Re: EDEN LOG (no spoilers)

On May 21, 11:52 pm, moviePig <pwall...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 21, 11:04 pm, Flashe...@xxxxxxxx wrote:



On May 20, 5:30 pm, moviePig <pwall...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On May 20, 3:17 pm, Flashe...@xxxxxxxx wrote:

On May 20, 10:46 am, moviePig <pwall...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

EDEN LOG is a low-budget French sci-fi that's long on dreary
atmosphere and short on comprehensibility. What it does have going
for it is that it's indeed "hard" sci-fi, which any fan knows is in
perennially short supply. Sadly, its harsh vision is also a puerile
one ...at least as far as I could grasp it. Fwiw, do consider
skipping immediately to the dvd's 'special features' and selecting the
French version with English subtitles. (I discovered that option only
afterward, but by then was too uninterested to exercise it.) Not much
else to say here. Although I'll certainly continue to track down
future similarly aspiring efforts, EDEN LOG is not much recommended.

Has a PC 1st person shooter feel to an exploratory theme for a vague
Tree of Life precept, starting with an unconscious awakening in a
future sewer (whatever -- at the roots of a tree/society symbioses --
no romantic allusions, obviously, which could be hard, along with
heaps of prevalence in quasi-tech paraphernalia). Nor anything
especially violent, as ancillary per se about its means. For an
alternative to actaeon vampire and matrix takes in hung-fu, panAsiatic
multinational endeavors, stands OK within a subtler genre
recommendation. No matter if it doesn't explain events reasonably, an
aim to climb out of the sewer of society (re-evolve his memory), it
does stays within a congruity of symbolism to nevertheless manage
interestingly to flow. An act of willful consciousness channeled into
energetic actions foremost to live, reasons being not always as
apparent as forceful and dangerous imperatives of events followed in
course. Makes it out to shut down the lights and game over if a
reason is essential. Not much in references to source inspiration, no
comic books, when I looked.

No comic books, but scarcely more rewarding than even THE FIFTH
ELEMENT in the "grand design" each ultimately reveals. My suspicion
is that EDEN LOG's screenplay may have been largely guided by finding
a cool abandoned factory they could adapt into Subterranius Futuris...

[stuff I couldn't parse]

Couple of scenes in EL got me -- his reversion to a more primordial
state in triggering a stemmatic procreative sexual activity at the
lower lab facility, when encountering the assistant in charge;-
perhaps a similar tie to the surrounding, devolved sentients, then to
approach and attempt forceful entry, at some level as well tied to his
first initial encounter, first off in the movie, with that character
tied into and restrained by a root structure, and warnings vaguely
foretold.

Then again, I'm not expecting as much sense as reflexively imposed to
question what is more or less a positive reaction, viz -- to
experience. Immortal (Ad Vitum?) -- is another one of those French
scifi movies, though compared to EL for overall greater dramatic
intent -- I also enjoy. Probably as much because of a deliberate
intent or shift apart a greater intent rhyme or reason plays, and
possibly directly consequence to an aversion factor to what we might
expect. Price, I'd guess some pay for the aesthetics, fwiw.

Much of the impact of EDEN LOG's sex scene was lost on me simply
because the filmmaker didn't make it physically plausible (afaics). I
mean, I got that it was intense and all ...but intense enough to
penetrate several layers of hermetically protective clothing? (Hell,
the movie's rated 'R', after all...) Meanwhile, I will check out
IMMORTEL... though doing so requires me to forgive Charlotte Rampling
for her (possibly) inadvertent slumming in BABYLON A.D. ...


There's a little blurb now on WIKI -- right on that first impressions,
it was shot in part in a sewer, (PC game thing is popping up in
reviews, too).

AMC..."revolves around one figure running away from a pack of
intruders, though it is one set in a post-apocalyptic eco-nightmare
rather than a country mansion. ...the most damning is that nothing
ever seems to be at stake for Tolbiac. The monsters attack him about
as often as they leave him alone and we're never quite sure what to
make of the character's declining mental state besides a mildly
violent outburst every so often."

I saw (a lot) more -- as Tolbiac destined, intended (recycled,
denigrated, whatever it was above that the "tree" society did to him
prior, when he first awoke);- after passing through the light at the
door, and encountering the processing or adapting man in the roots,
that strange conversation where the other mentions - 'the Tree doesn't
like you, something about you isn't right, etc (then tells him to get
away)'. The conflict/plot: He's both reverting and evolving at the
same time, a) reverting by flashes and discoveries to remember whoever
he was (in the upper society) before awakening, b) to find himself in
a fight for attempting not to evolve into whatever the social "tree"
is attempting or intended for him. When he "evolves", I suppose, into
a sexually aroused state, he's both flashing off&on from "reversions"
of a rational man, within mutual sexual attraction, and a beast of
immediate desire, akin to those gathering around the "bubble lab". The
forcefulness and danger of the beast(s) win out when the lab assistant
fully senses his bestiality, (during a pause he collects himself),
whereupon he immediately sends her off. Then, he's in control,
advanced a stage, goes out to meet and can control the beasts. He's
accepts, can even mutate, in being part and at one with them...

Weird beasties...reminds me of Resident Evil and a creepy ambiance to
the church scene.

Immortel Ad Vitam is a day's difference away -- "very strange". Even
managed a credit and trailer -- a painstaking composure, fully three
years in the production. Everything indeed strange that's brightly
illustrated or superimposed.
.