The Book of Eli is completely and utterly preposterous. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Nevermind that one of the last men on earth knows kung-fu like he’s in a John Woo movie. Nevermind that he can shoot a moving target at 100 yards with a pistol or a bow and arrow. Nevermind that the three most complex technologies still on the planet are, in this order, an iPod, the internal combustion engine and a shopping cart.
And since we’re neverminding things, just nevermind the outrageous ending that will fry your brain if you try to think about it any longer than is required — and all that’s required is about 3 minutes. More on that later.
Ignore all the outrageous stuff you’re supposed to accept as believable in The Book of Eli and it’s still an invigorating and nail-biting, if also disposable, movie, the kind that’s usually reserved for the popcorn haze of summer. But here it’s released in January, which means I can safely say it is the best film of 2010 thus far. 
The film, directed by the talented Hughes Brothers (From Hell, Menace II Society) — and based, not on a book, but a screenplay by Gary Whitta — stars Denzel Washington as a lone wanderer, probably named Eli, as he walks west to the sea across a dying earth. Cities are gone, plants are grey and ashy, and human skulls are bleached white where they fell after a nuclear holocaust that killed nearly all of humanity. Those that survived the blinding light of extinction now face a harsh new reality: bandits on the roads, cannibalism, the crumbling of morality and the never-ending search for drinkable water. On the outside, The Book of Eli — a perpendicular offshoot of last year’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Road — is a violent and reprehensible action flick, with Denzel frequently eviscerating road warrior baddies with a perforated blade in silhouette under freeway overpasses with blood spurting in inky black fountains. This happens several times, another time in a dusty cantina, where the blood’s crimson hue marks one of the only visible colors in Eli’s washed-out, oversaturated world. But on a deeper level, if only in microscopic amounts, Eli is a parable about religion. And I don’t think it intends to blaspheme when it compares itself to actual scripture.
There are many secrets that will go unspoiled here, but one secret I won’t deprive you of is the book that Eli totes around: it’s the last copy of the Bible in existence. It’s one of those old antique editions with the leather cover and the metal lock on the front. It’s also a King James Version, which means Moses actually saves his people from Egypt as opposed to sending them a Facebook event invite. By the end of the film it’s safe to assume that on the shelf next to the Bible will be a biblical sequel of sorts, the first book of which will be called the Book of Eli and it will tell this story. Using that framework — the film as Bible allegory — it’s easier to downplay some of the preposterous events that take place in this quasi-western, especially the ending, which is ridiculous on too many levels to count. No, the ending doesn’t make any damned sense, but I loved it and all the implications it brought with it.
Do my vague recommendations of the film’s ending intrigue you? They should, which will hopefully get you in the door. You’ll go for that brain-busting secret at the finale, but you’ll end up staying for and enjoying the rest of the film for a variety of other reasons. One of them is Denzel Washington, an expert actor who plays a man who could be a biblical prophet if he weren’t so violent in his quest for the rescue of his book at the sea. Another is Gary Oldman, who plays one of those big, bad Gary Oldman villains. Here Oldman is Carnegie, a (waste)land baron who wants to use the Bible to unite his town in fear.
I must agree with Manohla Dargis, though, when it comes to the casting of actress Mila Kunis as Carnegie's bar vixen. She's far too pretty and manicured for a movie about the end of the world. As is Jennifer Beals, who plays Kunis' mother, a blind woman whose delicate smile (after receiving the last bottle of shampoo in existence) lights up an otherwise grim landscape.Whether you’re religious or not, Christian or not, The Book of Eli teaches a valuable lesson: religious texts like the Bible are not meant to be used as weapons to slay those that oppose them. They’re books of peace and compassion. And like many parts of Bible, The Book of Eli teaches this Sunday school lesson with the occasional act of violence. The Bible had spears, nails in crosses and David’s sling, and Eli has swords, chainguns and hand grenades. But really, is there a difference?
