Escape to the Movies: Book of Eli

[PlasticLion]

MovieBob is such an idiot.

An idiot? Nah. I don't think so many people would be lining up to argue with him about this review (myself included) if they thought he was an idiot.

(I assume this is your religious view based on the review and MY judgment of your character.).

He actually posted that he wasn't an atheist. Of course that doesn't rule out agnostic.

 

[PlasticLion]

Not that it should matter, but I'm not an Atheist

Had to actually double check myself because this argument is so long.

 

[likalaruku]

Who knows, this could be 2010's first contribution to the 100 worst movies ever made.

Have you even SEEN this movie?

If it's non-horror action, sci-fi, drama, romance, a chick-flick, has aliens or ghosts or promotes religion, or is by Disney or Pixar it's automatically on my shit list.

 

[dead_rebel]

Dude calm the fuck down.

I think you'll find he was defending himself against a vicious attack. The attacker should calm down...in the context of an argument or discussion.

Personally, I don't think this review was very good. It was taken too seriously.

 

[Caliostro]

Not that it should matter, but I'm not an Atheist

Not?....Shame....

Either ways, the plot sounds mind numbingly idiotic and if I just want mindless action I'll review one of the Transporter movies thank you.

 

[YoUnG205]

The Bible!... I do not see myself going to watch this one.

This is exactly the problem with your review, Bob.

Demagoguery.

Saw the movie yesterday. Was it revelatory? A life-changing experience? Fuck no. But it was enjoyable.

Was it Christian propoganda? AGAIN: fuck no! In fact, the exchange that stuck out to me was: Solara - "what's the book say?" Eli - "Do to others as you would have them do to you... at least, that's what I got out of it." And that is the MOST religious discussion in the whole damn thing.

Does that really sound like proselytizing to you??? REALLY?!?

No, but you portray it as such.

Does God ever come down in a burning bush and manifest himself and say "ELI! YOU ARE MY MOST AWESOME WARRIOR! CARRY DA BOOK AND I WILL PROTECT YOUUUUUU...."

No, it doesn't happen: even if you intimate as much. In fact, there was absolutely nothing in this movie that could not be explained away by dumb luck, regardless of how unlikely it might be... (of course, to me, that was the subtlety of the Hughes Brothers: yeah, you could claim 'that was so unlikely, it obviously was the Hand of God.', allowing those poisoned against religion could view it as a bad thing, while religious zealots could view it as a good thing, while those of us in the middle could be... torn...)

Again, this is a relatively moot point, however:

The issue I have had with your review from the beginning (I will repeat it one last time for those Escapist members who might be a bit slow) is that you spent a good deal of your review ridiculing the movie simply because it involves religious elements that make YOU uncomfortable.

I found the movie to be an interesting distraction, and certainly worth a DVD rental, even if I wouldn't run out and see it in the theaters, but your review would seem to say that it's religious propaganda on the level of fucking Left Behind [http://www.leftbehind.com/] which is PATENTLY FALSE.

Seriously, I see no reason that an areligious person, or a Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindi, or Pagan or whatever couldn't enjoy this movie as a tale about the sustaining power of faith. Yet, I ask you, what would most people take away from your review?

I don't think I'm far off to say that it would be: "It's an absurd movie about a guy protecting a Bible."

I just don't like most movies with Denzel Washington in them.

 

[funkyfreshincubus]

I actually saw the movie before viewing this review and I already have deemed this movie worth watching in theaters. Guys the ultimate reveal or the " damn I probably would've seen this coming if I wouldn't connected these glowing dots" moment is not the bible or the fact he is on a divine mission and even that plays a part that isn't as grand as moviebob is making it. While going though great lengths to not spoil this visual meal any further I will say this; while I only paid five bucks to view this film i would not have regretted paying more.

Oh and Punisher: Warzone was an enjoyable movie suckas!

