Walking into The Book of Eli, I was not really expecting much. It basically looked like a cheap Mad Max knock-off with religious overtones, probably mixing in some Children of Men. But maybe it was because I wasn’t expecting much that movie turned out decent.  Not too good, but decent.

Denzel Washington stars as a lone wanderer named Eli (at least that is what the tag says, he also has great teeth) traveling across American Wasteland to the west with the only copy of the Bible left, supposedly. Roughly, thirty years ago, America, and presumably the world, has been left a wasteland due to some catastrophic fallout, maybe nuclear.  Anyways, along the way Eli stumbles into a town resembling those of the Old West, whose mayor/leader Carnegie, is played by Gary Oldman, who covets books, looking for one in particular to stretch his rule (guess which one). There is also Mila Kunis, the daughter of Carnegie’s concubine, who looks great given the post-apocalyptic setting.  She ends up following Eli to the west.

That is about it for the plot. Not that it was weak, but it has been made simple to include action scenes. A lot of action scenes, filled with a lot of CG to make it look more intense, or action-filled. Either one, it doesn’t really work, that that is where the movie is weakest. There are a couple of strong moments in the film, coming from Washington and Kunis together, which would have made the movie a lot better if they built it around that and not the action journey Eli goes through (and would have also made the plot twist in the end, which was good, more believable).

Overall, you will probably get your money’s worth going to see it. It is not great, nor bad, but a kind of nice place in between, teetering on being a guilty pleasure. Although the film has a bleak tone, it does offer more than most movies normally due. It would be better if the movie did lower the use of religion, keeping it there, but focusing more on the characters. And even though Gary Oldman was good (he can never really do wrong) his performance did come off as a bit one-dimensional, a bit over the top (but worth it, it was Gary Oldman by the way). And that’s about it.

Oh, one more thing.  In the post-apocalyptic future where the world has been ravished by a catastrophe, leaving few humans scattered, doing whatever they can to survive, it is good to see that there is still room for product placement.

Marco La Rocca