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User Reviews for: The Dark Tower

Jim222001
6/10  7 years ago
Stephen King's best work, gets a watered down adaption. That feels like the director and screenwriter, both never even read the books. Roland (Idris Elba) in the books is obsessed with getting to the Tower. Here he only cares about revenge on the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) who killed his father.
While Jake's (Tom Taylor) backstory is a bit tampered with too. I am pretty sure in the book, he got to Roland's world by being shoved in front of a car by a mad man. I am sure Jake being obsessed with drawing Roland and his world is from like the 2nd or 3rd book.
The books were quite violent and graphic. With a Western like feel to them. There's not much screenwriter Akiva Goldsman got right. The plot is a incoherent mess that doesn't feel like any of the books. While none of the books are close to PG-13.
The best things about this movie is the Idris Elba and Tom Taylor chemistry. As well as the humor of when Roland tries hotdogs or Soda for the first time.
McConaughey tries hard to play a cold hearted bastard and succeeds on some levels. Maybe because his character does some evil things. Otherwise I think they needed someone like Willem Dafoe who could play evil in his sleep.
All in all, Sony and Akiva Goldsman are where this adaption went wrong. As well as being too short. King's prized possession shouldn't be in the hands of the studio that brought us the Ghostbusters reboot and the Emoji movie.
While Goldsman hasn't adapted one book well. The screenwriter of Batman & Robin shouldn't be allowed near anything Stephen King. Especially The Dark Tower. Adapting the Dark Tower, proved he shouldn't have been near it. What a mess with so much potential to be more.
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CallMeTrimTab
8/10  7 years ago
To everyone who's trash talking his film, loosen your sphincters guys. In the tradition of The Neverending Story, this move is excellent. I haven't read the books, and never will, so I don't frankly care how different the movie is. Why should anyone?

My advice: Don't be a grown up when you watch this film, because it wasn't made for the "mid life crisis", "all grown up and got bills to pay" version of you.

It was made for the young you (or your kids), back when life was full of possibilities, and you craved youthful adventures of morality and fantasy. If that isn't how Stephen King's wrote the books, then to hell with them. This film is a goodhearted tale of a young boy's magical adventures and struggles, and Idris Elba is special treat to watch.

When you were young, did you enjoy The Neverending Story? The Dark Crystal? Flight Of The Navigator? The Adventures of Baron Munchausen? The Last Starfighter? Well I loved those films, and The Dark Tower brought me back to the same special place. Indeed, my 14 year old self is just absolutely delighted. My adult self is wise enough to know that this film was not made for me, no hard feelings!
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Filipe Manuel Neto
/10  9 months ago
**If we often think that a movie doesn't need to have sequels, this case is the opposite: this movie should have been thought of as the beginning of a franchise of several movies.**

As far as I could tell, after some reading, this work of cinema was based on a work by Stephen King, composed of a long series of books. I'm sure the source material is good, King is one of the best and most ingenious fantastic writers of our time and his vast literary oeuvre has already made for surprising and remarkable films. What I question is the way this adaptation was made: what are eight books converted into a two-hour film? They probably only took advantage of a handful of characters and locations and threw everything else in the trash. Works like these can only be adapted in the form of trilogies, tetralogies or, in the television market, as series. Otherwise, the source material is not properly exploited in its richness.

Regardless of these issues, the film is moderately good: it all starts when the young protagonist, haunted by visions he has, finds a portal to a world he does not know, the world of his visions, and finds a Gunslinger who will help him. Deep down, he already knows the essential: the universal balance is in danger because an evil sorcerer wants to bring down the grandiose Dark Tower which, at the center of all things, harmonizes this balance and cosmic energies. I am explaining it simply and in my own words. Now the task of the two heroes is to prevent this from happening.

The best thing about this film is really the feeling of adventure, risk, the almost constant action and the way everything unfolds quickly, without dead moments. As an entertainment film, it is very good, and if we forget that it is the worst adaptation of King ever made for the cinema, we can really have a good time watching it. The big problem here is how rushed everything feels, with the film trying to do too much without having to reach its two and a half hour runtime.

The quality of the cast is another asset that makes the film work reasonably well. None of the actors are amazing, there are no great performances, but what was done is enough to push the film in the right direction: Idris Elba is charismatic and likable without ceasing to be fearsome, something his character demanded and which the actor knew to adapt. Tom Taylor also did a good job in the role of the young hero, a role where it would have been very easy to make mistakes, be superficial or ham. The villain has fallen into the shoes of Matthew McConaughey, and despite being suitably dark, he's not really a palpable threat.

Technically, the film relies heavily on CGI and effects. The film called for that, given the plot and sci-fi theme. The CGI and effects are good and work well for the most part, although there are a number of options and solutions that I would consider debatable. For example, the film never explores – nor does it have time for – the connections between parallel universes, and how there are so many people in our world who know this. The film would have gained in quality if it had been given an additional hour, or if it had been thought of as the beginning of a broader franchise, with several sequels. The cinematography is very good, the filming work is average, it has good sets, good costumes and excellent action scenes. The soundtrack, I confess, is not convincing, but it works effectively, which is already positive.
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SierraKiloBravo
/10  4 years ago
Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/V_PCAIQ7AvE

I’ve not read a lot of Stephen King books, but one which I read and loved was _The Gunslinger_ which is the first book in _The Dark Tower_ series. In 2017 a movie adaptation came out and was named after the series. Starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey it was hotly anticipated but was met with bad reviews on release.

Having loved _The Gunslinger_ and hearing those reviews it’s taken me a long time to get around to watching this. Having now seen it, I gotta say, I agree with those reviews. It’s not a trash movie, but it is also not even close to being a good movie.

The core problem is that there are eight books of source material, and for some reason they try to distil all that lore and world building into one 95min film. For that reason alone it was doomed from the start, but add in hilariously uncharismatic acting, shoddy CGI, and a copy pasted plot from 100 other sci-fi or fantasy films, and you have a recipe for mediocrity.

Now I will say, I am not a fan of Idris Elba, but I actually thought he played the part of Roland, the Gunslinger, quite well. As for McConaughey, all this did was confirm for me that he is one of the most overrated actors of our generation.

My suggestion would be to avoid the movie and pick up the books, because the books will take you away on an epic journey much much more than this movie ever does.
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chris
/10  6 years ago
ok here are my personal thought on this movie I think you can say what you want but I really liked it this movie had a lot of action and fun you really cant go wrong here the action packed fun and enjoyment mcconihey was a pure joy as the evil villain he really knows how to excite an audience you need to see this movie
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