The Book of Eli, 2010

I was at first worried that this was going to be too much like Cormac's "The Road"; the whole post-apocalyptic, anarchy, dog-eat-dog thing going on. There was a bit of that enmeshed into the story, but not quite to the same degree.

I am not a big Gary Oldman fan, and after this feature I am even less so. Hard to tell how much of it was his fault vs the screenwriter; just a wee bit too obsessed on a friggin' book and nobody knows why. Eli alludes, mysteriously, to how it might have started the war, but that's all we get.

The obvious religious tie-ins were intriguing, and I especially appreciated the twist at the end. However, the loopholes nag at me. Eli was travelling for 30 years?!? And never got lost? How is it that he not only learned Braille, but was able to retain and regurgitate the entire King James Bible? How come more people did not live near the coast? In a world where water is such a precious commodity, you only have a small population living on a freak of an island?

Overall I enjoyed this film. The soundtrack was very good and I enjoyed the direction of the film. I was not crazy about the high-contrasted, muted colors though. I realize the color palette and lighting effects were added to help it feel post-apoc, but still... in my own words, I would call it "too artsy".