The Book of Eli

REVIEW: Book of Eli IMDB

INTRO STUFF

• Settling into the new year...a lot of work...ugh!
• Getting ready to launch the 'wiki' for the website
• Work, Kids, the usual...watched the first season of Fringe...
• Mass Effect 2 on Tuesday!!!

SYNOPSIS

• In a world, 31 years after nuclear destruction, one man is tasked with the delivery of the last book of its kind, a book that is hunted by an evil overlord to twist the message of the book into a weapon. Will the Walker succeed, or will the book fall into the hands of those who would misuse it...

WALKING IN F&T (Fears and Thoughts)

• Book of Eli a new religious book?
• Thinking it might be a boring anticlimactic, already done plot line (yes and no)
• Brutal post-apocaplyptic action
• A little of the whole sci-fi versus religion debate...is there still faith if there IS a provable higher power???

OPENING SCENE

• Interesting opening scene: hunt the skinless cat in a nuclear winter
  • Feeds it a mouse
• Next scene in the house:
  • The music sets an interesting mix in the scene as we get to see who he is before he gets to hacking limbs. Seems like you usually don't learn any of the heros frailties till after they have proven themselves as great.
  • Q - What kind of ipod did was that?
• Enjoyed the music and the huge landscapes, interesting fonts, seemed to match the distorted synth music
• Mad Max meets the Dark City...with a touch of Kill Bill
• Not to be the Game Nerd here, but Fallout, Fallout, Fallout...
  • Cannibalism - Andale in Fallout 3
  • SO far after the bombs that the bone is completely picked clean
  • Bastions of civility holding up in a monument (pentagon - Alactraz)
  • The lone wanderer (okay this is theme in many many films and such, Man With No Name is a classic example)
  • Quest for Books (Brotherhood of Steel, Scribe Yearling, Arlington Library)
  • Life has little meaning, it can be taken without notice or even without reason...

