The Book of Eli

This is a movie that I thought might be kinda cool. It looked a lot like Mad Max or one of the many other post-apocalyptic movies I’ve seen. I generally like that kind of thing. On a visual level, it is pretty much one of the herd. Beyond that it’s something else.

From the start of the movie I could tell something was wrong. It began pretty slowly and boringly, introducing Denzel Washington’s character with little to no dialog. The dialog part wasn’t the negative point; it was just how boring it was. Also my nerdy self kept analyzing the scenes and noticing things that just didn’t fit in the world they’d created, adding a little bit to my perception of ridiculousness.

Once it got going it was pretty okay. There was some pretty neat violence going on, although it was perhaps a bit too stylized; I really doubt a guy with a machete could parry a chainsaw. I’m going into a bit more detail now that I think I can handle in a review so I’m going to cut to the quick here.

There aren’t many R-rated movies with F-bombs strewn around the script that deal with the main subject in this movie in such a favorable light. However, they did a pretty good job of showing both sides and making it a little less than a cut-and-dry good vs. evil story. Apparently there was a line in the trailers, “Religion is Power,” that illustrates what they got right. So the premise of the movie is pretty okay.

Where it fails is some more basic elements. Mila Kunis’ character is just a little too quick to turn herself into a mini-Eli rather than practice some self-preservation that would seem to be rather paramount in this world. She became pretty annoying pretty quick. Eli himself is just a little to stoic. The baddies are okay, especially Gary Oldman as expected. Tom Waits made an unexpected (to me) appearance that was pretty fun.

I don’t think I’ve really made my point of this movie being not very good. I can’t really do that without going into spoiler territory, and since it just came out I’m not going to do that. Just go see it if you want to and enjoy it if you can.