Stars Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, Gary Oldman, Michael Gambon, Jennifer Beals, Frances De La Tour

The Book of Eli is the second post-apocalyptic film released in as many weeks. The contrast between this and the downbeat flick The Road, however, couldn’t be more marked.

Whereas The Road is a low-key depiction of a father and son’s struggle to survive in a bleak future landscape and based on an award-winning novel, The Book of Eli is a big, brash and violent Hollywood vision of a ruined future world.

Denzel Washington is Eli, a man old enough to remember a time before the incidents that led to the dystopian state which he now inhabits.

Eli has now been walking for 30 years.

In possession of a sacred book that he must protect at all costs, his destination is somewhere in the west. But when he comes across nefarious would-be megalomaniac Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who has designs on his book, his trouble really starts.

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Forging an enforced partnership with the young and lovely Solara (Mila Kunis), whose mother is essentially held captive by Carnegie, the two help each other in the completion of his quest.

If you’ve seen The Road – a believable and disturbing dystopian vision – The Book of Eli will come as a deeply disappointing, exaggerated, sensationalist and shallow depiction of an unconvincing post-apocalyptic future.

Over-the-top villains make The Book of Eli feel like a tongue-in-cheek comic book adaptation with occasional misplaced humour. These include the bizarre scenes involving an old couple (played by Michael Gambon and Frances De La Tour) and their remote dilapidated farmhouse. It sits awkwardly with the rest of the film.

Washington and Kunis struggle to make their characters sympathetic, which then makes it difficult for us, the audience, to care whether either of them lives or dies. In fact, you will enjoy Oldman’s Dick Dastardly-esque hammy performance so much, you will probably finish up wishing he’d triumphed over this dull duo.

The film ultimately plays out as a cautionary tale and its overriding message is a religious one, which says that faith is pivotal in keeping humanity on course and in line.

In other words, once faith breaks down, so does society, according to the gospel as written by the Hughes brothers, the directing partnership behind this futuristic shoot-em-up.

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