In this reviewer’s opinion, a good movie is one which provides its audience with the stimulus needed to feel an emotion and or inspire through other means. In the horror genre the specific emotion the film tries to conjure within the audience is fear, in romance, love or a lesser equivalent, and in comedies the audience is pushed into a state of hilarity.
Again these are good movies which are able to manipulate the audience’s psyche into different emotional and intellectual states. Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington, and released by Warner Brothers Entertainment, neither provides us with enough substance to feel an emotion nor does it inspire us in other means.
In fact the only redeeming quality of Book of Eli is the cinematography which is crisp and even beautiful at the start of the film, however if you care about plot, believability, acting and dialogue, you are in for a disappointment and would be better off watching Lars von Tier’s controversial Antichrist or 2046 by Wong Kar-wai.
In the story, Denzel Washington takes on the role of Eli, a man in possession of the last bible on earth. His costar, an aging Gary Oldman, plays the mayor of a makeshift town, who plans to use Eli’s bible as a weapon to obtain power for himself.
Apparently after the, one can only assume, apocalyptic war that made the earth look like Tupac Shakur’s music video for California Love, every, single bible on earth was first blamed for the cause of the war (see Bill Maher’s religulous) and then burnt.
Overall, Book of Eli is an underdeveloped film more than it is a bad film. Much of the plot is revealed in God’s good time. This film could have been so much more if the war itself, being so essential to the plot of the film, appeared on the screen. Visuals dipictions of war and the ensueing bible burnings would have helped the pace of the film, also giving the film a much needed social context in the process.
Book of Eli is based on the premise that all things are possible through god, and thusly the script is very religious. Therefore, some may enjoy the film simply for the references to Christian scripture. As far as the meaning behind the scripture, it is as thin as the pages of the bible, and as hollow as the “o” in God, the verses chosen for the script were cherry picked without a second thought for meaning.
The film’s religious subject matter is easily overshadowed by its commercialization. If you are looking for Christ, go to church, if you are looking for a good film go elsewhere. Book of Eli is not even a film to wait for the DVD. You will not watch this more than once.
