Escape to the Movies: Book of Eli

[Kelethor]

I was kinda worried when I saw the movie that it would be a religious fest that god will save your soul and anyone who doesnt accept his mercy-full ways will burn in the fires of hell. I was pleasently surprised that the movies was more About Gary oldman using the bible to control people (cause you know, thats NEVER been done in history >.>), oh and when Mila kunis showed up, all I could think about was being trapped in an apacalyptic desert with Meg.

 

[Aulleas123]

So Bob, if the movie was about the character Eli carrying a book by Voltaire or the last known Playboy mag across the wasteland, would that be better?

I'm not a religious wing-nut (actually agnostic), but hating on a movie that has a slight religious tone in the plot is a bit juvenile. Granted, if the film is genuinely boring, then it deserves the hate. But from the review, it just seems that your bashing Denzel for carrying a Bible and killing a lot of people in the process, kinda like... Boondock Saints (which was awesome).

See ya next time.

 

[DaSmart1]

It was a good movie despite the somewhat odd premise. If you're Christian, it'll probably be an 8-8.5, or even a 9 if you really really enjoyed it. If you're an atheist, it's probably somewhere from a 5-7.9 depending on how easily you get offended/annoyed by religion.

 

[pastafarian]

Yesterday I went to see this movie and left with mixed feelings about it. I felt the message didn't really come across. Then I came to see MB's review, and I have to say, I did agree with most of what he said but not with his tone. On the other hand, I would like to make more sense out of the movie, maybe someone here can help me get more out of my 12 bucks.

SPOILER

Personally, (I am not religious, if that didn't come across in my username) I feel an invulnerable character takes a lot out of an action movie. Granted, we don't explicitly know he is invulnerable until the scene with all the guns, but the very first action scene already made him look waaaaay over the top, especially for the oldish man he is supposed to be(leaving Eli unscathed in all of the fights, deflecting the bullets directed at him and allowing him to repeatedly one-shot snipers on rooftops 3 houses away with a handgun, to mention a few). This is what I feel movie bob meant with "we all know how a story with god is going to end".

I feel the plot also suffers from introducing god as active agent. I really thought the movie was onto something when the villain guy talked about how he can dominate people with religion, but I felt that element was then diluted when we realize god's hand is actually in the movie . If the supernatural stayed out of the film, I feel the movie could of made a deepish statement on the effect of religion on society. Now I'm feeling that the movie is more along the lines of "if you have faith you can succeed" than anything else.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. This is what I think MB meant with his god rant.

 

[Badassassin]

holy F***... can we go one page without saying "ITS A DUMB CHRISTIAN REFERENCE" "ITS JUST A DUMB BOOK""VEGGIETALES etc"
IT WASN'T! Sure it's one sided, but its not dumb. It was deep enough for the movie's tone. Can you guys stop just putting out your pretentious propaganda and review the actual movie ignoring the fact that it's about religion?

ok i get it you guys are atheist but can you stop being the arrogant arse hole type of atheist?

@pastafarian im not too sure about MB meaning that. in my opinion you did a better review than him. at least yours wasn't a total atheist rant.

EDIT: just wondering, how many of you people hating on it actually saw it and how many of you are just suck ups to movie bob?

 

[HyenaThePirate]

After reading several other similar reviews going around the net as if some sort of talking point handed out by the "Athiest Review Board" to movie reviewers, this movie has done something it probably never intended to do...

It has exposed an ugly truth about modern society: the increased and open hostility towards Religion. One could almost call it naked aggression.

It is one thing if a person doesn't believe in or prescribe to any specific religion, but it's the frank and open intolerance that is beginning to become more of a norm in our society that should be alarming. Being "anti-religion" has become amazingly "popular", where instead of people who claim to be Athiests because they do not believe in something and wish to quietly be respected for it now engage in open and downright disrespectful open criticism of any and all religion. Atheism may be a legitimate point of view but it by no means a SUPERIOR one, as people are more and more trying to make it out to be.

