★★★★★○○○○○ [ 5/10 ]
The glorification of a dogma:
This movie tells the story of a super hobo named Eli. We know next to nothing about this protagonist and even as the movie progresses his past remains a big mystery. The one thing that the movie does make clear right from the get-go however is that Eli is able to single-handedly defeat large groups of assailants. As seen in the first act. There are a couple of very nonchalant product placements here and there. Like in the beginning; we are made to believe that Eli lives in a post-apocalyptic world but then he casually whips out an iPod and "Beats by Dre"-headphones to listen to his favorite songs.... yeah, right. It's not like he can charge it all the time. Quite to the contrary; the setting of the movie is a desolate desert area. No animals, no plants and most definitely no electricity!
Eli and pretty much everybody else in the movie seems to believe that the book that he possesses is the "only of its kind". But there is no proof of that claim. I mean, there is no way for anyone to know whether it truly is the "last one". As a matter of fact it's a statistical improbability.
With that being said the movie is actually about dogmatism and not the book itself. There are two dogmatic ideas which are being expressed in this movie;
1.) Christianity is the only true religion and the book is therefore "holy"
2.) The book is the only of its kind
Neither of these claims are provable hence my critique of the subtext. What's being insinuated here is outrageous. No one in this movie knows anything but they all act as if they do. Dealing in absolutes until the very end.
About the book itself: it has an expensive leather binding and looks like it was stolen from a museum. Statistically speaking it would be far more likely that a Gideon bible would be the last one to somehow survive. After all Gideons International is giving them away all year round.
The story did have a very clever plot twist at the end. But as much as I liked it the reality is; it was too unbelievable. No amount of suspended disbelief is going to make it more plausible.
Final verdict: Jesus freaks are going to love this movie (everybody else would likely find it to be slightly more on the boring side)
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/
Ontology: #movie #review #book #desert #postapocalyptic #Christianity #Religion #dogma #scripture #DenzelWashington #MilaKunis