2 Out of 5 Stars
Right off the bat the film carves the universe up into several different worlds. Outside of this universe an ancient evil lies in wait with the only thing keeping it at bay is the Dark Tower, which its said could be toppled by the scream of the child. Now with that in mind the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) has been abducting children in Mid-World and hooking them up to a machine, which coverts their fear and sadness into bolts of energy that are then fired at the Tower. These attacks have registered in our world, as a series of earthquakes and after running out of children in Mid-World the Man in Black has begun kidnapping children from our world Keystone Earth.
Now this is where Jake Chambers an 11-year-old boy from New York comes into play. After the death of his father he’s been suffering from visions of the Man in Black, the Dark Tower and the protector of the Tower – The Gunslinger. Jake also possesses a psychic ability called “The Shine” and this power coupled with his age could be the final blow the Man in Black needs to finally topple the Tower, letting the evil in and releasing Armageddon. These dreams send Jake on a hunt for Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), whom after the death of his own father has set aside the mantle of Gunslinger and now is just on a mission of revenge to kill the Man in Black. The story attempts tackle quite a bit mythology-wise leaving more questions than answers in its wake as Jake tries to get Roland to once again raise his guns to defend the Tower.
Having never read the books I’m coming to the The Dark Tower with a fresh perspective, and I don’t think its anywhere as bad as some would like you to believe. While I can understand fans that have waited almost a decade being more than a bit disappointed with this very rough around the edges iteration of the property. It’s a recent Variety post that shed some light on the turbulent production and some less than stellar test screenings that may have instigated the current feeding frenzy. These complaints definitely have validity given you have an untested director trying to cram five books of content to cram into a 95 minute film that just never seems to get off the ground. While far from perfect I think The Dark Tower does a descent job at laying out the dense mythology in a very need to know style.
My biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone checking this film out and not familiar with the books is to pay close attention. The film moves fast and is littered with scattered exposition that’s needed to fully grasp what is actually happening on screen. Unlike most films where they tend to repeat most important plot points two sometimes three times, thanks to the runtime here, its usually one and done. Sadly that also leaves more than a few gaping plot holes in the narrative when the credits roll. So you have that with paired with a script that feels whittled down to almost nothing and strangely feeling heavily influenced by of all films The Neverending Story; sadly without a flying Luck Dragon. Instead you get brooding Idris Elba and a psychotic Matthew McConaughey. While McConaughey has some fun moments as the god-like magician Walter, it’s Idris who manages to keep the film above water with his touching yet distant relationship with Jake.
Nikolaj Arcel should have honestly invested more screen time in plot and character development than trying to sneak in clever Stephen King Easter eggs that only function to distract the viewer. Cobbled together with a half-baked edit and littered with questionable story choices The Dark Tower is definitely a failure, but a watchable one that is still very intriguing. I don’t want to comment too much on the actual script because only time will tell what film the director originally intended, which I am very curious about. So has The Dark Tower fallen for good or will another Gunslinger attempt to give this property the treatment it deserves? In the meantime, it’s at least worth checking out for those curious about this series for a Cliff Notes version.
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