Whence the skies open all hell will rain down on mankind….

The Book of Eli is one of those movies both hard to love and hard to hate. Where your compass lands will depend on whether your filmic taste buds are partial to a bit of the post-apocalyptic.

It just so happens, mine are.

Yet The Book of Eli left a bittersweet taste and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I would have been better off investing two hours in John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.

The Book of Eli: A Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

I can’t really think of many movies in the post-apocalyptic canon which are devoid of faults. Given that the genre stems largely from B-movie making, mistakes are to be expected. In fact, mistakes are to be welcomed.

It is, after all, part of the charm.

It’ll come as no surprise then that The Book of Eli is more uneven than a Jaffa Cake. Sure, the Hughes brothers imbue their barren wasteland with some fresh stylish fun, but once the dust settles there is little to write home about.

The central character, played by Denzel Washington, spent three decades wandering dystopian America. Washington chops his way through an array of unsavoury characters in his quest to protect a sacred book.

Picture Bill Bryson with a samurai sword.

The Book of Eli has a number of things going in its favour. The Hughes brothers, for instance, neatly avoid the trappings of bullet-time which has annoyingly become a staple of actions films post-Matrix. While the 300-esque camera filter occasionally distracts, the uncomplicated action brings a fresh air to what is admittedly a tired genre.

The settings are great, it’s thematically simple and the biblical card isn’t overplayed.

That’s the good, what about the bad…?

Where the film falls down is Denzel ‘Mumbles-A-Lot’ Washington’s take on a largely uninspired character. It is only fair to recognise that Mr Mumbles spent 30 years roaming the deserted plains of America. Who’s going to feel sociable after that?

The ‘strong silent hero’ role marks a clear nod to a litany of films including Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars Trilogy’ – ‘The Man with No Name’ wasn’t really the talking type either.

Cast your mind back to Clint Eastwood’s masterful depiction of the complex gunslinger. Eastwood achieved emotional resonance through action, not words. Washington, on the other hand, phones-in a lacklustre performance, mumbling his way through the majority of a pedestrian script.

The character’s isolated nature prevents any meaningful relationships being formed with the film’s other players. Subsequently, I found it hard to sympathise or relate to Mr Mumbles.

As good an actor as Washington is, his stilted performance packs more wood than the entirety of Pinocchio’s upper body.

Speak up Mr Mumbles…

The Book of Eli is a mixed bag of fruit. While the general audience may struggle to embrace it, there is more than enough to raise a half-smile on the faces of post-apocalyptic film fans.

But please, what’s with the mumbles?

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars – available on Blu-ray and DVD