FilmEdge.net reviews

Review by Scott Weitz
January 15, 2010
(3 stars)

Directors Allen and Albert Hughes have demonstrated their cinematic flair previously in their graphic novel adaptation of the Jack the Ripper conspiracy in 2001's FROM HELL, and they apply their stylized filmmaking again in THE BOOK OF ELI.  Yet like their previous effort, the results here are steeped in process which lovingly paints the screen but circumvents the heart.  In a story which should or at least could evoke strong emotion, the Hughes Brothers tap the bell they should ring loudly.  Most of the requisite story elements are in place, but the telling lacks the amped volume to fulfill its potential — sound and vision signify less than ELI's promise.

In the near future, our world is laid waste by a devastating cosmic impact and the remains are ravaged by wars of desperation.  For a rather fuzzy reason, this post-apocalyptic environment led to the mass burning of Earth's entire library of printed material, history and wisdom, as books were blamed as tools for dispersing the knowledge which led to humanity's near extinction.  Thirty years after the fall, the desert wastelands are sparsely populated by an illiterate shadow of civilization resembling the old west and ten other apocalyptic genre films you've seen before: pockets of survivors eke out their existence under lawless conditions and crude brutality. Why humans intentionally rang in their new Dark Age in a conflagration of book burning is never explained, probably because such an act fails the logic test of those striving to survive the apparent end.

It is through this barren landscape that Eli (Denzel Washington) walks on his mission from God, or some like voice in the heart of darkness.  His task: to preserve and protect the last remaining Bible on the planet, and he has been called west to deliver it to an unknown but promised land.  Though Eli is spiritual, he's far from a holy man and his lethal prowess with an arm-length machete sends many a foe to their ultimate reward.  Bible-quoting, hard-fighting men are also nothing new to movie audiences, and despite Washington's best efforts this train is no substitute for a richly written character.  Denzel bring his ever-dependable personality to the role, but as a protagonist Eli rates a three on the drama-meter and the actor can only heat this hash to a five before serving.

Likewise fight sequences are sprinkled over Gary Whitta's slow-boil script to re-engage flagging viewer interest, but action is only character if such sword-swinging set pieces have meaning to propel the story.   Simply demonstrating that Eli is a bad ass Bible guard isn't enough to urge us on to his side the first time, and repeating the slice-and-dice gimmick again and again weakens the point with each repetition.  Love or hate Quentin Tarantino for his stylistic excesses, but when his bad ass lead spouts Old Testament verses and wastes the wicked, it entertains.  Dial-a-fight scripting does not.

Neither does Eli's ultimate enemy Carnegie entertain despite his glowering menace, through no fault of Gary Oldman who does his best spark up his thinly drawn character.  Carnegie is first seen reading a biography on Italian dictator Mussolini, which proves an unreasonable expectation to fulfill.  While Carnegie rules his dusty speck of civilization with harsh despotism, he inspires few beyond his bribed goons to follow his leadership.  This stereotypical baddie may be desperate to find and read all surviving books amid the intellectual desert surrounding him, Carnegie learn little from them.  Oldman strives to invest this morally bankrupt huckster with emotional relevance, but Carnegie stays a cipher desperate to achieve a goal which has been given little dramatic importance.

When Eli strides into town on his mission westward, attempting to buy a canteen full of clean water and hacking apart half of Carnegie's thug posse, the film reduces to God's-lawman versus the corrupt town bully as seen countless times before.  Carnegie goes so far as to attempt corrupting Eli with the sexual favors of his pseudo-stepdaughter Solara (Mila Kunis), but naturally Eli remains pure and on his path.  The script attempts to comment on the empty evangelists using the Bible as a weapon of crowd control and not inspiration for the soul, but the results are as hollow as they are timely.

The ensuing chase across the waste is predictable, as is the hasty partnership between Eli and Solara.  Supporting characters fail to exploit the talents of Ray Stevenson (so brilliant in the HBO series ROME), Jennifer Beals (nobly struggling to give the film heart), and Michael Gambon (wither Hogwarts?), with singer/actor Tom Waits getting the best if minimal opportunity to shine.  Yet the passionless script and direction continually thwart the cast's best intentions to enliven the story with emotion to evoke empathy, indignation or even sheer thrills at the sporadic action

Likewise the color-drained, steel sky cinematography of Don Burgess has become a hackneyed device spelling out 'post-apocalyptic world' by now, and was employed much more artfully in TERMINATOR:SALVATION last year.  The clever color splashes at moments are effective — Eli and Solara regain their skin tones (read: humanity) when on their quest, while a shoulder-fired grenade's blood red hue emphasizes its danger — but they remain too subtle to earn style but not story points.

Out of respect for the admirable cast and best intentions of Warner Brothers, I'll preserve the secrets of the ELI's ending chapter for audiences to judge for themselves.  Suffice it to say the film's own Book of Revelation lack the storytelling punch to justify the film's meandering path to reach it.  The wandering stranger's holy mission fizzles at its conclusion, and what should be Eli's shining, glorious moment is dimmed by a stifling montage that belabors the point and wraps up the plot without providing a satisfying conclusion to his quest.  Had the better-written word inspired this project at the start, THE BOOK OF ELI would have risen above the genre it follows instead of leads.