The Book of Eli review

Lately at the movies there seems to be a fascination with apocalyptic plots. Some of these include Zombieland, 2012, The Road, Daybreakers and one coming out soon called Legion. Now directors Albert and Allen Hughes have made their contribution with their newest film The Book of Eli. Unfortunately this film isn’t really anything new. It’s The Road without humanity, Mad Max without car crashes, and Deadwood without Wild Bill Hickock.

For thirty years a lone traveler named Eli (Denzel Washington, Remember the Titans, Man on Fire) walks down the deserted roads of post apocalyptic America. It is kill or be killed. When other survivors challenge him he possesses expert combat skills, taking on five or more people on at one time.

After the “Big Flash” that caused the end of the world, Eli is guided by a higher power to find and protect the only bible left in the world and take it to its final destination, somewhere “out west.” Along the way he runs into a ruthless man named Carnegie (Gary Oldmen, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) who runs a small shantytown. Carnegie wants the book so he can have more power over the people of his town and will do anything to get it.

The film starts out exactly like The Road--Eli walking down the deserted roads, stopping at houses and the occasional car, scavenging for food and supplies. The main difference is that instead of being cold and wet it’s dry and hot, and he’s protecting a book instead of his son.

Then when he enters a shantytown run by Carnegie it suddenly turns into a cross between a futuristic Western film and Mad Max 3 Beyond the Thunder Dome. The scenes of Carnegie sitting in his office above the local saloon were especially reminiscent of Ian McShane in Deadwood.

From then on it’s just a wild goose chase between Eli and Carnegie and one confrontation after another. It’s like screenwriter Gary Whitta couldn’t decide on one idea so he just said “screw it” and threw in all his ideas.

Probably one of the most distracting and unintentionally comical things about this film was the overuse of product placements. Towards the beginning, a group of Road Warrior type bandits come into town with a large haul of books for Carnegie, because he likes to read. Now everything Carnegie owns is worn and shabby; after all, it’s the end of the world. But among the selection of books the bandits bring in is a clean, pristine copy of Oprah Magazine and a paperback copy of The Davinci Code.  I guess there are some things that even the “Big Flash” can’t touch.

Even though the film was a confusion of various genres of film and TV shows, there were some strong points. Adding in the factor of books gave the film some originality, and it does have a very good twist that you won’t see coming. There were also great action sequences. The scenes of Eli taking on big numbers of men with one machete were brilliant and it was satisfying to see Eli beat the crap out of the bandits and, in one instance, he hack’s a guy’s hand off in the blink of an eye.

Denzel Washington pretty much played Eli the same way he plays all his characters. He is very one-dimensional and doesn’t give much depth to his characters, whether he’s the football coach or the cop.

Gary Oldmen did a very great job playing Carnegie. Everything Oldmen does is excellent, even when he was a crazy Russian terrorist in Air Force One. His character had depth because it had contradictions; he was a bad man and power hungry but he was also passionate about books and was wise. For some reason, bad guys often seem to have more depth than heroes.

Mila Kunis, who we usually hear as the voice as Meg on Family Guy, deserves a nod. Her character could have been whiney and useless like most woman are in these sorts of films, but she was tough and could fight.

This movie, like The Road, did a great job of showing us the ugly truth of a post apocalyptic world but there’s the problem. While the film had some good cinematography and mildly good acting it wasn’t really anything new and was very forgettable. This film, unlike other apocalyptic films that preceded it, wasn’t so much about the preservation of humanity as it was about the preservation of a book. But preserving the “Good Book” was mainly just an excuse for some great fight scenes and a couple of interesting plot twists.

2/5 stars