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Movie Review: Book of Eli
Jan. 19th, 2010 10:44 amThis is actually a surprisingly good movie. It's a B-movie, no doubt, which you should know from the first ten minutes when someone brings a chainsaw to a fight scene, but it's fun to watch Denzel Washington play the stalwart hero and Gary Oldman slum it as the snarling villain. I think half the logline was just "wouldn't Denzel Washington look cool posing in an overcoat, carrying around a machete, and praying?" There's even a problem with the ozone layer, so everyone has to wear cool sunglasses. Thankfully, none of those Lolita glasses survived WW3.
But the first thing you should know is that it is a religious movie. Those posters with the taglines like "Believe" and "Religion is power"? Yeah. And Eli is transporting the last Bible, not the Necronomicon or whatever. I've seen a lot of comments that go something like "Why can't he be carrying a book about purifying water!?" and I'm like "uh, because that wouldn't be as interesting? Because then the movie's theme would be completely different? Because that's not the story they're telling, dinkus?" Is it just me, or is that like commenting on a Tim/Steph story with "Why isn't this about Tim and Kon's epic love for each other?" I almost can't believe that people are picking on the filmmakers for doing something different with a post-apocalyptic story, since usually when religion comes up after the bomb drops, it's some cannibals quoting Bible verses.
I think some people are confused and angered by the fact that the main character is a Christian and his faith is treated as A Good Thing. There's no revelation that he's a pedophile or a serial killer or a parent who just don't understand. And apparently that pisses people off. Check out io9's review, which is just a long rambling rant about Zardoz, or their interview with the directors, where you get the feeling each question was only asked because it was against the law for the interviewer to stab them for crimes against humanism. That's a pretty ballsy stance to be taking when you're calling Dollhouse a classic. So if you go in determined to hate it, you'll probably hate it.
But! The movie is actually executed fairly well. I think they could've done some more thinking on the villain's motivation for wanting a Bible (it basically hinges on Gary Oldman being an uncharismatic orator. Uh-huh) and how every Bible in the world but Eli's was destroyed. Just off the top of my head, I would've preferred something like Red China invaded during the Apocalypse and banned them, but a lot of it survived as oral tradition, thus Gary Oldman would need the real thing to unite people. There's also one "hero saves the girl from getting raped" scene that goes on way too long and ends in an erection joke which is enough to give you whiplash. But that's the only real moment that I wasn't onboard.
Aside from that, the movie is always running on all cylinders and giving you some new facet of the post-apocalyptic world, or an action sequence, or something else to chew on. It's two hours and I don't think there's one boring moment in there (although I won't argue whether they're necessarily good moments). If The Road was Oscar bait, this is the 'actual movie' version of the same thing. And the action scenes are just glorious. Instead of quick-cutting every .5 seconds, the camera draws back to a long-shot and circles wearily as Eli takes on his attackers in one long continuous shot. That right there should earn some brownie points. The movie probably cost less than half what Quantum of Solace did, and it looks ten times as good.
But the first thing you should know is that it is a religious movie. Those posters with the taglines like "Believe" and "Religion is power"? Yeah. And Eli is transporting the last Bible, not the Necronomicon or whatever. I've seen a lot of comments that go something like "Why can't he be carrying a book about purifying water!?" and I'm like "uh, because that wouldn't be as interesting? Because then the movie's theme would be completely different? Because that's not the story they're telling, dinkus?" Is it just me, or is that like commenting on a Tim/Steph story with "Why isn't this about Tim and Kon's epic love for each other?" I almost can't believe that people are picking on the filmmakers for doing something different with a post-apocalyptic story, since usually when religion comes up after the bomb drops, it's some cannibals quoting Bible verses.
I think some people are confused and angered by the fact that the main character is a Christian and his faith is treated as A Good Thing. There's no revelation that he's a pedophile or a serial killer or a parent who just don't understand. And apparently that pisses people off. Check out io9's review, which is just a long rambling rant about Zardoz, or their interview with the directors, where you get the feeling each question was only asked because it was against the law for the interviewer to stab them for crimes against humanism. That's a pretty ballsy stance to be taking when you're calling Dollhouse a classic. So if you go in determined to hate it, you'll probably hate it.
But! The movie is actually executed fairly well. I think they could've done some more thinking on the villain's motivation for wanting a Bible (it basically hinges on Gary Oldman being an uncharismatic orator. Uh-huh) and how every Bible in the world but Eli's was destroyed. Just off the top of my head, I would've preferred something like Red China invaded during the Apocalypse and banned them, but a lot of it survived as oral tradition, thus Gary Oldman would need the real thing to unite people. There's also one "hero saves the girl from getting raped" scene that goes on way too long and ends in an erection joke which is enough to give you whiplash. But that's the only real moment that I wasn't onboard.
Aside from that, the movie is always running on all cylinders and giving you some new facet of the post-apocalyptic world, or an action sequence, or something else to chew on. It's two hours and I don't think there's one boring moment in there (although I won't argue whether they're necessarily good moments). If The Road was Oscar bait, this is the 'actual movie' version of the same thing. And the action scenes are just glorious. Instead of quick-cutting every .5 seconds, the camera draws back to a long-shot and circles wearily as Eli takes on his attackers in one long continuous shot. That right there should earn some brownie points. The movie probably cost less than half what Quantum of Solace did, and it looks ten times as good.
