The Book of Eli – Review

America is used to Hollywood’s obsession with post apocalyptic settings seen in many the movies of the past decade. Every other movie there is to see seems to portray how humanity survives on the barren and barbaric landscape of a ravaged world. Like many of the most recent film directed by the Hughes Brothers such as Menace II Society, and Dead Presidents, The Book of Eli, continues this post apocalyptic trend in a film starring Denzel Washington (American Gangster, Malcolm X), Gary Oldman (The Fifth Element, The Dark Knight), and Mila Kunis (That 70’s Show, Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

The Book of Eli follows lone wanderer Eli (Washington) as he travels west across the desert wasteland of the United States. The year is 2043, thirty years after the war which resulted in an extreme climate shift, ripping a hole in the ozone and exposing the earth to stronger, more dangerous rays from the sun. Eli is one of the few still alive who can remember the “world that came before”, as a generation has grown up in a savage world without literacy, easy access to necessities, or ethics. He meets the young and curious Solara (Kunis), and clashes with her step father Carnegie (Oldman), the malevolent dictator of a town. Eli has in his possession something that has the power to save humanity, or a powerful tool to control it if in the wrong hands.

Though the world created in this film has several unique and interesting aspects to it, the fact is that this world has been seen before. Despite the portrait of a decaying desert world being fairly generic, it was still well done, and the back story includes a few interesting twists which unwind themselves later in the story. Where the story began to weaken, the excellent performances by Washington and Oldman helped to keep the film together. The weakest aspect of the movie was Kunis’ character and her overall performance in the film.

If nothing else, The Book of Eli is an action film, and in that regard it doesn’t disappoint. The fight scenes in the film, though preposterous, are still well done and are very visually pleasing.