"Eli" is the first project in ages to be directed by Albert and Allen Hughes ("From Hell"), and imagines an arid futuristic hellscape - the world after the world, the remnants of planet Earth as it exists after some epic cataclysm. We never really learn what's happened, but then again we don't really need to. What's important is that civilization as we knew it is gone. We'll have to learn the new rules as we go.

Our guide through it all is Eli (Denzel Washington), who is a rough and tough warrior that spends the majority of his days trekking across highways wearing sunglasses, saying nothing, pausing only long enough when he's threatened by robbers to kill them in fight sequences so swift and seamless that we can tell he's done this before. Eli's a survivor and a loner. It's only when he arrives in a rural village outpost, overseen by a maniacal thug by the name of Carnegie (Gary Oldman), that his one-man operation is threatened with running off the rails.

Eli is carrying a Bible that Carnegie wants. The bad guy has heard stories about how this book once enabled men to control the masses, and he's convinced that with this long lost book under his control, he will be able to expand his operations and rule a larger swath of land.

When Eli flees the town with a local girl, Carnegie's henchman dispatch to track him down. What plays out is a combination of survivalist showdowns, religious teaching sessions - the girl knows nothing of Moses of Jesus - and a rather scathing commentary on how one man wants to pervert and abuse the words written down in a bid to lift up humanity.

The use of religion here is fascinating. At times, "The Book of Eli" skews fundamentalist, as Eli preaches goodness and then kills his attackers brutally and remorselessly. At other times, the holy book seems to be a MacGuffin, merely the weapon Carnegie wants and leads him to continue chasing Eli. But waiting at the end of the story is a twist that suggests Eli is doing something far more sober and solemn: Preserving a lost text, faith and way of life. He is not the man we think this is, and he is not wandering the desert for no reason. He has a date with destiny.

What's perhaps most memorable about "The Book of Eli," however, is its sense of space and atmosphere. This is a fascinating world played by a whole new rulebook, and I found myself constantly looking around Eli to all the background details that point to the ways in which society has reorganized itself around a whole new set of principles.

Just as "Daybreakers" poked some fun at the corporate nation state, "Book of Eli" uses a futuristic setting to question the role of religion in bringing out our best and worst. And we then must watch Eli rise to his best and sink to his worst to protect the book that he has carried on his back for thousands of miles. A scruffy, silent Washington molds a fascinating performance here, giving face to the notions of perseverance, devotion and a ruthless commitment to surviving.

While "The Road" used the apocalypse to say something deeper about parenting, "The Book of Eli" is more interested in raising the question of what it would take to save not only yourself but the beliefs you hold most dear. Like all the films from the Hughes.

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