Plot: In a post apocalyptic world, a man named Eli journies west with a mysterious book. But many evil men want the book for themselves, and will kill to have it.

Review:

So ends the trilogy of "overtly bleak post-apocalyptic future" movies.......It began with "The Road", which I never saw. Was followed up by the superb "Daybreakers", which used its setting for maximum, awesome effect. Now comes "The Book of Eli", which is a difficult movie to figure out. For the record, even though I refer to them as a trilogy, none of these movies have anything in common other than the bleak, post-apocalyptic future thing. They aren't the first movies to do it, and won't be the last. They just happened to all come out around the same time. "The Book of Eli", besides being the last, also has the biggest budget of all of them. In fact, if you combine the budgets of the other two and MULTIPLY IT, that would be about the budget of "The Book of Eli". Odd, that with all this money, it ends up being the weakest of the bunch...even though it is still a pretty good movie.

Eli(Denzel Washington) is a super badass, journeying to the west with a mysterious book in his possession. That book is the King James Bible, which is supposed to be the last of its kind. You see, the wars have left Earth as a desolate wasteland. Humanity has resorted to murder and cannibalism for survival. Rape is commonplace. In other words, it's your typical post-apocalyptic future. All seems fine for Eli until he reaches a town and is forced to kick a lot of ass. The towns despot, Carnegie(Gary Oldman) wants Eli to join him. When he learns about the Bible, he is desperate to get it. Of course, Eli declines and this means that Carnegie will try to kill him. Eli also meets and befriends Solara(Mila Kunis), who joins him as they run from Carnegie and his men.

"The Book of Eli" may not look like an $80,000,000 dollar movie, but it is a fantastic looking film. The bleak settings are easy to make and film, but the Hughes Brothers do a lot with it. They manipulate the shadows, the sunlight, the heat and the sense of isolation and fear and work it into a very atmospheric feeling. The subtle imagery and the various nods to things of the past(notice that a character keeps whistling the tune from "Once Upon a Time in America"?) keeps your eyes and ears glued to the screen. With that said, I hope this doesn't become a trend. In lesser hands, these depressing settings can be boring. As overrated as "Avatar" was, I loved that it actually had lots of color to its visuals...I'd much rather that film start a trend instead of this....

It also helps that the casting is superb. Denzel Washington(Eli) is amazing. He isn't as serious or boring as the trailers make him out to be. When dealing with people, he evokes a badass aura that few actors his age can. But when he's alone or in the company of someone he trusts or cares for, he reveals a soft, charming side that lets Denzel do what he does best: Charm you. He also nails the role physically. Gary Oldman(Carnegie) is freaking awesome as the villain. He's always been a grand actor, but this is my favorite type of role that he tackles. He's over-the-top, immensely menacing, but also has that strong leader vibe about him. Mila Kunis(Solara), on the other hand, is a bit distracting. Her acting is good, and her character growth is superb, but every time she spoke I kept thinking of her role in "Family Guy". I don't know why, but I can never recognize Ray Stevenson(Redridge) in any movie. I overlooked him in "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire Assisstant", and I didn't notice him this time either. His acting is good, he's just one of those actors whose appearance always seems to change. Hey, maybe that means he's that damn good! Overall, the acting is strong and you'll recognize a lot of people.

But now imagine that movies are swords. The handle is the budget, the steal is the quality of the movie, and the tip of the sword(the most important part) is its effect on the viewer. "The Book of Eli" has the budget, has the skill in front and behind of the camera, but here, it lacks the tip. The analogy is that the person the sword stabs is the viewer. The tip is just....slightly dull. The main reason for this is that it's hard to pin down what it is. It's not an action film because there is little action(although what little action there is, is great. None of over-the-top camera bullshit). It's not really a drama, although it has some dramatic scenes. It's not a love story(there isn't one at all). While it's kind of a sci-fi film, it's not THAT sci-fi. It's not really an adventure film because it's just going from one desolate location to another desolate location......It's too violent to be catering to the religious audience, and too religious to be catering to gore hounds......So what is it? Don't say it's a post-apocalyptic film because that's not really a genre....It's just a setting. In the end, it's the lack of identity that brings "The Book of Eli" down.

Another issue of contention that people are having is what they consider to be "overtly religious" themes. To be honest, I didn't see that. The Bible, regardless of whether you believe in it, is probably one of the most important texts in the world, maybe even THE most important text in the world. But I felt that the film showcased all of the views of the Bible, without necessarily promoting one. Eli looks at the Bible as the word of God, like Christians do. You have Carnegie who wants to use it to control the masses, like the Church and many others have done in the past. There are also people who see it as just an important piece of literature. There is even the typical Atheist fear that it's legacy would bring about the destruction of the world, and its even implied that that's what happened. In essence, the film use of the Bible reflects what it is without a doubt in real life: An important work thats importance depends on what you believe about it, whether it is the salvation of man or the destruction of man. Hence, I'm a little confused as to why Atheists are calling this movie "religious propoganda", as if they are seeing the Bible as something more than just a book. Strange. I mean, there is nothing to suggest God exists here. Everything can be explained from a secular perspective. My final point here is the final shot. Think about that shot and you will realize that the film isn't taking a pro-Bible stance, at least not in the Christian sense of the word. Plus, as I said, this movie is far too violent to attract the religious crowd.....and if you dare try to bring up "The Passion of the Christ", then you clearly do not know why that film was such a hit.

In the end, "The Book of Eli" is a difficult film to rate. It is a film that is well made, maybe even superbly made. But is it a superb film? No. It's main fault is that it's one of those movies that will not appeal to any genre in itself. It's not an action film, not a drama, not a sci-fi or anything else...and it opts to be a little of everything. It's ambitious thinking, but it rarely works. I guess you can say that it's a study of hope and survival, even if the survival part doesn't always lead to action scenes.... I personally feel it's a 3 Star movie. But I'm going to be a little harder on it, because in my personal opinion, no film should be without a genre. Luckily they had Denzel though, because is freaking awesome to watch. Although the final twist certainly had its flaws.

Violence: Rated R. Pretty gruesome at times.

Nudity: At one point, it looks like you see a (dead?) girls breasts. There is some implied or attempted rape. Not pleasant.

Overall: "The Book of Eli" is a pretty well rounded film, but you might not like it. I did.

2.5/4 Stars