Book of Eli

Ok, I admit it. I’m a sucker for a post apocalyptic wasteland.Must be the optimist in me, ya know ;) So pretty much any movie dealing with the end of the world gets a view from me.

I saw Book of Eli in it’s opening weekend and was quite pleased with it. I saw some negative reviews from the so called professional critics, who of course don’t know a darned thing. That’s why you’ve got me to tell it to you straight. This is a VERY good movie!

Denzel Washington brings his normal quiet coolness to the character, and Gary Oldman is, as always, a most spectacularly evil villain. (Seriously, have you ever seen anything he played in where he wasn’t brilliant???? If you’ve never seen Immortal Beloved, The Professional, or The Fifth Element, then turn off your lap top and get thee to a Blockbuster!!!)  I found the desolation of the wasteland to be palpable. You could almost taste the dry air. The level of detail in the backgrounds and costumes are just amazing…the movie is seedy, gritty, and covered in filth from start to finish.  I love the dim, gray backgrounds and the absence of color which sets the mood for the entire film.

I especially enjoyed the first portion of the film where we witness Eli’s day-to-day survival routine, complete with the few little luxuries he allows himself. It was remininscient of the introductory segment of the latest “I Am Legend.” The writers seem to have put quite a lot of thought into how we would really survive if civilization as we know it were to suddenly end.

Really, there are only 3 flaws in this film as I see it. The first is Mila Kunis’s character, who seems thrown in almost as an afterthought…”Oh wait, we need a hot girl in the midst of all this filth, grab one and throw her in.” Her beauty comes across as clean in an environment where nothing could realistically be that way….I suppose the directors could be trying to make a point, ala “a single rose in the desert” sort of way, but I tend to suspect it was more just the pressure of having some eye candy included. In this environment,  if they absolutely felt that he needed a  female companion, she should more properly have been a plain but innocent girl who’s just as dirty and dank in appearance as everything else in the film.  All in all, the character just feels contrived.

Second flaw,  the characters in general are a little flat. The little old lady and man in the middle of nowhere are the most interesting side characters in the film. Mila’s mother comes across as pathetic, and even Oldman’s character is a little too “cardboard cut out villain”. I would have liked to have seen some more investigation into his motives and feelings. Eili himself is little more than a typical hero…I would like to have known more of his background.

The third and final flaw is the ending. Not the main story line’s ending…that was awesome…but the last scene, which I just found useless and frankly a bit stupid and cheesy. They should have ended the film 1 minute sooner.

All that aside, this was still quite a good film and a definite must see for anyone who is a fan of apocalyptic films. I give it 3.5 stars.