I really enjoyed THE BOOK OF ELI. I thought overall, the story was well done with lots of subtlety and a nice "twist."
I agree with
JaseSF's assessment of the beginning. I asked out loud, "So, this is different from Mad Max how?" {meaning of course more THE ROAD WARRIOR if we are picking nits}
The problem with dismissing the beginning, though, is that I now think that "set up" is intentional. "Oh, it's just another post apocalyptic butt kicker movie" lulls us viewers into missing "the clues" about the twist. The more I think about it, the more I think the makers planned this set up since THEY know the second half of the movie is waiting there for us.
No sir, this movie is a "draw you in and strike" type of deal, but with some intelligent subtlety. Some of the bad guys had human sympathies for their enemies (or targets of opportunity), not complete ruthlessness in every situation. It was not about "let's see how over-the-top evil we can make the bad guys" so much as a created social dynamic where violence is the normal, but not ONLY response to every encounter.
No, one subtle thing I really liked had to do with Oldman's decay. Okay, if you have not seen this, bear with me as I don't want to reveal spoilers....so, I'm going to kinda offer this idea in code. When we first meet Oldman's character, he's the baddie boss, but he's civilized and his town is civilized in a world with completely broken social order. The town works...maybe quite well for a dystopia. What he seeks is an absolute power that will allow him to extend his kingdom.
The closer he gets to his goal, the more uncivilized both he, and the town itself, become. I found this to be a VERY interesting dichotomy. And the ultimate denial resolved with a total social breakdown - nuts as he may have been all along, HE WAS THE CIVILIZING FORCE in the town!
As I said, I do like the twist, though I think they took it beyond "believable" a little more than they had to. I don't mind it; it works for me, but it does seem to be the source of a lot of criticism. Washington's Eli did not have to play out in the twist at all...it could have just been the book (again, trying to avoid spoilers). The two are separable - the twist applied to the one did not HAVE to apply to the other.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I was taken out of the movie several times when I realized that the level of decay of various things hardly seemed like 'the war' was 30 years prior. The signs and evidence of civilization were just a bit too "current" to my eye...pavement still visible in the windblown desert (why not covered with sand), vehicles in too good a shape, etc.
The bottom line for me on this one is that it had some creative writing, excellent acting, interesting pacing (choppy, but again, I wonder if that was intentional for 'mood') and some good action, but the real meat is solid way this movie wants to explore several tangents of the same message and does so effectively without those tangents taking over or being distracting. I could see discussing the ins and outs of this one with friends in long sessions.
4.5 out of 5 from me. Not perfect, but its flaws are part of a whole that blends well with the overall point of telling this particular story...to me at least.