Roger Ebert Praised This Denzel Washington Sci-Fi Movie That Was Otherwise A Critical Flop

As much as I love the late Roger Ebert and his work (which I regularly return to), I know he wasn't infallible, of course. No critic is. We all have bad takes occasionally, whether we admit it or not. Ebert knew that, and he often revisited certain films for that reason, sometimes self-correcting himself if he was wrong. But he also didn't mince words and stood by his opinions in general, even when they went against his peers or the consensus of moviegoers. His review of Albert and Allen Hughes' 2010 post-apocalyptic neo-Western, "The Book of Eli," was one such example.

The film follows Denzel Washington's titular character Eli, a middle-aged man on his own mission, walking west 30 years after a nuclear apocalypse eviscerated America, leaving nothing but wastelands and vicious survivors behind. In this bleak alternate world, water and food are in short supply, and people are willing to kill for them. On his trek, Eli arrives in a town ruled by the vile and overbearing menace Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who's impressed by his weapon-wielding and fighting skills after he neatly kills a gang of bikers that attack him in a store. He wants this mysterious man to become one of his soldiers, but Eli refuses. He forces him to stay the night, even sending his prostitute lover's daughter, Solara (Mila Kunis), to seduce him, but Eli couldn't be persuaded in such barbaric ways. However, once Carnegie overhears the two talking about a book—a special book he's been searching for a while—that Eli has in his possession, he stops playing nice. He orders his men to kill the traveler, but the ambush doesn't pan out the way he planned, with Eli and Solara escaping together, after which Carnegie tries to hunt them down.

"The Book of Eli" didn't fare well with critics when it was released 16 years ago. Ebert's positive assessment was in the minority, but I'm mostly with him on this one. The world-building and immersive atmosphere the Hughes brothers created here are compelling enough to pull the viewer in instantly, and Washington's electric charisma and effortless swagger as the lone, faith-driven fighter work largely as potently as they do in some of his best movies. Stylistically, this is solid work, even if it echoes the look of other dystopian flicks such as John Hillcoat's masterful "The Road" and Alex and David Pastor's underrated zombie-horror "Carriers," which were abundant at the time. By nature, these genre pieces are all derivative to a degree, but "The Book of Eli" was distinct enough for what it was going for.

It's Gary Whitta's sometimes bafflingly nonsensical, overtly religious, and incoherent script where the film stumbles, especially in its second half and the ending. The story simply asks too much from the audience to overlook some obvious plot holes and inconsistencies in favor of arriving at a conclusion it wants to enforce regardless of whether it earned it or not. Then again, that wild unpredictability and defying logic are what many viewers loved about it, including Ebert. Either way, "The Book of Eli" captured a large enough audience back then to become a decent box office hit, garnering $157 million worldwide against its $80 million budget. That's got to count for something.