The Book of Eli

[Neil]

Saw this last night... Oh dear! A promising work of apocalyptic fiction ruined by a bunch of silly fictional religious hoodoo!

[EvilNed]

Agreed on the religious bit. I wonder when people will just drop that. Other than that it was great.

[Danny]

I know this is a strange concept, but sometimes a post apocalyptic movie will attempt to have a plot, or say something about people thats not a "rambo in a world without cops" masturbatory survivalist fantasy.

[Neil]

I know this is a strange concept, but sometimes a post apocalyptic movie will attempt to have a plot, or say something about people thats not a "rambo in a world without cops" masturbatory survivalist fantasy. And are you suggesting,"The Book Of Eli" was or wasn't one of these?

[Danny]

That's entirely up to you. It's just dispiriting that everyone on here always has the complaint about a movie in this setting being ruined by its plot. Because more often than not the movies are never great to begin with. Science fiction used to be a stage to be used to say something. Now people only seem to want resident evil extinction or some other thing where "the bullys and cops who gave me a ticket dont exist- or the law doesnt to stop me taking revenge because i would, like ,totally be badass pimp supreme". It's exactly the same problem with zombie movies. People want a just-safe-enough escape fantasy into an environment requiring no social skills or confidence thats not involving shooting something from the barrel of a very large firearm. Because its the plot. always the plot. You can make a film thats technically dogshit in every way but as long as the fantasy of being the "I AM THE LAW" wish fulfillment guy exists it will be lauded. Do anything else and its a terrible movie. I fail to see this distinction. I'm just more aware of it every year when we get "guy walks through empty abandoned buildings with some oil drums with a radioactive symbol and kills everything he runs into" or "people trapped in a building by zombies argue" by the truckload its eaten up but anything to veer away from this is grand heresy.

[AcesandEights]

Jeez, well said Hellsing!

[shootemindehead]

Strangely enough, I enjoyed it when I saw it. I'll have to watch it again and see if I can dislike it.

[JDFP]

I thought it was great, personally. It actually had a meaning and a purpose as opposed to "The Road" which just made me want to kill myself after watching it as being the single most depressing film I think I've ever seen in my life. Neil you say the film is ruined by: "a bunch of silly fictional religious hoodoo!" -- I don't recall seeing any of this in "The Book of Eli" other than the main character having a conviction to save the specific book he was attempting to save. What exactly are you referring to by this as I missed it? j.p.

[Danny]

Yeah see, i have no religious beliefs, dont even like it much but i dont let it alter my tastes in movie y'know? eli was about the dual nature of things, be it man or a single book which in the hands of one is a series of moral tales to teach you to better yourself, in the the other a weapon to raise a blind army with. Its not amazing or that clever but it was different and fresh and a second time around when you know the twist so much more of it makes sense. Honestly i think its stupid to be put of a story involving religion if it aint preaching to you. like i said, dont like it, but we wouldnt have modern music or storytelling without it.

[MinionZombie]

Quite surprised you didn't dig it, Neil. I rather enjoyed it and then got it on Blu-Ray a little while ago and really enjoyed it all over again. Visually it's utterly stunning, and while The Road was 'the apocalypse as it actually would be', Eli was 'the apocalypse as it kind of would be, with cool shit happening' ... and I dug the book being the Bible. I'm not at all religious, but I thought it was a simple - but powerful - central theme. How two totally opposing approaches to one text, in a world gone to the wolves, can battle over this for entirely different reasons. The visuals and the soundtrack were just tip-top too, and it had the bonus of kick ass bouts of action - as well as some 'awesome movie version of an apocalypse' scenes going on, as well as some more gruesome aspects done with a more 'Mad Max' approach (the attack on the travellers on the road near the beginning, the cannibals etc). I really dug it.   Although clearly Eli could see at the beginning of the movie, and you see his eyes at times throughout - so it's only at the end that he can't see and his eyes have become milky - so the 'he was blind all along' thing doesn't really work, if that is what was intended. Although the twist of 'the bible was in braile' was nifty.

[MikePizzoff]

I haven't seen The Book Of Eli, but I hear it's a bunch of people chasing one dude because he owns a copy of the bible? Pretty hard to believe considering it's [by far] the most widely/frequently published book in the world.

[bassman]

I haven't seen The Book Of Eli, but I hear it's a bunch of people chasing one dude because he owns a copy of the bible? Pretty hard to believe considering it's [by far] the most widely/frequently published book in the world. I too have yet to see The Book of Eli, but what if it were similar to a Fahrenheit 451 situation? That seems totally implausible in reality, but in the world of science fiction anything is possible, you know?

[EvilNed]

I haven't seen The Book Of Eli, but I hear it's a bunch of people chasing one dude because he owns a copy of the bible? Pretty hard to believe considering it's [by far] the most widely/frequently published book in the world. Pretty much yeah. The film falls flat on it's face and turns from pretty cool to really ridiculous with the flip of a coin. It gets even more ridiculous at the end, but you'll have to see it for yourself to find out. If one likes pretty visuals and nothing else, it's a go for Eli. But if you're in for substance or plot, give it a wide berth. It is rather ridiculous. I don't know what Hellsing is all about, but this film didn't really have much of a plot, and if the film tried to say something it wasn't very important. Infact, from my point of view, IF it tried to say something, then it had nothing good to say and it was a rather laughable attempt at it.

[Danny]

I haven't seen The Book Of Eli, but I hear it's a bunch of people chasing one dude because he owns a copy of the bible? Pretty hard to believe considering it's [by far] the most widely/frequently published book in the world. IF memory serves the big nuclear war was instigated, or at least people worldwide believed it to be instigated by religion, i dont know if it was specifically christianity or all of them but apparently people made it there business after the war to destroy them all but eli has a copy, one he thinks is the last, and is taking it to alcatraz where they are archiving all important works of art and media. By the time of the movie, about 3 generations after the war no one has the knowledge or reason to care about the bible but gary oldmans character who is trying to set up his own kingdom of sorts is old enough to remember what the book is and the power of its words and plans to use it for obviously nefarious means. Like i said its not amazing, but worth watching once.

[Mr. Clean]

Neil and Ned: How can you hate on a flick just because of religious theme? That's on the same level as if I called Boondock Saints a shitty flick because the FBI guy was homosexual. I don't agree with homosexuality but I'm not going to just jump up and say "oh yeah shitty homosexual movie" because that would be very ignorant of me to do so. The book of Eli isn't a 5 star movie but it was pretty decent. It's worth at least a one time viewing.   A mad man looking for a Bible to control a city. 1 Bible left in the WHOLE world that's being escorted by a man with holy protection. One crazy twist in the end. Like I said, not that bad of a movie that's worth a viewing at least once. Sorry if it feels like I'm trampling on people's views but when rating something; all bias information should be left at the door IMO.