The Dark Tower (2017) Movie Review

Official The Dark Tower Poster

The Dark Tower is an adaptation of Stephen King’s vast work. The series is comprised of eight different novels, each with an individual narrative that, when combined, create a complex overarching story. After watching the movie, it is not possible to identify the main book that was put on film; this is due to the fact that The Dark Tower is not an adaptation of a single book but rather a tangled amalgamation of all the previously mentioned novels. With such an extensive lore established and the quality of the world-building King has shown in his written work, it is a shame that the film never delves deeply into this aspects.

Alternative "Upside Down" The Dark Tower Poster

We are introduced to some magical concepts but they are never fully explored. Instead, we have a very fast paced film sprinkled with snippets of backstory and two or three lines of expositional dialogue. In my opinion, the filmmakers made a couple of odd choices in terms of editing; the transition between scenes was very abrupt and brusque. For instance, sometimes a character poses an interesting question or we are witnessing an action scene and the frame impulsively shifts, putting us in a completely different setting. It was disturbing enough for the general moviegoer to notice it.

The Dark Tower itself, standing in center of the Universe

Continuing to the acting department, Idris Elba plays a troubled Gunslinger convincingly; his posture and demeanor were appropriate to his role. On a more positive note, the Gunslinger’s outfit looked great, as if it was ripped right out of the books. Matthew McConaughey’s Man in Black is not the actor’s best efforts… He tries his best to infuse the character with personality but, in reality, he comes off as a bland, generic bad guy. I mean, you can only do so much with a given script and the screenplay had its flaws here. The stand out for me was actually Tom Taylor; this young actor proved he had the ability to showcase different ranges of acting in a believable way.

Still of Tom Taylor beholding what used to be a theme park

The action scenes are fairly decent but frustratingly scarce: three bullet-firing sequences in these types of movies is simply not enough.  The runtime is 95 minutes and the movie suffers from it; after leaving the theater, I felt that there were a lot of scenes cut, leaving potentially interesting content out.

Still of Idris Elba and Mathew McConaughey making a staring contest. Who do you think will win?

The Dark Tower is a failed franchise building attempt by Sony; looking back, perhaps not cramming the whole source material into an hour and a half feature film is a nice idea, right? Overall, the movie works, but there is nothing too innovative and there are questions left unanswered…

After having thought about it, I rate this film with a C+. What about you? How would you rate The Dark Tower? Do you agree with me or do you have a different opinion? Make sure you jump into the comments´section down below and share your thoughts.