March 13th, 2010 by J

Synopsis:

Eli (Denzel Washington) has been on a journey for 30 years, walking west across America after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland. The world has become a lawless civilization where people must kill or be killed. The barren roads belong to gangs of cutthroats who rob and kill for water, a pair of shoes, a lighter, or just for fun. Eli is a peaceful man who only acts in self defense, and becomes a warrior with unbelievable killing skills when he is challenged. After the war and the “Big Flash”, Eli was guided by a higher power to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination. Eli guards the book with his life, because he knows that the book is the only hope that humanity has for its future.

There seems to be lots of mixed reviews on this film with comparisons to “The Road” (which i will review shortly) I personally feel that this is a Little bit of a Illusionist/Prestige issue. Both good films there was definitely a lean towards the one without all the hype being the better film.

I liked “The book of Eli”, Denzel washington is very good as Eli and plays the role well leaving the ending somewhat of a shock. The visual landscape is quite stunning if not a little gray. This role is very different from others that Denzel has played, There are no police chases and he doesn’t spend a lot of time talking the smooth talk. He does cut of rather a lot of heads however.

It is great to see Gary Oldman as the Villian and lends well to the feel of this film and Mila Kunis is deninatly a welcome sight in amongst all the grubbyness.

There is the General round of Limbs, blood, road gangs and cannibals you would expect to see in any usual Apocalyptic movie but they have tried to keep it to a minimum. The actual end of the film is a very pleasant surprise however a little unbelievable.

In general the film did well and kept my attention, It does have some movement issues in places and seems to falter a bit on some of the action but the Soundtrack definitely won the day for me.

Probably one i will add to the collection when it has been out a little while.