Ok so you don't believe in Islam. You do not believe in Christianity, thats fine. You think the bible is just another book, swell. But do you really need to criticize, ridicule, and rant ad nauseum about it or it's message? It is undeniable that religion is a part of society, and has tremendous impact on morality and ethics. But this almost concentrated effort to combat it whereever it may appear has begun to border on intolerance. For all the criticisms Atheism might impose upon organized religion, the irony is that it is becoming it's own institution of inflammatory hyperbole and aggressive hate-speak.

If people want to believe in something, let them. Whats it to you? If people want to set aside the theory of evolution to believe in a higher supreme being, where is the problem in that? None of us truly knows if God exists or not. It can not be proven nor can it be disproven, so EVERYONE comes down firmly on the side of "opinion", nothing more nothing less. It does not make one person's opinion more right or wrong than anyone else's.

And ultimately, I would caution secularists about the path they are on. In their efforts to remove religion from mainstream society and thinking, they themselves risk becoming the very oppressive fascists they often accuse organized religion of being. It begins with complaining at every opportunity about "religion and it's messages" being openly portrayed in books and films, and ends with Fahrenheit 451. It doesn't take much for an idea to turn into a movement and for a movement to turn into open aggression and for open aggression to turn into iron-fisted oppression. Some could argue that America is fighting two wars right now based on that line of progression, that the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of how far an "ideology" can take things to the brink of horror.

At any rate, I doubt that this movie or it's message (if any) is going to start making people swarm to Churches around the world. Hell, taken as just a work of fiction, the Book series "Left Behind" is actually pretty damn good, even if it is a faith based book. No need to demonize it. It's like those clowns that wanted to boycott Shadow complex because of Orson Scott Card's personal political beliefs.

Lets just get over ourselves and enjoy entertainment media for what it actually is... "Entertainment".

 

[Gxas]

-snip-

I think I can honestly say that I have never agreed more with another person in my life.

Thank you. Now hopefully people will listen.

 

[StudleyDooRight]

I would normally say I tend to agree with your point of view. Sadly, This time I don't think you could have missed the point of the movie any more than you did. An to stop this shit before it starts I am NOT Catholic, ( Im a Jew )

Peace : Studley D. Right

 

[mGoLos]

Yeah, good points all around .. I still wanna watch it though.

 

[MovieBob]

So Bob, if the movie was about the character Eli carrying a book by Voltaire or the last known Playboy mag across the wasteland, would that be better?

Voltaire would be pretentious and nonfunctional - you'd have to explain to at least half of the audience what the significance of it was.

Playboy would be silly, unless it tied into the plot somehow (i.e. people had forgotten about sex or something, I dunno.)

I have no objection to the MacGuffin being a Bible BECAUSE it's a Bible, I object to it being a Bible in the context and tone of this movie.

See, the whole "last book/movie/song/whatever on Earth" thing has been done A LOT; and when it works there's generally some level of irony or at least commentary at play in terms of what "it" is. In such stories, the main character always SPEAKS like they're quoting a Holy Book, but the book always turns out to be something seemingly mundane - their kids' diary, some Dylan lyrics, whatever - which gives the reveal a greater impact than "oh, it's exactly what it seemed like it'd be. It's no different than if Eli were hauling around the Bill of Rights or the Magna Carta - it's trite, obvious and heavy-handed.

This is aside from the fact that the film's ultimate pointlessness undermine's itself by serving as a perfect example of why God (as opposed to agents thereof) doesn't really "work" as a character in non-Biblical stories. By the end of the film, it's 100% clear that God has been an active participant in the film, meaning that our story ultimately boils down to this: God decides to save mankind from the apocalypse by putting a Bible in the hands of one guy and having him wander westward for 30 years killing people with a sword. I'm sorry, "mysterious ways" or not, that's just poor plotting.

 

[Gxas]

So Bob, if the movie was about the character Eli carrying a book by Voltaire or the last known Playboy mag across the wasteland, would that be better?

Voltaire would be pretentious and nonfunctional - you'd have to explain to at least half of the audience what the significance of it was.

