My first thought, once the lights dimmed, was this: Am I sit ting down to watch another ver sion of “The Road”? ’Twas only a scant few weeks ago that the apocalypse turned cynically, violently ugly (as I suppose apocalypses tend to do), and I wondered if the next two hours would simply rehash the carnage.

For the first few moments, it appeared “The Book of Eli” might be little else. The world has obviously suffered a near-fatal blow. The cameraman has suffered a near-cataclysmic loss of his color palette. Humanity has suffered a lapse of warmth and friendliness . . . and, yes, there’s even a hint of cannibalism.

But unlike “The Road,” this one’s plot -driven. (That wasn’t a slam: “The Road” was an intriguing character-driven tale.) “The Book of Eli” also features Denzel Washington, one of those actors I can enjoy even if he’s doing practically nothing on screen, for no other reason than it’s Denzel Washington.

He plays Eli, a loner in a grayand-white world devoid of flora and fauna and civility. The Earth’s been scorched and the survivors are desperate. Think of this one as “The Road” meets “Mad Max,” with a little Kwai Chang Caine (of TV’s “Kung Fu” fame) thrown in for good measure.

Eli’s traveling west with a carefully guarded token of our formerly blissful, pre-devastated world. And there are some who desperately want to take that item away from him.

Along the way, we find the typical good versus evil stuff (the evil in the form of the quintessentially oogy Gary Oldman)—but you know what? It’s pretty decent. The tension simmers. The dialogue works nicely. My curiosity’s sufficiently aroused. There’s some nicely choreographed bloodletting, not gratuitous under the circumstances, and all the essential confrontations one would expect in a world without mall cops and radar guns.

After a while, you learn the value of the artifact in question and why people want it so badly, and near the film’s conclusion it does get a tad artsy/esoteric. The last 15 minutes seem rushed, and I’m not sure why. I would have happily gone the extra distance.

There’s also a last-minute “aha” moment—which I won’t reveal—about the character of Eli; I’m still not sure of its intent or purpose. (Nor have I read the novel by Sam Moffie, so I’m clueless.) But it’s one of those tidbits fans will likely want to argue about, one of those “Was Shane dead or alive as he rides off into the sunset?” or “Was Deckard a replicant himself?” sort of quandaries.

Anyway, it’s there, in “The Book of Eli,” for those who want to ponder its meaning. But first, of course, you have to see the movie.