[Narz]

Perhaps the worst movie I've seen in the last couple of years. Stylized & pretentious, bland one-sided characters (good guys & bad with no in between) and utterly unrealistic fight sequences (I stopped watching at the gun fight where our hero killed dozens of men without being killed, including men on rooftops) & a stupid plot :

Warning : spoiler below (though you can already probably guess from the movie title)

The man's aim was to protect a Bible (and his name is Eli ) & I suppose this is why he was so unstoppable, God was on his side

So many of the worst aspects of movies rolled into one, fails as action, fails as drama, fails at suspense. It kind of reminded me of really crappy 80's & 90's movies with similar unrealistic everything & the one-dimensional characters but the pretentiousness made it much, much worse. At least Arnold Scwartzy's Commando you can laugh at.

If you want to see an excellent apocalyptic movie with superb acting & without all this superhero crap watch The Road, which conversely was one of the best movies I've seen in the last few years (even my GF, expecting to hate it, liked it intensely).

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', 'P')erhaps the worst movie I've seen in the last couple of years.

[Quinny]

Narz,

You are correct, totally unrealistic fight scenes (especially considering the 'twist' at the end! (won't spoil too much)) -but....... WTF do you expect?

I loved it.

[Tanada]

I loved this movie, best one of all last year IMO. I think it will break down pretty simply, those who believe in the God of the Bible will love it, or at least find it entertaining, those who have a problem with faith and its effects will hate it.

Far from the first Hollywood movie where a religious figure is bullet proof, ever see the Bulletproof Monk? The difference is this time the religion is Christianity and the movie was not made with a slightly comedic slant to it's theme. The fight scenes were equally based on physics and practicality in both movies.

Oh and if you don't think the world will polarize into good guys and bad guys after a nuclear war crashes civilization you really need to study some history. When it comes to survival people tend to be very brutal to one another.

[ohanian]

Putting religion aside

There are massive problems with the movie.

1. The bible is an extremely rare artifact

Huh? Only Christians would believe this. The bible is one of the most common literature on earth. There are a bazillion copies of the bible in hundreds of languages. And the movie wants you to believe that the bible is SO RARE that people are willing to kill each other to gain a copy. Hello? Even after a nuclear holocaust there would still be half a bazillion copies of the bible lying around.

2. He who controls the bible, can prevent religion from coming back to the world.

Huh? What idiot would believe such thing. Religion will always form even without the existence of the bible. Religiosity is part of humanity. Yes, if you control all the bibles in the world, you can prevent Christianity from coming back but religion? Of course if you are a Christian and you believe that Christianity is the only religion worth believing in then it would be a big deal.

3. Most people cannot read.

Dude, if most people cannot read then why would you want to collect the bible? They can't read. It's useless.

4. It's a weapon

Only if you believe in it. Since most people (in the movie) have not seen a bible. Why would they believe in it? That's right! They believe in it because the head bad guy wants it so badly. Talk about self fulfilling prophesy.

[joelchicago]

Actually, AS a Christian, I find your post amusing. I agree with everything except your #1.

#1. Only Christians would NOT believe this. Of course there billions of Bibles. And yes, I agree, it would be seemingly impossible to destroy them all. There'd always be one in the dirt somewhere, somehow - even if just in decayed pieces in an old dump someplace. Since people like me buy them and/or give them away freely to anyone who asks (and there are millions like me), there has been plenty of demand to keep the presses going. If you believe in God, you believe the Bible will be here all til the very end, so we'd be the last to think it would ever be "1-book rare".

[Narz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')he fight scenes were equally based on physics and practicality in both movies.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I')s the movie really missionary? Is the director jamming Christianity down our throats or is the bible and religion just plot devices? Aside from the missing bibles and the supa' killa' hero, is it a good End-of-Times movie? Anything like "Road Warrior" or "The Road?"

Does the movie create a reasonable time and place? Does one care for the hero? Are the challenges he confronts interesting? Does he grow or change with story? Is it a redemption movie? Does it have a point? Or is it meaningless proselytizing?

[Lore]

The moive, The Book of Eli, was a metaphor folks. A piece of pure fiction. No more then hobbits and elves are real, the movie doesn't need to portray actual or probable events and people to make statements about troublesome ethical questions. No more than The Road had to base itself in reality to tell its story about morality in a struggle with the primal laws of survival, which by the way, the movie did little justice to as in Mr. McCarthy’s book.

[Narz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'D')oes the movie create a reasonable time and place? Does one care for the hero? Are the challenges he confronts interesting? Does he grow or change with story? Is it a redemption movie? Does it have a point? Or is it meaningless proselytizing?

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', '
')A movie should make some sense. And the moral seemed to be, if you're God's chosen one on a quest nothing bad can ever happen to you & you can achieve totally impossible things. Which is a poor & useless moral since it doesn't apply in real life.

[thaiexpat]

The bible thumping part of Eli was a bit of a turn off, but if you like samurai movies, you will like the Book of Eli. Eli was the ultimate survivor samurai and I thought the correographing of the fight scenes was on par with Arika Kurosawa's best.

[Narz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') liked the movie a lot. It is about faith and also the civilizing effect of the Bible