Thoughts on ‘The Book of Eli’ Trailer

As soon as the trailer for the Hughes Brothers newest flick “The Book of Eli” starts, if you’re a gamer, you smell something eerily familiar. Everything from the landscapes, the look of the characters, the weapons and the overall cinematography screams “Fallout 3,” which for those of you who do not know, is arguably the greatest game of the modern video game era. Set in a post-apocalyptic society, even the story itself seems to be loosely based on the game.

If you’ve never played the game, check out this trailer:

Armed with a more than solid cast of Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson Michael Gambon, and Jennifer Beals [who seemingly doesn’t age], “The Book of Eli” may be able to do more than swim in the lukewarm waters of January film releases and do the game justice and restore the Hughes brothers’ receding credibility.

Overall, the film looks action-packed and has Oldman as the villain, a role that many will flock to the theaters to see. Washington looks to be channeling a bit of Will Smith from “I am Legend,” while modifying his badass routine from “Man on Fire,” providing at the least, a decent enough amount of conflict and energy that will without a doubt be needed for the film to thrive. Add in the solid supporting cast and the sex appeal of Kunis and there may be in fact enough brevity for this film to hold its own when it’s released on January 15.

However, the Hughes brothers don’t exactly have the best track record, as they’ve proven before that just because a film they’re directing looks like it’s based on a winner, and has a pair of winners headlining it, that alone doesn’t assure its success.

Their last film together was the 2001 “From Hell,” which in spite of a reputable cast and being based on an amazing original work by comic book legend Alan Moore, garnered mediocre reviews amongst fans and critics alike, who either loved it for its solid cinematography or hated it for its uneven plot development. While Albert hasn’t directed anything since then, focusing on television instead, brother Allen hasn’t had the best run of luck as of late either, directing “New York, I Love You,” which was originally screened at the Hamptons Film Festival last year and ended up bringing in less than $1.5 million at the box office once it was released.

Because of that, it’s obvious that this film will be an important one for both of them.

If you haven’t seen the trailer, check it out here:

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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