For every The Shining or Stand by Me there are the Stephen King adaptations that don’t work. The Dark Tower sadly falls into the latter despite Idris Elba delivering a pretty excellent performance. The film that only runs 95 minutes feels much longer and suffers from long winded expositional sequences.
This version of The Dark Tower shouldn’t have seen the light of day
Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) seems like he has lost his mind to everyone who hears him ramble about the man in black. He soon finds out that he’s not crazy at all, but has seen into other worlds. He finds a portal and travels in hopes of finding the last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba).
The first thirty minutes of this movie moves at a torturously slow pace. The description above seems sufficient, but instead we have to witness him get in trouble at school. To be fair, Tom Taylor does a pretty solid job with most of the “dialogue” he is given and even brings enough charisma to be an interesting character. However, it’s just presented poorly and likely the fault of the screenplay.
Two respected actors; one good performance
Matthew McConaughey feels a bit too cartoonish in the role he is given to play. Constantly xanaxonlinebuy.com forced to spit out tons of exposition likely to keep the films budget down from showing the interesting events he talks about. There are even moments he reveals some probably cool facts about Roland, but it’s done so quickly it’s likely people will miss it.
Elba does shine though. He doesn’t get nearly enough action sequences considering he is playing a gunslinger, but there are some really cool visuals. He carries the intensity and awesomeness of any action star out there. If he is ever given the right script he will nail it. Unfortunately, he got a lackluster adaptation of what seems like a very cool world from a book series that is beloved by many.
Final thoughts…
The Dark Tower definitely fails way more than it succeeds. There is clearly a good story at the heart of it, but it’s told rather than shown. The moments that should linger are rushed and the moments that should move don’t. This leads to an unsatisfying and even slightly cheesy ending that seems to think it’ll have a second film. The Dark Tower earns the Not a Total Waste of Time rating.
Berkreviews.com 