What do you get when you write a genre-bending, seven-piece epic saga with incredibly rich and complex characters over the course of 17 years?
What do you get when you try to squeeze all of that into an hour-and-a-half? Well, you get a potential powder keg.
In a vacuum, this movie is fine. It could blend into the tapestry of its contemporary commercial offerings and not offend anyone’s sensibilities. With that said, I think a lot of Stephen King fans are going to be upset here and possibly turn hostile.
Story will always reign supreme. Steven King is one of the most accomplished and celebrated storytellers of our time. The Dark Tower is his magnum opus. It is the epic saga that he has been crafting for most of his career and sits in the middle of all he has created as a standing monument to his writing stature. So it follows that this film, having a sizable budget, the star power of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and enough special effects and cinematic muscle to do the masterpiece justice, should be the next sweeping super-giant in the box-office.
Unfortunately, even given that setup, a lot of people are going to be disappointed with this film.
The Dark Tower is a post-apocalyptic, dark-fantasy, sci-fi western with elements of horror, inspired by the poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (Robert Browning, 1855). It follows Roland, the last of an ancient order of gunslingers, as he travels through our world and its adjacent dimensions locked in a death battle with a dark and evil magician referred to ominously as "The Man in Black." The magician is trying to destroy the powerful-but-elusive magical edifice known as “The Dark Tower,” which is the nexus point of the time-space continuum and holds our universe together. (Still with me?)
One of the challenges of adapting a story like The Dark Tower or any of its derivatives is that the material is really designed for the page. The book used the slow pace and solitude of reading as a literary mechanism to bring the contemplative nature of Roland’s experience to the reader and to breathe life into the negative space of the novel’s setting made of barren wastelands and big empty landscapes.
As a reader, King is always making you aware of this and it works to delivers a Zen-like meditation which I believe delivers much of the book’s original charm. It just doesn’t translate well to film because of how the story was originally intended to be experienced.
The Dark Tower was crafted on the page and that’s where it really thrives.
One of the ways that this becomes evident is through the general tone of the film. It has a kind of pseudo-epicness to it. It has all the emotional cues of an epic saga but with none of the actual character depth or miles traveled. With no exposition, it’s hard to become a stakeholder in the character’s driving purpose. It almost feels like a tree falling in an empty forest.
The book used the slow pace and solitude of reading as a literary mechanism to bring the contemplative nature of Roland’s experience to the reader and to breathe life into the negative space of the novel’s setting made of barren wastelands and big empty landscapes.
It is hard to tell such an epic and nuanced story in just one installment. The Dark Tower is proof that you just can’t throw plot points at the audience and expect the depth of emotional response that comes from spending time with the characters and their concerns in order to become invested in the outcome of the journey. At times, you see the faint slight-of-hand as the director attempts to squeeze the emotional cues out of just one scene or moment when it really should have been spread over multiple scenes.
The casting was done well. I love Idris Elba for the role of Roland Deschain and he plays it well. Most would agree that it is refreshing it is to see a villainous Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black and Tom Taylor shines as Jake Chambers.
Beyond the acting, the film really does look great and shows the talent of cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk.
But in the end, casting and visuals couldn’t save the script.
Its strongest chance of survival and further installments may lie in the possibility of finding an audience in those who have expectations that are not demanding of the source material.
If you’re a fan of The Dark Tower series and you look forward to an opportunity to see -- if only for a moment -- life being breathed into your favorite characters, then this film will work as a nice read-along companion piece.
If you just want a cool-looking Sci-Fi action movie to kill a few hours of your summer, consider this film.
If you grew up reading the characters and telling everyone about how great it is, and like Hobbit fans, you just want to share the magic of The Dark Tower with the world and see it get its “big day,” then stay away from this film. We don’t need any more angry mobs roaming the streets at night with torches.
I give this film an iffy 3 out of 5.