Review by Loc
All great male movie stars should star in a post-apocalyptic film. They have to be the reluctant protagonist, they have to have a mission to save civilization, and they should have an older, but quality villain to battle against. This would allow us to measure careers and create a ladder of some sort. Maybe it would be the God Complex Rankings. Or it could be the Savior of Humanity Seedings. Whatever the case, whether is GCR or SHS, we’d finally have a real way to rank our favorite stars. You already have Kevin Costner leading the pack with both The Postman and Waterworld. I guess that introduces some question as to whether you combine rankings or keep them as standalone pieces. You could throw in Mel Gibson with Mad Max, sorta. Will Smith works with I Am Legend. I mean, it should be a requirement for all folks: Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Robert Dinero, Al Pacino. And now, Denzel Washington has his submission ready for consideration. Quick hit: it fits the mold.
When you have the GCR-type film, you know you have to do a couple things. One, you have to make your star reluctant. They either have to reluctant to leading, reluctant to helping, reluctant to helping lead, whatever the case, they have to be unwilling to do whatever they need to do. For The Book of Eli, Denzel is reluctant to stop walking, which is…ok. I mean, yes, that also means he’s reluctant to stop and help, he’s reluctant to get involved, and he even tells himself to stay on the path. So it works, but it’s sorta shaky ground.
Second, the star has to be a badass. Denzel hits high on the badass meter, but in a very Denzel-like manner. He’s not one for big action movies, so getting Denzel to don weapons and kick butt is a good thing. However, he is getting pretty old and to make his character even badder than badass, this flick makes him a terminating savant. Which looks cool in the first fight scene, then looks lazy in the rest of the flick. Seriously, killing everyone without needing to run and jump and flail is fine, but it’s like classic dumb-ninja-attack style sequences. One by one, the rouges dash towards Denzel to be punched, swatted, stabbed, and slashed with optimum visual effects like shadows and camera pans. It’s a bit lazy and begs the question, why don’t the bad guys just stand there and wait, cause Denzel obviously will kick your ass if you runs towards him.
Lastly, the star must have some overarching mission to accomplish. I guess this is true for any film, but with GCR-films, that mission must lead to saving humanity. In I Am Legend, Will Smith was looking for a cure. In Waterworld, Kevin Costner was looking for land. In The Postman, Costner was trying to restart the postal service…yes, that does sound lame. Do you think we should make a movie about the postal system? Yes, we should!
In The Book Eli, the mission is simple. There are slight spoilers ahead, but really, if you don’t know this, you haven’t seen any of the trailers or read the movie title. Denzel needs to deliver a book, some book of great importance, to somewhere. That’s his mission, that’s the path he cannot deviate from, and that is the fun of it all.
This mission leads us on the requisite tour of dusty America. There’s lots of bad people hanging out as gangs to prey on the random good people wandering around. You know, how many good guys are there and why do they all travel alone? If the bad guys are smart enough to start motorcycle gangs, shouldn’t the good guys be smart enough to bunch up, too? I keed I keed.
Dusty America, thugs on vehicles, motorcycles for this movie, and a bad guy who runs a town. How cliché can you get? The venerable Gary Oldman steps up as the big baddie, and tones down the over-the-top villainy to deliver a slightly quirky, very good accented baddie. All the more fun for Denzel to match wits against and battle from close and afar.
Overall, The Book of Eli plays out like a Denzel version of The Postman. Where Kevin Costner was the polished-but-dusty looking hero, Denzel is the dusty-but-polished looking hero in this one. Where the villains were cartoonish in the evilness before, they are more realistic characters here. And where you had Kevin Costner doing battle in slow-motion dustups, you have Denzel doing battle in statuesque posing here. The Postman will give you Hollywood clichéd action buffoonery, while The Book of Eli will give you Hollywood clichéd dramatic action. It is what it is and it is what you expect. Out of 400 days of fallout, The Book of Eli is watchable for 240 days.
Rated: 6/10