Playboy would be silly, unless it tied into the plot somehow (i.e. people had forgotten about sex or something, I dunno.)

I have no objection to the MacGuffin being a Bible BECAUSE it's a Bible, I object to it being a Bible in the context and tone of this movie.

See, the whole "last book/movie/song/whatever on Earth" thing has been done A LOT; and when it works there's generally some level of irony or at least commentary at play in terms of what "it" is. In such stories, the main character always SPEAKS like they're quoting a Holy Book, but the book always turns out to be something seemingly mundane - their kids' diary, some Dylan lyrics, whatever - which gives the reveal a greater impact than "oh, it's exactly what it seemed like it'd be. It's no different than if Eli were hauling around the Bill of Rights or the Magna Carta - it's trite, obvious and heavy-handed.

This is aside from the fact that the film's ultimate pointlessness undermine's itself by serving as a perfect example of why God (as opposed to agents thereof) doesn't really "work" as a character in non-Biblical stories. By the end of the film, it's 100% clear that God has been an active participant in the film, meaning that our story ultimately boils down to this: God decides to save mankind from the apocalypse by putting a Bible in the hands of one guy and having him wander westward for 30 years killing people with a sword. I'm sorry, "mysterious ways" or not, that's just poor plotting.

Bob, I didn't at all feel as though God had been present throughout the entire movie. He had thirty years to hone his senses and was, if you payed close enough attention, only partially blind. He could see a little in the light. If you listened, when Solara first entered his room, she commented on how bright he kept the room. This was so he could see a bit of what was around him, being in a brand new area and all. I mean, if you noticed, he knew where everything was and was not blindly bumping into pieces of furniture. He backed under the bridge because his senses, apart from sight, would have been stronger, thus giving him an advantage. He was able to hit every single sniper on the roofs in the gunfight because he heard where their shots came from and could pinpoint it.

Blind people can do amazing things by taking advantage of their heightened other senses. I still stick with the fact that God was not present anywhere but in Eli's own mind.

 

[Sylocat]

After seeing the preview, I hoped that there was a twist, I said, "No, it would be too obvious, wouldn't it?"

But no, it's the fucking Bible, and it's played completely straight.

That just... sucks.

 

[Sylocat]

After reading several other similar reviews going around the net as if some sort of talking point handed out by the "Athiest Review Board" to movie reviewers, this movie has done something it probably never intended to do...

It has exposed an ugly truth about modern society: the increased and open hostility towards Religion. One could almost call it naked aggression.

It is one thing if a person doesn't believe in or prescribe to any specific religion, but it's the frank and open intolerance that is beginning to become more of a norm in our society that should be alarming. Being "anti-religion" has become amazingly "popular", where instead of people who claim to be Athiests because they do not believe in something and wish to quietly be respected for it now engage in open and downright disrespectful open criticism of any and all religion. Atheism may be a legitimate point of view but it by no means a SUPERIOR one, as people are more and more trying to make it out to be.

Ok so you don't believe in Islam. You do not believe in Christianity, thats fine. You think the bible is just another book, swell. But do you really need to criticize, ridicule, and rant ad nauseum about it or it's message? It is undeniable that religion is a part of society, and has tremendous impact on morality and ethics. But this almost concentrated effort to combat it whereever it may appear has begun to border on intolerance. For all the criticisms Atheism might impose upon organized religion, the irony is that it is becoming it's own institution of inflammatory hyperbole and aggressive hate-speak.

If people want to believe in something, let them. Whats it to you? If people want to set aside the theory of evolution to believe in a higher supreme being, where is the problem in that? None of us truly knows if God exists or not. It can not be proven nor can it be disproven, so EVERYONE comes down firmly on the side of "opinion", nothing more nothing less. It does not make one person's opinion more right or wrong than anyone else's.

And ultimately, I would caution secularists about the path they are on. In their efforts to remove religion from mainstream society and thinking, they themselves risk becoming the very oppressive fascists they often accuse organized religion of being. It begins with complaining at every opportunity about "religion and it's messages" being openly portrayed in books and films, and ends with Fahrenheit 451. It doesn't take much for an idea to turn into a movement and for a movement to turn into open aggression and for open aggression to turn into iron-fisted oppression. Some could argue that America is fighting two wars right now based on that line of progression, that the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of how far an "ideology" can take things to the brink of horror.

