THE BOOK OF ELI Movie Review. CAN this titular Sacred Book really save Humanity?

##PRESS PREVIEW

APOCALYPSE.

It's really one stark word.

To those who wouldn’t want to know, it’s a prophetic revelation on the imminent destruction of our World … Doomsday.

We are all world weary and who wouldn’t be with constant reminders that the end of the world is coming …

Holy smoke!

What with giant quakes, death destructive tsunamis, mindless terrorisms, the brutalities that pit man against man and our own ravaging of the earth’s crust in recent years ….

the demise of this world may be sooner than we think!

Don’t think so? Then THE BOOK OF ELI tells us otherwise -

The Movie is post-apocalyptic in treatment actually.

Paradoxically – in the beginning, we’ve arrived at the end of the world.

CAMERA pans across this chilling, horrific wasteland of vast emptiness, broken highways, rotting corpses and desolate cities that are left from indelible marks of a massive catastrophic destruction.

Quite an ugly scene of despair and desolation.

So we take this as the aftermath of a nuclear war?

You watch this solitary man with a glazed look played by the brooding DENZEL WASHINGTON as he trudges for 30 years across the hinterland that was once America.

He’s one of the lucky survivors …..

He has, in his grip, this titular sacred book that holds the key to saving humanity.

The advertising tagline proudly says:

” Some will kill to have it,

He will kill to protect it.”

DENZEL WASHINGTON takes on the role of the savior.

He’s a warrior, not by choice, but out of necessity.

Yeah, hell hath no fury when he is challenged.

He’s guided by a “higher power” and given the task of protecting this book and taking it to its final destination.

It’s a book written in Braille (spoiler here) which our hero has memorized the entire content, from over 30 years of re-reading it.

Now throw in the perpetual baddie played by GARY OLDMAN as the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunmen.

OLDMAN is a sadistic, power hungry rogue who is searching for the ultimate bible so that he can possess the knowledge no one is aware of.

He also has a foster daughter (MILA KUNIS) who takes an immediate fancy to DENZEL to fuel complications.

THE BOOK OF ELI has soul searching religious undertones, but it tries to stay clear of being a religious movie.

The overall mood is grim, dark, dismal.

It’s aimed as a sci-fi thriller, directed by the HUGHES BROTHERS.

Shooting in high definition digital (with the Red camera), the film has little to offer that’s new in terms of substance and plot.

We have been offered an onslaught of doomsday flicks in recent years

and it is always this little babe or that little kid that the screen hero has to protect, as it holds the secret to saving mankind.

THE BOOK OF ELI is no different, except A-listers DENZEL WASHINGTON and GARY OLDMAN are lured to add credence to this stylish movie.

It’s a tough plot made enjoyable by reasonably good acting.

DENZEL is a skilled archer and smooth shooter in the movie and in various key scenes, he shows how he alone can gun down armed assailants a la Hong Kong triad movie style. Kudos.

Yet in the final ending, when the camera zooms in on his face, we find that he is actually blind (another spoiler), presumably from the super intense bright flash of a nuclear explosion.

Wow!

If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic stories, then this one’s for you.

And if you can stay out from being too biblical or being too much of an altheist, then here’s one film that should not be missed.

It’s pure entertainment!

This MOVIE REVIEW is written for

BOOKMARQC.COM