The Book of Eli

Directed by Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes

(R)

***

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Denzel Washington is a messenger from God, here to save the world.

From 2012 to The Road, Hollywood has destroyed the world so many times in the last few months that another post-apocalyptic thriller hardly seems necessary, said Rafer Guzman in Newsday. Yet salvation may lie in The Book of Eli. Going beyond the usual portentous rumblings, brothers Allen and Albert Hughes develop an intriguing tale that mixes pulp with parable. “A thinking man’s action film,” this movie stars Denzel Washington as a prophet who must protect the last known copy of the Bible for the future of humankind. The film presents a “stark affirmation of faith as a guiding light for a broken, lawless civilization,” said Scott Tobias in The Onion. But the Hughes brothers aren’t interested in proselytizing. Their film is “less a testament to a Christian God than to the power of the written word” and its vital role in society. Even when Eli goes from being a righteous warrior to a reckless one, the film still holds up, said Michael Phillips in the Los Angeles Times. By bringing a dose of realism and humanity to its high-concept premise, The Book of Eli proves better than the “average end-of-the-world fairy tale.”