Review: The Book of Eli
I was psyched to see The Book of Eli. Who wouldn’t be? A Fallout 3-esk post apocalyptic world with Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman fighting over a bible with machetes. That’s a rock solid premise right there.
While the film starts out strong enough, the ridiculous finale spoils the whole affair.
Denzel Washington plays a mysterious vagabond who’s been roaming the desert wastelands of America for 30 years. He’s on a mission to deliver a bible… somewhere. He isn’t really sure where. A voice told him to head West, though, so that’s where he’s going. He calls it faith. I call it a lazy writer, but whatever. Apparently the voice also trained him to be a super ninja samurai bad ass too, because he’s really good at beating up cannibals and rapists without getting a scratch.
The Book of Eli
Long story short, he strolls into Oldman’s town looking to recharge the battery on his beat up iPod. It just so happens Oldman has something of a book fetish, and he’s been hunting for a King James Version for a long time. Oldman discovers Washington is carrying one, yadda yadda, insert cool gun fights, a few dozen heads getting chopped off and that hot chick from That 70s Show and you pretty much have the movie.
Now, for the most part I really enjoyed the action in Book of Eli. I loved the dialog between Denzel and Gary, and their casting was spot on. Oldman knows how to play one hell of a bad guy. Unfortunately, the last 10 minutes of the film completely ruined what was otherwise an interesting, albeit bizarrely bible-thumping adventure.
Seriously, if you’re going to make movie goers sit through 2 hours of low budget desert landscapes, give us an ending that doesn’t make everything that happened in the movie irrelevant. Twist endings are fun, but only when they don’t turn the film into a ridiculous pile of nonsense. Deus ex machina at it’s worst.
Great acting.
Fun action.
Shit script.
Rating: 
