The Book of Eli Reviewed

To be found, as usual, here.

Toughie in that Denzel Washington’s character was literally sent by God: he started his epic, thirty-year bible-delivery quest because a voice in his head told him to.

I try to minimize personal politics in reviews except a) when I’m making jokes and b) when the message onscreen is so flat-out stupid it has to be addressed. As an average human I’m just seething with violent opinions about everything, but I approach my job–the sacred task of watching movies and then talking about how I felt about them–from an entertainment perspective rather than a political one.

But from my unreligious personal perspective, Washington’s actions look irrational. And a lot of what happens to him flirts with the fantastic. The miraculous. I think the directors made some of this stuff out to be deliberately ambiguous, and that’s something of a cheat; what looks implausible would be believable, within the context of the film, if God’s presence were real. Instead, it’s just strongly hinted He’s around with a helping hand.

Separating my uncharitable private beliefs on all that from my critical assessment of how The Book of Eli functions as a movie is a challenge, but at least it’s usually an interesting one.