The Book of Eli

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:36:50 +0100

A good movie ruined by slow pacing.

I enjoyed the theater experience of "The Book of Eli".Why? Because it was the first time I saw the movie.It didn't set any new standards for the "Post-Apocalyptic" genre, but it didn't do anything to disrespect it either.Last night, I watched the movie again on HBO, and it's sad to say that the movie just wasn't as good as the first viewing.My main reason for the movie's averageness is the fact that the pacing is slow, really slow.Ok, so Denzel Washington is playing a lone survivor, Eli, of a nuclear war.He's walking, and he's walking, and at the 20 minute mark, he comes across a town.Would it hurt to shave about 5 minutes of him walking? Eli is carrying a book with him.Not just any book, but what may be the last Bible on the face of the Earth.The leader of the town Eli walks into is Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman.Carnegie is looking for the last Bible on Earth for the reason that it will give him power and will give others faith.Who in their right mind would kill themselves over a book that uses word like "Jesus" and "Heaven" throughtout God knows how many pages? Me? Hell no! Carnegie eventually finds out that Eli has the last Bible on Earth and is willing to kill him if it means taking back the book.Ok, if it was a Playboy magazine, knock yourself out.If it's a Bible, may God have mercy on your lifeless soul.That's not to say that the actors aren't good at the roles they've been given.Denzel doesn't exactly give the performance of a lifetime, but he's good overall.Mila Kunis (Voice of Meg from "Family Guy") knows how to entertain the audience even if she still sounds like that abused daughter from that much better piece of entertainment called "Family Guy". Gary Oldman is ,well, Gary Oldman.He's always good in whatever movies he stars in.I liked him better as the bloodsucking count in "Dracula", but he's ok here.While the movie features some talented stars and knows how to feel and look like a "Post-Apocalyptic" movie, the pacing is distractingly slow.Carnegie finds out about Eli and the Bible at the 50 minute mark.50 minutes? The movie had to take all that time just to introduce the movie's villain and his objectives? Not only that, but the whole movie felt slow.It moved slow, felt slow, and didn't capture my interest with it's, uh, slowness.The movie's definetly not boring, it's pace just isn't as fast or as medium paced as it should've been.By the way, someone should really tell Denzel to start using a razor more.Just take a look at the poster I put at the top of this review.

Grade: B-

book-of-eli

The Book of Eli