'The Dark Tower' A Review

The Dark Tower is a fantasy/action movie a loose adaptation and amalgamation of the Stephen King series of the same name. The movie opens on the prescient otherworldly nightmares of Jake Chambers(Tom Taylor). He's a moody and disgruntled preteen we get little information about and barely know. His defining character trait is an irritating step dad. Enter the Man In Black(Matthew McConaughey) our personification of evil who harvests the psychic energy of children to bring down the titular Dark Tower and end existence. Jake, marginally aware of these cosmic events almost effortlessly finds a portal to Mid-World where all the action is taking place. He quickly hooks up with the last Gunslinger, a cowboy/knight, Roland(Idris Elba) and the two set off to thwart the Man In Black.

Taylor does a decent job with the borderline incoherent script he's given but his ability is not really clear as the character, as written, is barely a caricature. McConaughey defaults to his pre-Mud days and puts in a syrupy hand-wringing mustache-twirling lazy performance completely devoid of menace or energy. Certainly the script hinders but given the talent and range he has shown over the last five years he should be able to be, at the very least, engaging. Elba is the only one who is well cast and also the only one who puts in a credible performance although he is prevented from delivering on the potential depth the character has by the truncated running time and Frankenstein narrative.

As a huge fan of the books I admit some bias, so I will not provide a laundry list in the ways the adaptation aspect falls short suffice it to say it does, horrifically. So for direct and applicable criticisms- as a standalone story it moves too fast cutting back and forth between worlds and scenes speeding along in a seemingly protracted info dump-to the detriment of character development, hell basic character information, essential world building, and any kind of stakes- in order to get to a culminating gun-fight set piece that is cool but has no narrative or emotional resonance because of the chaotic and illogical way it was set up.

As an adaptation of the source material it is an abject failure, as a summer blockbuster it is a disjointed mess.

Don't See It.