The Book of Eli

Impressions before seeing it
I didn't know much about it, except that it's post-apocalyptic, which to me has an equal chance of being either interesting or boring.

How was it?
For most of the film, it nagged on me slightly that Eli (Washington) was too God-like. In every action scene where he fought someone, he swiftly and totally obliterated them without receiving a scratch. Then it turned out he actually was receiving divine assistance, and I became disappointed that this was a religious movie - although, on the other hand, I would rather see religion in fiction where it belongs than in real life. But it is interesting that this movie recognizes the implication that Christianity can be used for evil, to manipulate people, while also acknowledging its empowerment of good. This story may take place in the future, but what it fails to touch on is that Christianity already manipulates those involved. Understandable, though, as it's clearly not an anti-Christian movie. It's more like a message to bad Christians to start using their religion properly rather than abusing it. I suppose I can dig that.

As an action blockbuster, The Book of Eli is entertaining in the sense that I wanted to see where it was going, the fight scenes were fun in spite of Eli always winning so one-sidedly, and Gary Oldman was the villain, which is never in any circumstances a bad thing. The wasteland setting didn't interest me that much, but little things did here and there. The most controversial thing in terms of integrity is the final plot twist, which I'm not going to spoil, but it's one of those things that requires a second viewing to check and make sure it all makes sense. I don't know if it does, but it seemed a little far-fetched unless it was meant to be all chalked up to the divine assistance thing.

Recommendation
Overall I enjoyed it, but it might help if you're not anti-religious. It can still be viewed as an action-packed post-apocalypse movie and be mostly a fun movie. I mean, it does have Gary Oldman.