...OTHER SCENES

• The bar fight - cat on the table, almost looked ridiculous
  • Q - why didn't they just pull out one of their guns they used to shoot the travelers and shoot him? "No Blasters! No Blasters!"
• Background hints to the disaster
  • a 747 crashed in the desert
  • craters from missiles in the desert
  • Q - who is shooting at anything in the desert? (I know, I know...have to show obvious hints of destruction, but come on...) I am not sure that it even was the desert pre-bomb...any stretch of highway may have been Vegas at one point...completely wiped clean...
• His stay at Carnegie's place:
  • A poster on the wall in his room: "A boy and his dog: An R rated rather kinky tale of survival" - what the heck is that? Oh, my young friend, you have to get to know your after the bomb movies...it was a Don Johnson movie from the 70s (maybe early eighties, but he looks really young...)
  • How did he get out? Guess it doesn't matter
• Stay in the Nuclear reactor stacks
  • uh..where is the rest of the plant? I guess it was just filled in with dirt?
• The old folks 'last stand'
  • Q - Old man has an AR-15 in the couch, but carries a shotgun? Forget the AR15, you can get one of those, he also had an HK MP7 which is highly limited...really thought that cache was too "action movie"
  • Music - Ring my Bell using an old hand crank record player
  • Q - Why show them the graveyard?
• Double scene for the Bible unveiling
  • Alcatraz: he has to hand type the book when they have an entire printing press? No type writer?
  • Carnegie's room: the close up of the lock was great - expecting a bomb like the last book had...wait a minute...he had two book covers? You can hear the flies buzzing in the room as well.
• Alcatraz
  • All of that work (30 years of traveling, memorizing, killing) just to put another 'book' on a shelf? Made the Bible and all other religions seem irrelevant like some piece of Shakespeare literature even in the midst of the miracle to accomplish everything blind.
• Actors:
  • Gary Oldman (Carnegie):
    • I had flashbacks to his days as Dracula and his performance as a pimp in True Romance
    • Seems to be able to play anyone
  • Denzel Washington (Eli):
    • Definitely had the level headed attitude needed for this movie
    • Kmart employee? Kmart employees are survivors!
  • Mila Kunis
    • Looked exactly like Angelina Jolie at the last scene of her walking out of Alcetraz
• Look and Feel
  • Severe Desaturation of colors...I even wanted to put on my sunglasses when I was watching this one...it was really bright...but also made the bits of (spoiler alert) green that you see at the end have more of an impact...
  • The world is dried out, picked over...there is nothing of value left, and nothing is going to grow...desolate land, desperate people...
  • Being "old" was a good thing...
• Characters
  • The Walker (Eli):
    • There was really not much going on with him in the first two acts, he did a lot of things, but had Carnegie's town not been there, I don't think his preception of the world would have changed much...
    • Loved the scene where he witnesses the murder/rape...and does nothing! I can only imaging what happened to him 5-10-20 years ago...
    • His faith was truly tested upon being gutshot...but he passed with flying colors...
    • Okay, I have to ask...was he blind?!?
    • We spend a lot of time with him in the first 15 of the movie...meant to click with the character...not sure it worked.
    • Happy Dance for new boots...
    • Denzel trained a bunch in martial arts, but sequences seemed flat...too choreographed...getting sick of that - what happened to Indiana Jones and that big, shirtless German? He still won, but he had to work for it...
  • The Sidekick (Solara)
    • Named for a Toyota? Just Kidding...
    • Never really cared for her performances in That 70s Show (character was one-note) but she has done some really good work here and in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Family Guy?)
    • There was not much for her character to do, really...did not even need to be there, other than to give a voice to the Walker, she was still interesting to watch...
  • The Boss (Carnegie)
    • Wanted to expand (franchise) out...interesting...
    • Knew that violence (or the threat of) was not enough, he had to inspire people...to follow him
    • Relationship with Claudia was quite interesting...was he just vain, did he not want his "mate" to be able to see him?
    • How bad was he? The town seemed calm (trains running on time) when Walker got there...
    • Oldman did an awesome job with a character that fell really flat in the third act...like someone else wrote it...
    • Final fate? I really liked it...
    • Would have loved to see more connection between him and Lombardi (McDowell), two sides of the same coin...
  • The Lieutenant (Redridge)
    • Thank you! This is the most cliched character, who has zero depth...was nice to see one that had some...he was smart, and not completely scared of Carnegie...he wanted Solara, and took the only route to have her...
    • His death was one of the most moving moments in the film...
  • The Cannibals
    • So that is why the hand shaking was bad...
    • Little bit of civility in world gone awry...what were there plans for the two?
    • Man was played by Michel Gambon, who has a corner of the Top Gear track named after his especially-bad lap
• The Book:
  • I was honestly surprised (not too frequent) at what it was...
  • I liked that it was not the only holy book out there...just the one that was missing...Did not go to the "our way or the highway" view of religion.

 QUESTIONS:

• So what really happened?
  • Hints to the Bible having to do with the war, it seemed to be the main religious book burned, but the others survived? Didn't see 'alcatraz press' on the other books.
• Gatling Gun: Most of those were .45 caliber...the .223 rounds of the M-16 variants would have torn down the house much faster...
• Walker takes out 10-15 of Carnegies Thugs in town with him dead to rights...he can't just walk out the front door of the house with 2 guns and kill them all??? Maybe Solara took some of that protection...
• Was The Walker Blind?
• What happened to the town after the loss of the book...did Claudia take over (makes some sense)

THE MACGUFFIN:

• Eli's book (the Bible) - this item was sought by Carnegie (Gary Oldman) for his use to control the people; Eli was on a mission to deliver the book to an unknown location on the western side of America.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

CHUCK Rating: 3

• Positives
  • Great performances from the actors.
  • I loved the action, the music matched well, and liked story...till the end. Good twist (he was blind).
• Negatives
  • The ending killed it for me. All of that just to put another 'book' on a shelf?

MIKE Rating: 4

• Positives
  • Fallout, the movie.
  • VERY interesing world...
  • Plot defied many cliches, embraced others
  • Rich textures (or, lack thereof)
• Negatives
  • Protagonists were the least interesting characters...