead they casually forget it. And don’t even get me started on the final fifteen minute ‘reveal’ of something that could have been summed up in two. Were they really that desperate to fill up time?

A film that bathes itself in mystery lives or dies off of its final reveal and…Sorry, nothing of interest here folks. The final twist isn’t much of one and the epilogue makes little to no sense for characters motivational perspective. Eden Log is an okay film stretched out to a feature film length. Bravo or nailing the look! Next time, try to give me something other than a good looking sleeping pill.

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