At any rate, I doubt that this movie or it's message (if any) is going to start making people swarm to Churches around the world. Hell, taken as just a work of fiction, the Book series "Left Behind" is actually pretty damn good, even if it is a faith based book. No need to demonize it. It's like those clowns that wanted to boycott Shadow complex because of Orson Scott Card's personal political beliefs.

Lets just get over ourselves and enjoy entertainment media for what it actually is... "Entertainment".

Few things irritate me more than members of a dominant majority group pretending to be persecuted and marginalized.

Dude, Christians own 70% of this nation and hold about 90% of all elected offices (and most of the rest are Jews). You have all the power, and you are still complaining about being persecuted because it makes you feel like heroic martyrs. I cannot fathom how anyone could possibly thing that religious people are "not tolerated" in this country or anywhere else on the fucking planet, yet you claim that everyone hates you.

Take your narcissistic victimization complex and stick it where the sun don't shine, I have no interest in hearing you whine about how they're persecuting you by not wanting you to persecute everyone else.

 

[Badassassin]

So Bob, if the movie was about the character Eli carrying a book by Voltaire or the last known Playboy mag across the wasteland, would that be better?

Voltaire would be pretentious and nonfunctional - you'd have to explain to at least half of the audience what the significance of it was.

Playboy would be silly, unless it tied into the plot somehow (i.e. people had forgotten about sex or something, I dunno.)

I have no objection to the MacGuffin being a Bible BECAUSE it's a Bible, I object to it being a Bible in the context and tone of this movie.

See, the whole "last book/movie/song/whatever on Earth" thing has been done A LOT; and when it works there's generally some level of irony or at least commentary at play in terms of what "it" is. In such stories, the main character always SPEAKS like they're quoting a Holy Book, but the book always turns out to be something seemingly mundane - their kids' diary, some Dylan lyrics, whatever - which gives the reveal a greater impact than "oh, it's exactly what it seemed like it'd be. It's no different than if Eli were hauling around the Bill of Rights or the Magna Carta - it's trite, obvious and heavy-handed.

This is aside from the fact that the film's ultimate pointlessness undermine's itself by serving as a perfect example of why God (as opposed to agents thereof) doesn't really "work" as a character in non-Biblical stories. By the end of the film, it's 100% clear that God has been an active participant in the film, meaning that our story ultimately boils down to this: God decides to save mankind from the apocalypse by putting a Bible in the hands of one guy and having him wander westward for 30 years killing people with a sword. I'm sorry, "mysterious ways" or not, that's just poor plotting.

Bob, how does the tone weaken the fact that it was the bible, in my opinion it increases it.

in an apocalytic or dire situation people will either lose faith or have more faith than ever. The only time god is ever really present as a character is when eli gets shot. sure you know who's gonna win, but its a movie, in what situation would the religious protagonist NOT win?

I thought there were plot points that actually made it flawed and honestly I don't care that you didn't like it, but in your review you didn't explain it as well as you usually do, you just came off as condescending and pretentious.

 

[Undercover]

Thanks Bob, you just saved me ten bucks.

As soon as I heard the "spoiler" which to be honest wasn't really a spoiler, my interest in this movie was reduced to just slightly below zero.

Considering that religion is the second most popular reason for all the wars, misery, death and destruction in the world next to greed, (but then the two go hand in hand) it would only make sense to rid the world of religion, but of course we can't have that now, can we?

There always has to be SOMEONE trying to shove God down everyone's throat, no matter how subtly.

Ok all you "Christians" out there, let me have it, I know you want to.

I'll warn you though, I know more about theology than you think I do and if you aren't prepared for an intelligent, informed rebuttal, I wouldn't recommend getting into it with me.

Besides, this is a movie review not a religious discussion.

