The story put together for The Book of Eli is an interesting one. Its set in a post-apocalypse America where there was a war of some type that ended in nuclear destruction. The story completely revolves around a man named Eli who is wandering through this desert-covered world on his quest to deliver a book to an unknown location; even he doesn’t know. Armed with two sharp swords and the power of God behind him, he doesn’t run into much that he can’t handle. Then Eli runs into a man named Carnegie. Carnegie tries to trap the man and steal his book; tough job to do.
The Book of Eli has a great set up. It has all the elements of a successful story, but the problem it runs into is that it simply cannot decide one an even amount of action and an even amount of story. The Hughes Brothers, who made great movies such including From Hell, have a terrible imbalance when it comes to action/drama. The first scene where Eli is attacked by lawless road thugs and how he takes care of business is a wonderful establishing moment for the character and the world he lives in. Shortly after that we run into another moment where Eli does the exact same thing with another group of thugs. After that it switches to a back to the storyline, which hasn’t been fully established yet, only to see it quickly switched back to action. You don’t have a clue about the story until halfway through the film and by that time there isn’t enough movie to properly resolve the story; it’s like watching an hour-long film.
The story is the real issue here, but if you intend on watching this film then you should enjoy what Washington and Oldman bring to it.
Washington’s presence, even in his bad films (and yes, he has them), is felt from beginning to end. He embodies Eli’s character and does his best to let everyone know what type of guy Eli is. Eli is a man that is on a mission for survival and for a certain religious task. Washington let’s everyone know this from the get go when he kills a cat to eat, but feeds a mouse out of pity. Those two actions let you know immediately his Oldman is intense as ever as Carnegie. He rules the town and his people and gets what he wants. Oldman has played this boss character before (see The Fifth Element and The Professional for details) and he usually does it extremely well; this time around is no exception. You’ll fear him like the guys around him and you’ll hate him just like the good guys.
Outside of those two, the story is just a bit too disorganized and disconnected with the action to say that it’s good from beginning to end. The main characters make it great, and the action is good, but it doesn’t work when those things are combined with a shorter storyline that lacks substance.
As for the Blu-ray, you’ve got some great scenes in this film that show how good Blu-ray can look. While most of the film is suppose to look worn and grainy, the opening scene defines how fantastic HD can look especially when it comes to the small details. I’ve never seen a creepier fur less cat in my life in HD. Only rivaled to the visuals are the audio. While it’s not a properly jamming soundtrack, it does offer some pretty raw and sometimes grotesque sound effects. Sounds great coming through 5.1 speakers.
Finally, the features you’re looking at for this title is as follows:
o Blu-ray version of the film
o SD version of the film
o Digital Copy of the film on Disc
o Additional scenes
o Lost Tales: Chapter 1 (Carnegie’s Story)
o Starting Over – Featurette
o Soundtrack Featurette
o Eli’s Journey – Featurette
o Maximum Movie Mode – 40 minutes of PIP commentary with Denzel Washington and the Hughes Brothers, and 10 Focus Points
Great features are on here, but they aren’t enough to make up for the film’s shortcomings. The Picture-in-Picture is damn good and the featurettes are full of great intentions. Good stuff overall.