We are all familiar with the ‘post-apocalypse’ genre of film making. In recent years the amount of these movies spewn upon us by Hollywood has turned what is essentially a powerful and potentially meaningful genre into more of a parody of itself… movies so impressed with themselves that they ignore the fact that there is no story, no character and nothing new to offer the viewer or the art form. What is most refreshing about The Book of Eli is that it isn’t two hours of “we tore a hole in the sky” environmental commentary. That part is in there, to be sure, but its handled matter-of-factly, both by the characters and the film itself. As far as the in-film universe is considered, there is no use crying over spilt milk. Odds are that when people are starving and thirsty, they are probably not going to spend any significant amount of time (time that would be better spend finding food and water) discussing philosophy and the environmental and social ramifications of thirty-odd years before. This adds what might be viewed as a certain element of realism, or at the very least believability, to a genre that is historically lacking in that area. The characters and their motives are simple and straight-forward, and still all the principles come off as rich, well-rounded individuals that the viewer often finds himself empathizing with.
Even though the primary plot is pretty clear-cut and simple, the film is interesting to watch, the characters are surprisingly relatable and well-rounded and the film is still able to engage, and even suprise, the viewer.
