Book of....erm....

This afternoon I took a trip to the cinema to see The Book of Eli, the new film from the Hughes Brothers. I enjoy the work of the Hughes Brothers, but they are not always critically aclaimed film. I'm mainly talking about their last feature, From Hell, which I think was wonderfully directed, and they drew fantastic performances from Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Ian Holm.

The Book of Eli is, yet another, post-apocalyptic film, this starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, with eye candy supplied by Mila Kunis. Denzel plays Eli, a man who is walking across the barren desert that is post-apocalypse America, his ultimate goal being the west coast (sound like anything from my last post?). Along the way he comes into a shanty town run by Carnegie (Oldman), who controls gangs with his supply of water, making them hunt down other 'walkers', like Eli, in search for books. Carnegie lives with his blind wife and her daughter, Solara (Kunis), and operates his searches from a bar.

The apocalypse is, as with The Road, never explained. In The Road, mind, the apocalypse is barely mentioned, but in The Book Of Eli, characters mention that the apocalypse was caused by a war, and that after the war the sun left most of the world blind. This information is given as if it is a taster towards some resolution, but instead it is promptly ignored, which left me rather annoyed. Also, Carnegie is introduced as a reasonable man, but it doesn't take much prompt to turn him into the sinister antagonist. The source of his aggression is, again, never fully explained, other than his hunt for a certain book (The title may suggest who is in possession of said book).

Eli, as a character, is pretty fantastic. He's a dab hand with pistols, knifes, shotguns, and his own fists. The action sequences which involve Eli taking on more than one aggressor use violence superbly, with limbs falling off left, right and centre, but done with class, no obvious annoying slow motion. One particular scene takes place in sillhouette and is stunning. Another takes place in a bar and is jaw-droppingly enjoyable.

Mila Kunis is very frustrating in this film, her age is not given so she jumps from horny temptress to whiney teenage sidekick to bad-ass chick more than Megan Fox in a Michael Bay film. Sadly she contributes to the disappointing final act of the film. The first hour is incredibly watchable, with the aforementioned violence mixed with Denzel just being Denzel. The second hour lacks something of the first. The violence stops being hand to hand and turns to shoot outs, meaning slightly less decapitation, and there are a handful of explosions thrown in about for about 10 minutes for effect. I enjoyed the first hour for not trying too hard to make me care about the characters, it was just a fun film, but a smattering of shallow emotion gets thrown in to dilute the coolness.

Without saying too much, this is a 'twist' movie, which you may have already heard from Roger Ebert, or Empire, but if now, hear it from me...try not to get this film ruined for you. A twist is, for me, a plot point that makes you look back through the film and cock your head back and say, "Awwww yeah, that explains that", but in The Book of Eli, there is literally one line of dialogue which makes perfect sense through the revelation.

It's worth seeing, but its not worth rushing out too, unless you want to avoid the plot being ruined for you. But here's a favour for you, at the end of Knowing starring Nicholas Cage, the world ends.