The Book Of Eli is a decent apocalyptic action thriller with some flaws which I'll get into later but I felt the good outweighed the bad. The Hughes brothers are admirable in making this film giving audiences a gritty apocalyptic world where nearly everything is destroyed and ash rains down from the sky. The Book of Eli reminded me a bit of The Road with Viggo Mortenssen. It seemed like both films were made in a similar way and besides for some exceptions is CG free. They used for the most part real locations and atmosphere to create hostile wastelands. Denzel Washington is good as always as the mysterious traveler Eli who holds in his possession a precious book that he will do whatever is necessary to protect from getting into the wrong hands. Washington's Eli is a driven and soft spoken drifter traveling West across a scorched earth. Oh and did I mention he just happens to be highly skilled martial artist too. Washington is convincing and believable as the character especially in the action/fight sequences. If Training Day didn't prove that he could kick some serious ass when he wants to, you definitely wouldn't want to mess with him after seeing this film I can tell you that much. Well done. Gary Oldman is solid as the villain Carnegie a powerful psychotic mobster type figure who runs one of the last remaining villages on the planet. Oldman doesn't exactly have a whole lot to do but he's effective as Carnegie none the less. He's a violent man who uses knowledge as power over others. Oldman's Carnegie remembers the world "before the war" who wants the same book and he's willing to do just about anything even sacrifice his own henchmen to get it. The supporting cast are also good including Mila Kunis as Solara who's taken under the wing by Eli, Ray Stevenson as Carnegies number one right hand man Redridge, Jennifer Beals as Solara's blind mother Claudia, and Michael Gambon in a brief role. They turn in decent performances along with the rest of the relatively unknown cast. The action/fight sequences are well executed and paced especially the first one with Eli taking on a gang of cannibals who get whats coming to them. The pacing of the movie is a little slow at times but it was good for the most part. The film lacked development for some characters and the catastrophe like The Road isn't entirely explained except for a few explanations given by Eli one of them being, "The war tore a hole in the sky, the sun came down burned everything and everyone." A more defined explanation would've been better so we know what happened which I guess it worked for the film though. Overall I can't think of too much I didn't enjoy about this movie. If you're a big fan of apocalyptic films than chances are you'll enjoy this one as well. I liked it more than 2012 which wasn't that bad but it relied heavily on CGI and was a bit overlong compared to this one. The Book of Eli has a similar but interesting story, action, drama, and solid performances by the cast (especially Washington and Oldman) who make this apocalyptic thriller worth the time to watch.
Review of The Book of Eli