 

[scotth266]

This is aside from the fact that the film's ultimate pointlessness undermine's itself by serving as a perfect example of why God (as opposed to agents thereof) doesn't really "work" as a character in non-Biblical stories. By the end of the film, it's 100% clear that God has been an active participant in the film, meaning that our story ultimately boils down to this: God decides to save mankind from the apocalypse by putting a Bible in the hands of one guy and having him wander westward for 30 years killing people with a sword. I'm sorry, "mysterious ways" or not, that's just poor plotting.

While I do agree that the plotting as you've described it is rather bizarre, I wouldn't call it poor: just unrealistic, like most religion stories. That doesn't mean that said stories are bad, though.

Sure, the Book being a Bible is rather heavy-handed, but it was sort of obvious from the title+trailers what exactly the movie was going to be about. TBOE was obviously intended to BE heavy-handed, little more than a post-apocalypse religious inspiration movie with action bits. Asking the movie to aspire to more than it's founding concept seems rather pointless, and saying that God getting involved means that the movie is boring is completely unfounded: what about stuff like The Stand? It can work if it's played well: sure, you sort of know the outcome already(like how you know in Finding Nemo that Nemo will be found), but the ride along to the end can be entertaining regardeless.

 

[gmacarthur81]

Few things irritate me more than members of a dominant majority group pretending to be persecuted and marginalized.

Dude, Christians own 70% of this nation and hold about 90% of all elected offices (and most of the rest are Jews). You have all the power, and you are still complaining about being persecuted because it makes you feel like heroic martyrs. I cannot fathom how anyone could possibly thing that religious people are "not tolerated" in this country or anywhere else on the fucking planet, yet you claim that everyone hates you.

Take your narcissistic victimization complex and stick it where the sun don't shine, I have no interest in hearing you whine about how they're persecuting you by not wanting you to persecute everyone else.

That's a load of crap.

Christians hold less than 1% of elected offices and less than 1% of anything this nation has.

People CLAIMING to be Christians are the people you are talking about. People like GW Bush, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Mitch McConnell, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, etc etc.

The easiest way to get elected is for the wolves to dress up like sheep and fool all the other Sunday service Christians (that being a person that is a "Christian" for 1 hour on Sunday and might as well be an Atheist or a Hedonist the other 167 hours of the week) that a vote for them will "take back America for God", or "be a stroke in the fight against Evil", or any other line of bull they think they can spin to get votes.

/rant

 

[DayDark]

The Bible...Well I kind of expected that, or something similar, but I had hoped for more than that. And I find it even harder that somehow the world decided to burn all religious books because of the causes of religion, that sounds like such a religious thing to do, I mean how are you gonna teach whats wrong with religion if you don't have the sources...*facepalm*

 

[thornussell]

Well this review kinda makes me want to stop listening to Movie Bob because i still cant tell if this is a good movie. Ok the plot i dead is clearly bad in your opinion but i think that would make for an interesting post-apocalyptic movie. But you just kinda ranted about it over and over. What about the rest of the movie, the action sequences? Or is the whole movie just him walking? In my opinion i think this review should be redone with a bit more like your other reviews not just a rant about the premise.

 

[thornussell]

Thanks Bob, you just saved me ten bucks.

As soon as I heard the "spoiler" which to be honest wasn't really a spoiler, my interest in this movie was reduced to just slightly below zero.

Considering that religion is the second most popular reason for all the wars, misery, death and destruction in the world next to greed, (but then the two go hand in hand) it would only make sense to rid the world of religion, but of course we can't have that now, can we?

There always has to be SOMEONE trying to shove God down everyone's throat, no matter how subtly.

Ok all you "Christians" out there, let me have it, I know you want to.

I'll warn you though, I know more about theology than you think I do and if you aren't prepared for an intelligent, informed rebuttal, I wouldn't recommend getting into it with me.

Besides, this is a movie review not a religious discussion.

Even if religion was removed (pretty much impossible) the world would find something else to fight over. And you complained about people trying to shove god down your throat well i have met atheists who try even harder to shove nothing down my throat.