- 7
It's a curious film and one worth recommending, even if it does feature a rather rote story and some generally pedestrian acting.
—Christopher Null filmcritic.com
- 7
...The Book of Eli works, even if the preservation of Christianity isn't high on your personal post-apocalypse bucket list. Establishing its storytelling rules clearly and well, the film simply is better, and better-acted, than the average end-of-the-world fairy tale.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 7
At a time when theaters are experiencing a glut of doomsday scenarios, the Hughes' ashen, bombed-out future world looks a little too familiar, no matter how crisply they present it. But the showdown between Washington and a deliciously hammy Oldman complicates the film's overt religiosity, making it less a testament to a Christian God than to the power of the written word.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 7
Denzel Washington is superbadass as a lone righteous dude carrying the last Bible across postnuke America, but the movie ultimately runs out of gas quicker than the rusty cars driven by the bad guys.
—Luke Y. Thompson E!
- 7
The Book of Eli is very watchable. You won't be sorry you went. It grips your attention, and then at the end throws in several WTF! Moments, which are a bonus. They make everything in the entire movie impossible and incomprehensible -- but, hey, WTF.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 6
The Book of Eli, which has a deliberately ugly bleached copper look, is like a video-game mash-up of American and spaghetti westerns and Japanese samurai flicks.
—Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor
- 6
...a weirdly intriguing mix of Mad Max, The Postman, Fahrenheit 451, Leone's Man With No Name trilogy and Graham Greene's novel The Power and the Glory, all shot through with an unwavering religious impulse.
—Todd McCarthy Variety
- 6
...the movie keeps you watching and generally engaged.
—Manohla Dargis New York Times
- 6
The Book of Eli isn't as exciting or funny or inspiring as it wants and needs to be, and its preachy ending is an ordeal. But Washington, a movie star who can act, is one cool dude who is worth following anywhere.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 6
...better than you would suspect from a movie being dumped in January, the traditional studio deep freeze for problematic projects.
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 6
...an intense, surprisingly serious study of a man making his way through a wilderness of catastrophic destruction and human cruelty like a latter-day prophet. An overlay of spiritual themes doesn't always work, but Eli is that rare Hollywood film that posits a Christian man as its hero.
—Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter
- 5
A didactic and humorless Western, Eli is too laborious for an action film and too brutal to be an inspirational tale. With its handsomely moody look, it seems more like an extended music video. Mostly, Eli is hampered by drab performances and a ponderous story.
—Claudia Puig USA Today
- 4
...there's very little to lift one's spirits about this adrenalized Wild West-ish variant of The Road, typified as it is by a familiar ash-gray patina, striking but inert graphic-novel compositions and cinematographic flourishes, and kick-ass combat straight out of [insert recent action film title].
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine
- 3
...a ponderous dystopian bummer that might be described as The Road Warrior without car chases, or The Road without humanity.
—Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
- 3
...The Book of Eli's plastic parable isn't much more advanced than Insane Clown Posse theology.
—Nick Pinkerton Village Voice