Book of Disappointment
I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but I was yet again disappointed by a movie for which I was all geared up about.
First the good points though.
Book of Eli has a great setting, post-apocalyptic movies are very dear to me.. although I'm not quite sure why. There's something about the human race living in rags and among ancient monuments of a bygone era (which we usually know all too well) that I just really like. In fact, I like it so much that I still watch Waterworld at times just because it still looks pretty incredible.
This movie is no exception, there are deserted highways sometimes still occupied by broken down cars with their drivers' remains inside them, troops of "savages" who occupy the wasteland doing anything to survive, but here and there you can still find something that faintly resembles a civilization. And then there's our hero, who has a certain code of conduct and like most protagonists in these kind of movies kicks some extreme ass. Prolly the best orchestrated fight is in the beginning in which he fights some raiders in the shadows of a bridge (so there's not that much to see, but what you see looks really really good).
So far so good, but there's one thing that you will notice in the beginning (and it won't go away for the entire flick) and that's the grey filter they have applied to it. Sure, things look even bleaker now, but the movie (imho) doesn't need it. In fact, in the end it started to bug me quite a bit.
Still, it didn't bug me quite so much as the insane amount of product placement the movie has.. I mean, even James Bond didn't seem to have that many and that's saying something. And yeah.. at times it's kinda funny, but in the end it's more of a nuisance really.
So anyway, at 1/4 of the movie our hero runs into his female companion (kinda) and guess who it was? It's that girl from that seventies show.. no not her, I mean the annoying one (Jackie/Mila Kunis). I don't really have a problem with her, but she seems a bit miscast to me. Whenever she opens her mouth it's like I'm seeing/hearing Jackie and not Solara (the character she's portraying).
Still, I can get over all of these things (and I did while watching), but the thing is.. I had already heard that the movie had some really mixed reviews. So we're pretty close to the end and I'm thinking.. "Okay, it has some flaws, but still, this is pretty entertaining and I'm having a good time".
And that's when they drop this bomb on you.
Now, I'm having a hard time not to spoil this (why stop now, right?), but you should really witness this yourself. It's incredibly odd how the last 10 minutes of a movie can mess up the entire thing for you. I still don't understand it.. it's like how a friend of mine described it. He was rating the movie in his head close to the end he was like, well it's a 7.. and then it starts to drop like a near freefall, 6-5-4-3..?
So all my hopes are set on The Road, but I already know that it got some really decent reviews, so it can't nearly get as bad as this one.. right?