2/5 Little to offer except style
  by B. Talbot
This is a visually interesting movie, as far as the sets and use of color. However, nothing else about it is very good. If you want more out of a movie than that, I'd skip this.

The plot (once you figure it out, which is entirely possible on the first viewing if you pay a little bit of attention and are at all familiar with science fiction cliches) is pretty much a huge cliche. The way the story is told is ok, but if you are familiar with the concept of "flashbacks," it's not terribly impressive. There is almost no dialog. The acting is not great (impressive considering the actors have almost nothing to do acting-wise). The actual filming of it varies from interesting to annoying (think Blair Witch Project), with emphasis on the annoying (lots of badly shot action, blank screens, slightly nauseating shaky cam). The symbolism is trite.


MILD SPOILER: Just to let you know the level of cliche in this movie, the final shot is of a single tear running down a man's face.

1/5 void like the plague
  by Kenneth Freedman (Long Beach, CA USA)
Why is that so many film-makers these days believe staring at a black screen (with half-second intervals of illumination) is artisitic? It is pretentious and irritating. Oh -- there are the unpleasant grunting noises as well. This is puerile film making -- more like a video game than a narrative. When the inevitable creature sound is heard from the dark, I hoped it would eat the protagonist on the spot and spare me the rest of this plodding, pointless exercise. There have been many films I have disliked, but few that made me feel I had been robbed. This one made me want to demand my money back.

4/5 Brilliant but Complicated
  by A. Platter (Kansas City, MO USA)
Eden Log is a cyberpunk, experimental sci-fi that some (like me) consider a masterpiece--but be prepared to have the Wikipedia article on hand (or patient enough to watch it a few times) before you understand what's really going on here. (SPOILER HINT: The main character is actually infected from the beginning, and he remembers some of the stuff that happens during flashes.) I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can really understand why some people wouldn't--it goes waaaaaay over your head the first time you watch it. If you need everything handed to you to enjoy a movie plot, then this isn't for you. If you don't mind being confused, or participating in a video-game like adventure of self-discovery, then this movie has a lot to offer, including some wonderful extended metaphors and an extremely interesting storyline. But don't be surprised if you have to mull it over for a couple of days or read plot several different lengthy spoilers to fully understand it (and not just the metaphors but the actual events)--it is extremely complicated and almost seems like it would make a better short story than a movie. But if you're willing to work for your entertainment, it's well worth it. It's dubbed in English--and the voice actors aren't fantastic, so if you can somehow get your hands on an original French version, go that route, instead. As for the special effects that some people are trashing, I thought they were pretty good, actually--especially for a low-budget film. I thought it was typical of foreign cyberpunk or sci-fi/fantasy films (e.g., Tetsuo, City of Lost Children). Sure the effects aren't comparable to Star Wars--but they don't need to be for this kind of film. And the mutants, flickering lights, and dark atmosphere make it plenty creepy if you're like me and love a good, creepy sci-fi.

3/5 Odd and stylish
  by Markus1142 (New Jersey, USA)
This is one of those films that leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions after the first viewing. The film opens with the main character finding himself in a labrynth-like underground facility, giving you bits and pieces of backstory via pre-recorded messages or playback of personal videos, both usually given as projected images rather than via traditional tvs or other screens. Combined with the mostly black-and-white footage, the end result is a very stylish film, which may or may not answer all your questions by the time you're done watching, but is nevertheless worth checking out.

5/5 Way better than others give it credit for
  by Nicholas Gold (Baltimore)
I saw Eden Log recently for the first time, and was so into it I almost immediately ordered a copy on DVD. While I understand that the Blu-ray version has technical shortcomings, my review here relates to the content of the film, both thematically and stylistically.

I don't want to give much away, because Eden Log does a great job of slowly unraveling a mysterious story over the course of the film. Toward the end when most things become revealed, I really had that "Aha!" moment you get when you realize a great puzzle was being untangled all throughout a story, and the clues that were there all along you were only vaguely understanding. For this reason I think the film merits multiple viewings.

The style is very dark and "dingy", fairly cyberpunk, but from the sub-sub-sub-basement of a futuristic kind of world perspective. If you've read the Japanese manga series Blame! you will find many similarities to Eden Log. Likewise, the movie borrows from the stylings of French BD sci-fi comics, and this is a great thing, as not enough films do! Perhaps similar in a sense to Immortal by Enki Bilal, which of course itself was his adaptation of his own BD comic.

Eden Log definitely is operating on several levels, in addition to the science fiction story itself. It is concerned with the environment and the planet, and how we as humans interact with and seek to control it, and create a feedback loop of negative consequences. It also has themes relating to immigration theory and nationalism/citizenship, and what some people do in order to pursue the dream of being a productive member of a "free" and prosperous society -- when in reality this is not what they are necessarily signing up for upon applying for citizenship. Other interesting themes abound as well, and because of all these subtleties I think this movie appeals more to an intellectual crowd.

Stylistically, I am extremely impressed by what the filmmakers pulled off with a presumably relatively small budget. Camera work, set design, and costume design are all EXCELLENT, and all serve to illustrate the "darkness" of the world of Eden Log. I am impressed by the acting, and even creature design. The movie is very dark, the colors very muted and affected, and the camera work jarring -- but it's all very intentional, and the overall effect I found very appealing.

So, maybe Eden Log won't appeal to your average Joe looking for a generic sci-fi horror action thriller -- but that's not the intent of this movie. I'd call it hard science fiction of a very artistic/stylized fashion, with intellectual social themes as an undercurrent. If you like artsy, gritty, dark, heady science fiction, absolutely give this movie a chance.