Directed by:
Nikolaj ArcelCinematography:
Rasmus VidebækComposer:
Tom HolkenborgCast:
Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Katheryn Winnick, Claudia Kim, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbey Lee, Dennis Haysbert, Nicholas Hamilton, Fran Kranz (more)VOD (3)
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There are other worlds than these. The last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O'Dim, also known as the Man in Black, determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black. (Sony Pictures)
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Reviews (13)
This movie has an incredible capacity for unwatchability. Everything in it is so colorless and dry that connecting to it is a superhuman task even for Shaolin masters of empathy who eat Lasse Hallström marathons for breakfast. Until the last action scene, there is not a single shot more interestingly constructed, character presented, or piece of information spoken. Nor is the eventual madness monumental enough to snap you out of an unpleasant apathy, comparable only to being handcuffed somewhere while someone tries to beat you for hours with the plastic hammer from the Little Builder set. In the end, it pokes the little horns of videogame action, where the fight with the Man in Black in particular is reminiscent of boss fights in videogames, aided in particular by frequent over-the-shoulder shots and a small operating space where the hero can only hide behind columns to dodge the increasing attacks of his opponent, using the interactive environment as the key to defeating him. Still, I can’t help but ask: is that enough? Whatever. Enough is just a word.
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It wasn’t as terrible as all the negative, almost hysterical responses had made me fear. Overall, it’s rather ordinary, unambitious and unremarkable. The casting is good, even the main boy, who didn’t annoy me, which in this kind of role it’s always a success. The special effects are pretty lame, most of the scenes are covered in darkness (for instance, the fight with the demon in the woods, that one was so dark that I thought the projector had broken down), and the entire film feels terribly rushed, like a fragment of a bigger whole. This is perhaps understandable, given the length of the book it’s based on, but, as a viewer who hasn’t read it, I’d appreciate the adaptation not making it so awfully clear. I don’t see the reason to make much of a fuss, but rather to sigh over the unfulfilled potential.
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King's seven-part saga is unique in the way it has evolved in genre and literary terms over more than two decades, during which Stephen has managed to write dozens of other books, confess his love of Westerns and pop culture, and come to terms with his own drug past. It's a fascinating dose of the truly epic and bizarre, but the year I spent reading it was nourishing for me, literarily speaking, in the best sense of the word. The series offers about two dozen themes that could be turned into a proper blockbuster. But what they did here is in every way the worst possible option. This The Dark Tower took a few random motifs that seemed apt, but they are put together in a completely nonsensical whole. It lacks any dramatic arc. Jumping between locations, he pounds on the editing room door, desperately searching for the rest of the filmstrip. At best the characters have no chance to stand out, at worst they are annoying. Elba relies on a charisma that will engross even those for whom Roland Deschain is still a blue-eyed blond, but McConaughey played perhaps the most idiotic role in a decade. Taylor's Jake Chambers is a tragedy. This is a creative failure on all fronts that someone tried to salvage at the last minute by selling it as an action B-movie. Even decent special effects can't save the fact that before the first scene, someone should have vigorously yelled stop and turned it over to the cable people, who would have made four rich seasons of ten episodes each out of it.
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Not great, not terrible, rather an average film that only very theoretically could have been better. I didn't expect that The Dark Tower could be filmed better than in an average way. For those unfamiliar with the book (or in this case rather “drafts") will probably be more conciliatory. Connoisseurs may like the introduction with Jake, and then various allusions to Mid-World (talking raccoons in a commercial, Walter's Glass Balls, 19-19...) and to King's other works (The Shining, It, Christine, The Shawshank Redemption, 1408, Salem's Lot...); however, the film won't offer them much more than that. Perhaps just the surprise that, God knows why, the screenwriters changed the function of the Tower or the Rays. Idris Elba is almost uninteresting as Roland and has almost no motivation, the actor playing Jake is also bland, and Matthew McConaughey plays Walter like Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate, but the directing or the script do not help him too much, the spark of atmosphere only shines every now and then, and there no fear emanating from it. The final battle wants to be flashy, but is instead rather awkward. I'm not offended, but if the film hadn't been made, it would not have mattered.
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It's a mystery to me why they didn't do a better job with this. The premise calls for mature serious fantasy by Peter Jackson, not just a maturely told children's tale where everything is too simply outlined and resolved. I certainly wouldn't call it a dud – for that the film is under control directorially and there are a number of nicely and stylishly edited scenes; but it should have taken a different, darker and more varied route. Elba is a proper good guy, McConaughey as the bad guy the best thing about the whole film. I want an expensive and similarly cast TV series.
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Gallery (94)
Photo © Columbia Pictures
![The Dark Tower - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/161/977/161977446_eb99c6.jpg)
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