Subject: Retrospective: New Eden (1994) (TV)

From: Dragan Antulov <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 21:11:42 -0000

NEW EDEN
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2001

Fans of BLAKE'S SEVEN would probably think of the opening
episode of their favourite TV show being inspiration for the
opening shots of NEW EDEN, 1994 science fiction film
directed by Alan Metzger. The film begins with huge
spaceship that carries prisoners to distant planet that
serves as a prison colony. Upon arrival on the desert planet
called Earth 21-523, the prisoners are unceremoniously
dumped and left to fend for themselves. Most fall prey to
the bandits or try to join their ranks, but young idealistic
engineer Adams (played by Stephen Baldwin) chooses another
path and tries to improve life of small nomadic tribe by
showing them benefits of irrigation. Such efforts would,
however, lead to the conflict with some of his former
friends.

NEW EDEN is made with small budget, but it starts looking
really cheap only when we realise that the distant alien
planet is desert-like not only to due to the lacking budget,
but also due to the lacking creativity of their makers.
After a brief intro, NEW EDEN starts resembling multitudes
of cheap post-apocalyptic action films made in 1980s after
success of MAD MAX. The impression is even worse when we
take into account ESCAPE OF ABSALOM, similar futuristic
prison movie that had the decency of employing somewhat
different setting. However, Dan Gordon's script manages to
overcome at least some post-apocalyptic cliches - the
protagonist is idealistic intellectual instead of Rambo-like
killing machine, and Stephen Baldwin seems more suitable for
playing the former type of characters. Another bright spot
in this film is Tobin Bell in rather interesting role, so
different from many psychopaths and villains he had to play
during his career. But his efforts would won't improve the
general impression of this film. Although not among the
worst example, NEW EDEN is one of those cheap science
fiction films that often give bad name to the entire genre.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

Written on July 2nd 2001

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-mail: [email-masked]
E-mail: [email-masked]

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X-RAMR-ID: 28704
X-RT-AuthorID: 1307
X-RT-TitleID: 1049472
X-RT-RatingText: 3/10