MyRating: YY1/2Director: Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes
Cast: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals
MPAA: Rated R for some brutal violence and language
US Gross: US$ 94.8 Million
Worldwide Gross: US$ 152.4 Million
It's the world after apocalypse, the world as we know now has become wasteland. Cities and civilization have been destroyed by a big and catastrophic war happened 30 years ago. It's a world full of chaos and fear, where a bottle of water may worth all your belongings and the people who survived have to live with jungle rule, to kill or be killed. The roads and fallen cities are full of bandits, who will rob, rape and kill any travellers that pass by. There is no law. The bandits are the law. But the outlaws are messing with the wrong person when they meet a traveller named Eli (Washington).
Eli is a lonesome warrior who has travelled by foot for 30 years with the aim of heading west. He has a mission to protect a book and bring it safely to a final destination, guided by a higher power above him, as he believes the book is the only hope for the future of the mankind. It has been a mission of his lifetime and he keeps on going merely by faith. And as a skillful warrior, he will fight, even kill, anyone who will put his book in danger.
His mission is facing its ultimate test when Eli meets with Carnegie (Oldman), the head of a group of cruel bandits, who happens to know about the book and its secret. Carnegie has pursued the book for a long time, as he believes by owning the book will give him power to build and rule many cities. And he must get the book from Eli at any costs.
Denzel Washington was fit for his role as Eli with his solitary soul and toughness. While Gary Oldman, whom we always know him well as the bad guy, played his role with his typical bad guy style that suited him. And the role of Mila Kunis as Carnegie's adopted daughter, who is fascinated with Eli and his mission, was necessary as the movie will become more barren and dry without the presence of a sweet and beautiful woman like her (it's apocalypse!). And I think she played her role well.
The cinematography of the wasteland is beautiful with all its ruins and bleakness. And the action sequences are good and well coreographed. The violence is brutal, as you will see heads and body parts chopped off all the way.
The weak point of this movie is the plot. It started as an interesting movie, but as the story goes, the plot became to drag and seemed not being developed well enough. The movie was also overlong, with not a very satisfying ending.
There is one interesting thing about Eli that you will know only at the end of the movie. But you may find the ending difficult to believe. (MJ)