 

[jabrwock]

For example, Bloody Mary, Queen of England, went on a bloodthirsty hunt to find every single Protestant Bible. If a Bible was found in a house, the entire family would be placed on their knees and have their throats slit over the Bible one at a time. The blood-soaked Bible then would be ripped to shreds and tossed into the streets as a warning. However the very next day the torn pieces would be gone, why, because the residents of other houses gathered the pieces of the Bible from the street and would stitch it back together.

WTF? Mary persecuted the rich protestant families after reversing the reformation, and most left the country, to return 5 years later when her successor (Elizabeth I) took over. The remaining ~250 were burned at the stake, not slaughtered over open bibles. THAT's where the name "Bloody Mary" came from. Burning so many at the stake, not because of some imaginary throat-slash-fest...

And every single one of them was put on trial first, not throat-slashed in their homes so their neighbours could scoop up the blood-stained pages and sew them back together into a blood-soaked new bible. Good grief, that's some sappy imagery. Either that or a great concept for a horror movie.

 

[haruvister]

Really, everyone should watch (and read) The Road instead of this. No kung-fu, but loads more going on - a moral core not based on some dumb book, for a start.

So... Instead of getting our moral codes from an old book, we should get our moral code from a new movie and the book it was based off of?

Yeah, I've only skim-read The Bible, but it's pretty hard work. The Road is way punchier. More believable too.

 

[solidstatemind]

The Bible!... I do not see myself going to watch this one.

I just don't like most movies with Denzel Washington in them.

Oh.

Well then, yeah: you shouldn't see it, because he really is the best part of the movie. Sorry-- the way you constructed your sentence caused me to conlude that The Bible was the reason you weren't going to go see it, which is exactly why Bob's review irritated me so much.

It really is incidental what book it is: Personally, I have the KJB on a bookshelf at home next to the Gita, The Qu'ran, the Tao Te Ching, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, CS Lewis, Nietzsche, Sartre, etc. etc... and really, any of those books could've been the one Eli was carrying. The book isn't the point.

Spoiler

Which is something that really surprises me that Bob didn't seem to get: Bob says something to the effect of 'he killed people over a book he had memorized, rendering all the violence meaningless', but one of the themes of the movie I think is that Eli realized that he was just repeating the conflict over religion- supposedly responsible for the near-destruction of the planet- all over again. There were two significant scenes that point to this: the one where he tells Solara "I'd been reading it for so long, I forgot the message", and the one where the curator takes the printed Bible and puts it on a shelf next to the Qu'ran. Eli didn't found an order of bad-ass warrior-monks to take the message of Christianity and the Bible back to the people: he simply preserved the book so it could be accessed by those who wanted to read it.

All and all, it was a nice action film that was stylish and well-shot, featured a pretty solid performance (if not a stellar one) by a good cast, and made you think a bit-- hell, a LOT more than your usual shoot-em-up/kung-fu movie. Certainly enjoyable, if not spectacular. Oh, and the soundtrack is good too.

But yeah, if you don't like Denzel Washington, skip it: you're not missing out on a trancendent action experience or anything.

 

[SkullCap]

For example, Bloody Mary, Queen of England, went on a bloodthirsty hunt to find every single Protestant Bible. If a Bible was found in a house, the entire family would be placed on their knees and have their throats slit over the Bible one at a time. The blood-soaked Bible then would be ripped to shreds and tossed into the streets as a warning. However the very next day the torn pieces would be gone, why, because the residents of other houses gathered the pieces of the Bible from the street and would stitch it back together.

WTF? Mary persecuted the rich protestant families after reversing the reformation, and most left the country, to return 5 years later when her successor (Elizabeth I) took over. The remaining ~250 were burned at the stake, not slaughtered over open bibles. THAT's where the name "Bloody Mary" came from. Burning so many at the stake, not because of some imaginary throat-slash-fest...

