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Waking up in a pool of mud, Eden Log takes the viewer on a video game like trip through a multi-level, underground compound built around a tree’s root structure. Darkly lit caverns with dripping water, mutated creatures and a company cover-up don’t sound like the biblical Eden, but still the movie ties back to the evolution of man with the same metaphorical approach.
The first 10 minutes or so of the movie is spent going in and out of darkness as a nearly naked man crawls through the mud and takes a flashing light from the corpse of what can be assumed to a human (think of him as Adam coming from the mud and slowly gaining his bearings). Continuing on his quest (now with the weird light that looks ore like a wrestling championship belt), the man slowly meanders through a series of tunnels before coming across a man with a tree growing out of his chest. In an over dramatic attempt at foreshadowing, the man informs our “Adam” that there is no escape and that he will surly die. Before the “tree man’s” death he mentions something about information that he has sent “to the top” that will show everyone the truth (perhaps an apple?).
The next 15-20 minutes are spent aimlessly trying to build a plot that never is explained or elaborated on. Instead I started to feel as if the movie was loosely based on a round of Killzone or another third-person shooter game. You seemingly find some stupid clue that helps you figure out anther piece of the overall story while you progress from level “-5″ where our Adam pulled himself out from the mud to level “-3″. At level three we come across a destroyed laboratory where clues about the tree and the purpose for the tunnels begin to take shape. We learn about some truth that was going to be set free because the public needed to know about the monsters in the lower levels. We also learn from one of the security guards that the “architect” (or in this Eden metaphor, God) of these tunnels is loose somewhere and needs to be found. By Level “-2″ we finally get to see “Eve” who is some form of scientist trying to stay alive separated from the monsters by a thing sheet of plastic and a hazmat suit. “Eve” only willing to work with out “Adam” once she does an experiment and finds that the blood (substitute rib to continue the metaphor) of “Adam” helps the tree to grow.
By the time our lead role has made it to level 0, he has gained a large sum of knowledge, albeit still confusing and illogical, and has found a partner, “Eve”. Through a few more scenes that come in rapid succession and really do not bother to explain the attempt at a twist in the plot, our Adam finally gains the knowledge promised by the man with a tree growing out of him back in level -5, who happens to the the Architect (therefore Adam receives the knowledge of God). With that knowledge, Adam finally makes it to the surface and sacrifices himself to ensure that humanity will know the truth and never return to Eden Log (thus completing the majority of the book of Genesis).
With rather poor acting, rather bad lighting (I guess it was set underground so there is in no theory no light), no discernible plot, horrible computer special effects and very slow pacing, Eden Log both came off as a bad video game and a SyFy (or SciFi/Science Fiction Channel, depending on your level of knowledge of their nearly annual branding cycle) Friday movie special. The only redeeming quality I could really find for the movie was its attempt at telling the biblical story of the creation of humans in a new light. Unfortunately that light was a little too dim for my liking.
Better movies with similar plot lines include:
Rating: 
