Review: The Book of Eli

IMDb

Title: The Book of Eli
Distributor: Alcon Entertainment (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Writer(s): Gary Whitta (written by)
Staring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some brutal violence and language.
Running Time: 118 min
Synopsis: A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

What Others Are Saying?

At The Movies: A.O. Scott: Skip It, Michael Phillips: See It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 45% (Rotten), Top Critics: 50% (Rotten), RT Community: 82% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 53 out of 100, Users: 7.8 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 55: (5.0% A, 40.1% B, 34.9% C, 15.3% D, and 4.4% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: NA

My Review

Source Material: Written by Gary Whitta

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: This film is fairly action pack with some pretty cool hand-to-hand combat scene with Denzel Washington in a lack of better terms kicking ass.
• Comedy Elements: The comedy in this film come primary from the raw brutality of some of the scenes, Schadenfreude, pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
• Dramatic Elements: There are a few moment between Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis characters but nothing that impacting. The film is mainly action based.
  
• Sci-Fi Elements: There are some sci- fi element only because this film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. How we live has adapted to our surroundings therefore bring some sci-fi elements.
  

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: B+: Gary Oldman is by far the strongest actor on screen, with Denzel Washington being a close second. Mila Kunis is eye candy with some acting talent. So overall the acting wasn't that bad.
• Art Direction: B: The new post-apocalyptic is believe which is always a good thing which may point more toward the effect team, than the art department, either way it was decent.
• Cinematography: B: The one thing that I noticed was this film was one of those few films that knew how to capture action on film without it being to shaky.
  
• Direction: B: It seem co-direction movies have a slightly better advantage and that shows in this film. The pace of the film was good, not to long but maybe a bit short, on the fact they could explained some things better...(read on in screenplay section)
• Editing: B: The film was easy to follow, no real unique editing style.
  
• Screenplay: C+: I mention in the direction section about the lack of story to explain some of the mysterious things like the power of the book during this post-apocalyptic time, and what cause the world to turn out the way it is in the film.
• Sound and Music: B-: I enjoy the score.
  
• VFX: B+: There were more particle effects that CGI effects which in a film like this it worked better than most VFX movies.
  

Moral and Ethical Value:

• Themes: Religious, Betrayal, Hope
  
• Moral of the Story: Strive for determination, and always finish race even if your last.
  
• Take Home: Diligence will get you far in life.
  

Overall: B: This seem like is going to be one of those movies you either going to like it, mainly because of the action or you going to hate it because of the holes in the story. Personal I recommend it because I liked I but its hard to tell.