And every single one of them was put on trial first, not throat-slashed in their homes so their neighbours could scoop up the blood-stained pages and sew them back together into a blood-soaked new bible. Good grief, that's some sappy imagery. Either that or a great concept for a horror movie.

Actually, while many rich Protestant families were put on trial and burned at the stake, there were in fact poor peasant families that had their throats slashed over their open bibles. The Bibles would often have to be hidden underneath desks, chairs, stools, etc. Why? Because the raids by Bloody Mary's enforcers would go throughout the town's houses and look for Bibles. Usually poorer families didn't warrant a full trial and public execution so they were just killed right their in the own house. Throat slashed over bible; Bible then ripped to shreds; and neighbors going outside and stitching Bible back together the next day. This all happened the reason medieval historians often did not write about such incidents was this mentality, "Hey, their peasants. Who cares? Now rich families on trial? That gets the people's attention." If it wasn't for many other historians the world might not have ever known.

 

[Turtleboy1017]

Who knows, this could be 2010's first contribution to the 100 worst movies ever made.

Have you even SEEN this movie?

If it's non-horror action, sci-fi, drama, romance, a chick-flick, has aliens or ghosts or promotes religion, or is by Disney or Pixar it's automatically on my shit list.

Well to each their own...

So, Godfather, Terminator 2, Shawshank Redemption, Lotr:Rotk, Toy Story, Pulp Fiction, and Titanic were all shit to you? While at the same time Friday the 13th, Freddy vs Jason, and others were better?

Guess there's a first for everything.

 

[dunnace]

Wait, was that a Fahrenheit 451 screengrab? You just went up in my estimations...

 

[Blayze2k]

I fail to see how having the Bible in the movie is "moralizing" or whatever the hell term he used.
I can't really say for certain until I see the movie, but it sounds like MovieBob has a chip on his shoulder.

 

[JWAN]

I saw the movie and I thought it was great. Its about how people blame Christianity for everything that goes wrong in their lives when the real problem was that they didn't know anything about Christianity (shocker) and brought bad things on themselves.

I like Bobs reviews usually but to me it seemed like he just hated the fact that this was a movie about a bible and a mission from God. Just about every movie the good guy wins Bob, wether or not God is involved.

I'll still watch the movie, just not in theaters because we dont have a movie theater were i live now.

The blues brothers were on a mission from God too and that was a baddass movie by the
way.

^this.

 

[JWAN]

I fail to see how having the Bible in the movie is "moralizing" or whatever the hell term he used.
I can't really say for certain until I see the movie, but it sounds like MovieBob has a chip on his shoulder.

See the movie and make your own judgment. Bob is a sensitive lefty therefore anything with religion in it (or referenced to) is bad.

 

[eels05]

Damn Moviebob's really pissed off some of the faithfull.

This reminds me of his review of 'The Road',another post apocalypse movie where not much really happens.

Going to give this one a miss.Thanks Moviebob good review.

 

[WaderiAAA]

Yeah, God tends to win in the movies. Sure would be interesting to see one where he lost though.

 

[sargeant15]

How can you say it is just about a man carrying the Bible from one place to the next? It is much, much deeper than that. And, yes, there is a huge twist at the end.

 

[Dan Oles]

So Bob, let me get this straight...
Blue skinned aliens who learn to paint with all the colors of the wind...transcendent.
Man carries the last Bible across a post-apocalyptic landscape...trite.
You can't rate Avatar highly and Book of Eli low for the same reasons. Avatar you claim to be above reproach. Book of Eli is below consideration.
But both movies are equally unabashedly spiritual.
Avatar: Tree Goddess (clearly supernatural)
Book of Eli: Bible and God/Mohammed and Koran
But of course Avatar isn't trite because its not Christian.
For a reviewer who claims people should be un-opinionated, and uses that stance to defend another movie from critisim, its downright bias and hypocrisy to turn around and use the same arguments to lambast another movie.
No one else will call you on this, but I thought you might as well get called out once.
You are a bigot.
That's not a good thing in a critic.