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The Book of Eli (2010)

Rating ... C+ (50)

Nine years after their last film From Hell the Hughes brothers rejoin the fold with another markedly average endeavor. Ordinary is the new brilliant for them, or at least it sure seems that way by contrast; the merits of seeing The Book of Eli are more or less equivalent to the relief of seeing Not Menace II Society.

For a post-apocalyptic tale of individual salvation, The Book of Eli has some awfully ostentatious instincts. Denzel's numerous altercations with cannibalistic riffraff are tiresome; the silhouetted showdowns essentially just reaffirm his status as an insurmountable badass stoic. Moreover they come saddled with the Karate Kid mentality - "I don't wish to fight you, I'm above all that. Oh, no choice? Turns out I'm also an incredible warrior, specializing in machetes, bows, pistols, and having my cake and eating it too." (Pretty good shot for a SPOILER guy.) There's also a cheesy, single-take, check-THIS-shot when Oldham sieges the party from outside a house, resurrected from Emmanuel Lubezki's virtuoso handling of Children of Men, as though one giant, unblinking eye was roving the battlefield, capturing the action.

Nevertheless, the film's meandering story offers returns. Yes, Eli carries around the world's only remaining copy of the King James Bible amidst amoral ruination, and the movie initially hints he should be some sort of guiding light, despite how he is largely just condescending to those he encounters, reprimanding them for their abject depravity ("we humans didn't realize what was precious!") and unworthiness of learning the book's lessons. Fortunately, the holier-than-thou angle proves to be a red herring; Eli's basically a messiah but his deliverance is a result of persistence in preserving culture and bequeathing wisdom to subsequent generations, here represented by Mila Kunis's character. She makes the same decision during the dénouement, abandoning the enlightened, printing press-equipped society on Alcatraz in the hopes of improving her less refined hometown. Both are exalted for leaving civilization better off than when they joined. Take it or leave it, but it's more than can be said for Menace II Society.