Scientists set back the Doomsday Clock by one minute Thursday to 11:54 p.m., signaling man

is less likely to annihilate himself anytime soon.

That would be cold comfort for the cast of haggard characters in "The Book of Eli."

They live in a post-apocalyptic world where the Doomsday Clock struck midnight long ago and

nuclear winter has set in. Time is no longer measured with the Gregorian calendar. It's pre-

and post-Flash now, rather than Before Christ and Anno Domini.

"The Book of Eli"

Three stars (out of four)

Post-apocalyptic thriller starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis. Directed by

Albert and Allen Hughes. Opened Friday in area theaters. 118 minutes. Rated R for some brutal

violence and language.

Along with the cockroaches are wanderers, hijackers and biker gangs who scavenge this

dystopia. But among them is the pious and intense Eli (Denzel Washington) — a grizzled

survivor clad in Army green who wields a lightning-fast modified machete and answers to

"nobody."

He also harbors a deeply spiritual book that quickly becomes an Ark of the Covenant, Holy

Grail or other such similarly sought sacred object.

"Stay on the path. It's not your concern," he mutters to himself when he sees wrongs in

this lawless world. Path to what? We're not sure.

The villainous Carnegie (Gary Oldman) wants the book, and his name is no misnomer. By

appointing himself tyrant over a makeshift ghost town of thieves and gunmen, he has become

this world's "captain of industry." If only Carnegie could read from Eli's religious text to

the unwashed masses he could become a Christ- or at least pope-like figure.

As Eli's traveling companion Solara, Mila Kunis deserves mention only for how miscast she

is and how arguably unnecessary is her character. She dresses like she just raided a Gap, and

on a close-up you can even see the holes in her ears where they've been pierced. It's hard to

imagine carrying on this decorative body art tradition into the post-apocalyptic world.

Meanwhile, Eli and Carnegie duke it out while the Judeo-Christian allegories rack up — for

example, Jesus' 40 days and nights in the desert, divine inspiration and Sodom and Gomorrah

are all there to spot if you're familiar enough with the Bible.

Like the new film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road," "Eli" also has

cannibals, a stark gray landscape and roving bands of gas-masked grotesques. "Eli," however,

is far less depressing and far more violent and preachy. The Vatican came out against current

box-office king "Avatar" for its "man worshipping nature as deity" theme. Will it take issue

with this one for endowing Eli with such sword-slinging righteousness?

"The Book of Eli" is worth seeing for its action sequences, including an early silhouetted

fight that sets the stage with wide ground-level angles, a twist that will leave you

rethinking the previous 100 minutes and looking for missed clues and one perfectly timed comic bit involving a record player that helps take the edge off an otherwise austere film.