February 25, 2010
The Book of Eli is a solid action drama; a movie that often thinks it's saying more than it is, and at other times, says way more than it should. But if you can look past the Bible thumping propoganda that begins to be insufferable by the film's end, Book of Eli has a lot going ...( read more)for it - strong performances, a very impressive visual and aural design, and some kickass action sequences. And ultimately, I rarely look for much more in modern action movies, so that the film containing it's fair share of philosophical and religious ideas is just a bonus (or a detriment - depends on how much you hate religion, I would say).
So yeah, Book of Eli, for me, is probably the most overtly religious movie to come out since Passion of the Christ. But going online, there are many people who disagree and actually find it to be anti-religion, whereas I thought it was almost suffocating in it's pro-Christian ideals. So who's right? Honestly, I'm not sure. One of the biggest problems of Eli is that it's moral message is rather muddled. Gary Oldman's character wants the Bible (for that's what the Book of Eli is - sorry for the spoiler), so he can control people into doing what he wants. You hear this, and you think; allright, nice little burn on religion, so true. But then other scenes occur where Denzel Washington is literally invincible because of the book, and his faith continually guides him and saves him in the right directions. Some may say the message was given two sides, but personally, I just think the filmmakers were confused about what kind of religious debate they wanted to provide.
But ignoring that, this is a very fun, dark, and at times thrilling film. The Hughes brothers, directing for the first time since From Hell, give everything an incredibly stylish presentation. The movie is almost in black and white, the cinematography is so washed and vivid. The music by Atticus Ross is hauntingly effective, even though it's really a bunch of simple electronics. There are some action scenes that are so well directed I was jealous, like the opening massacre where we see everything as a sillhoutte, in one take, with the camera slowly zooming into Denzel's badassedry. The opening 20 minutes or so are the film's strongest, with minimal dialogue or plot - simply watching Denzel trying to survive is fascinating enough, and all of that mystery (and the problems with cannibals), becomes glossed over once he reaches Gary Oldman's town for the rest of the movie. It's Ok though, in a way, that the movie progresses to the town because Oldman provides one helluva villian (his story ends not with a bang, but with a whimper, and I loved that), and the movie introduces us to Mila Kunis who's so fucking hot it's almost painful.
Book of Eli is a Western, above all, which is continually proven with the homages to Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy (one character keeps whistling the theme to one of those films), and all the gunfights and showdowns resemble that genre. What keeps the movie interesting is the dramatic weight it has, being an end-of-the-world thing, as well as the great action and Denzel's character being so fucking cool (the final twist makes him even cooler, especially because it's not a cheat - looking back, we see exactly where it came from, even though it's such a surprise). The film moves at a fairly glacial pace, and while I like that it took it's time unlike most ADD action flicks these days, there were times it became too slow and not much of interest was happening. Still, this is a solid movie, worth the trip to the theatre, and if you can handle getting Christian messages shoved down your throat, you'll probably enjoy yourself too.
