It is post-civilized America, after the flash and the war have occurred that left an almost empty land. This post-apocalyptic America is inhabited by savages, man eaters, uneducated, and violent human beings. Eli (Denzel Washington) has been walking this land for 30 years heading West on a journey to deliver a book. When Eli arrives in town he is quickly noticed by the man governing the town, Carnegie (Gary Oldman.) In his efforts to recruit Eli to work for him and help him find the “Book” that he considers a weapon, Carnegie sends in Solara (Mila Kunis) to seduce him in order to stay. The next morning, Eli finds his way out of his captors and sets out to continue his journey. When Solara tells Carnegie the type of book Eli is carrying with him, a man hunt ensues. Eli must now reach his goal, but there are secrets that only he knows that will ultimately decide his fate and that of Carnegie’s.

With the recent post-apocalyptic themed films being released recently, The Book of Eli is among the best. It features a great cast; great all around writing, the story is well told and developed, and overall much better ending message. Without a doubt this film featured some excellent performances by two of Hollywood’s great actors, Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Denzel plays Eli a journey man looking to reach the West. Guided and protected by the “Lord”. Denzel has a solid performance, his role as a believer, but yet cold man couldn’t have easily been pulled off by many. He plays an obvious religious man and we constantly see him spurring out verses from the “book”. Gary Oldman is a heck of a bad guy. Old man was given another role as the bad one and he managed to do an exemplary work. He was cold and ruthless raising his performance to whole another level. Mila Kunis was also surprising; I can’t remember a good performance other than her role in That 70’s Show.

The film isn’t really about these two and there is a greater message that is above their performances. The theme is quickly noticeable in the first half of the film with the contrast between good and evil. We find out that both men (Oldman and Eli) realize what the weight and consequences this “book” can have. Obviously, we know that Eli carries is the most influential book ever written so with this thought I was expecting more preaching by the end of the film. However, I was completely surprised by how the writer Gary Whitta managed to pull it off without having all this stuff be thrown right at you and possibly make you walk away. The overall look of the film is incredible and looks fantastic. There are plenty of instances where there’s a feel of desolation and emptiness all around that end up adding that extra dark look of the film. The pure thought of emptiness is bone chilling.

There are a few things that I didn’t particularly like. There is never a true reasoning behind each man’s obsession over having the book. Gary’s character began to grasp on the idea, but never fully developed. Eli’s true reasoning is never truly told and “Going West” isn’t exactly good reasoning. Some the action also seems to occur when these two men had any interaction. Despite these problems, the film remains enjoyable. It’s packed with some action and two great performances by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end.

The Book of Eli arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p VC-1 encode framed at 2.40:1. This post-apocalyptic view of America is definitely scary, but it looks fantastic on Blu-ray. The film takes on a grayer look which features excellent black levels that are deep and inky. Fine details are extraordinary; viewers will instantly tell the texture of the dirt, pebbles, roads, clothing, skin textures, etc. everything is so well reproduced. Close up shots will reveal the intricate skin textures from each actor. Skin tones and sharpness are spot on. There are some issues that while minute they are worth the quick mention. There are several instances where banding is detected, nothing major, but some viewers might be able to catch it. Otherwise, this is a near perfect video transfer.

The Book of Eli arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. The film is very dialog driven and with that being said the action only appears in a few sequences. The track does an excellent job with the dialog, it is clear and clean at all times. The rears are used for ambience and minor atmospherics. When the action begins in when your home theater system will be truly put to work, the action scenes feature some intense shootouts and the track handles everything with such clarity. You can hear every bullet and every item being destroyed by the bullets and it will suck you in and make you feel right in the middle of the firefight. The sound explodes into the soundstage and is delivered with the highest quality I have heard in a while. This is a top-notch audio presentation.

The Book of Eli features a very nice array of supplements for all the fans. This includes my favorite feature, Maximum Movie Mode that includes storyboards, extras, and director commentary all in a single supplement. So let’s get to it.

Maximum Movie Mode – This features a picture-in-picture mode that includes cast and crew interviews, shooting locales, visual style, special effects, storyboards, and much more. This is worth every minute; I strongly recommend it for every fan of this film.

Focus Points – This features all the extras and clips found on Maximum Movie Mode, except you can choose each clip individually.

A Lost Tale: Billy – This is an animate short film that tells the story of the younger Carmegie.

Eli’s Journey – The different themes used during the film are further examined in this featurette.

Starting Over – Cast and crew offer a few comments and ideas of how they would restart life after a nuclear war had ended.

The Book of Eli Soundtrack – This features Allen Hughes and Composer Atticus Ross talking about the musical score of the film.

Deleted Scenes – There are 3 deleted scenes total that did not make the final cut of the film.

BD-Live – Allows you to connect into Warner Brothers online portal where the user can access more movie trailers.

Digital Copy – This release features a digital copy for portable devices.

The Book of Eli is an incredible tale of good vs evil, featuring some delicate themes that have been handled excellently by a smart writer such as Gary Whitta who managed to keep the preaching to a minimum while delivering a solid story. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman deliver excellent performances. The Blu-ray features an impressive video transfer and an even better audio presentation. There are plenty of supplements for the casual viewer and the fans of the film. This is one of my favorite films of the year so far so with that being said I have no problem telling you that I highly recommend it.

The screen captures are only a small representation of what the Blu-ray looks like and are not representative of Blu-ray’s true quality.