Saw it last night. Not a lot of people in the 7:30 showing. Not a bad movie, but not a great movie either. If you read the "Wolves of the Calla," and "Songs of Susannah" you will know what is happening at the beginning of the movie. Did they do a good job condensing the books into a movie? Yes and no. I think in this retelling, they used the important elements well, but they changed a story about a quest into a revenge movie. While I find the Transformer movies could be edited down to 90 minutes, I felt like The Dark Tower could be 2 hours. It had a fast pace, but it needed either better scenes, or more scenes to build that bond between Roland and Jake. They packed too much into the movie, so it felt kind of rushed, and like a Reader's Digest abridged version of a longer series of movies. Imagine the Star Wars trilogy edited into one movie. I did like because it did not follow the events in the books, it was fresh and new, and you didn't know how it was going to play out except for the obvious Heroes Win.
Acting: Tom Taylor did a fine job of being Jake Chambers. Idris Elba wasn't used. We didn't have enough time to be with him to learn who he is, so the the character didn't have enough dimension, as if the audience is supposed to rely on the books to know him. McConaughey? Nothing special here either.
Now for spoilers:
Acting: Tom Taylor did a fine job of being Jake Chambers. Idris Elba wasn't used. We didn't have enough time to be with him to learn who he is, so the the character didn't have enough dimension, as if the audience is supposed to rely on the books to know him. McConaughey? Nothing special here either.
Now for spoilers:
Jake wasn't just a kid, but a boy with powerful psychic powers, that once discovered, Walter wanted to use to break the beams and bring the Dark Tower down. Jake also was not the child of a rich TV station mogul suffering a snobby private school. He was poor, mourning the loss of his firefighter father, and putting up with his mother's asshole boyfriend. Because Jake had never been pushed by Walter into the path of a car and sent to Mid World via death, it's his psychic power "shine" that allows him to dream about Mid World, and defeat the house demon on Dutch Hill where he discovers the portal, which is not magical, but technology.
Walter is too powerful, like a super Sith without a lightsaber. It was a little unbelievable, and almost like he was trying channel Christopher Walken's Gabriel from "The Prophesy" movies, but without that Walken coolness. They came up with a clever way to kill him. I think killing him may have been the wrong thing to do, if whatever Walter is is actually dead. After all, Walter O'Dim dies in "The Gunslinger" after his palaver with Roland, while Roland sleeps for centuries, as it seems. But Walter is also Martin, The Good Man John Farson, Randal Flagg, and others. Death may not be death to him.
The world has moved on, except now that seems to merely imply the world has aged. In the books, it means reality is unraveling, that time and distance are no longer certain. Direction changes. A moviegoer who hasn't read the books won't understand this key element, and that it is one of the reasons Roland seeks the Dark Tower, to stop the world from moving on, and to reverse it.
Roland's motivation is to find the Man in Black and kill him out of vengeance for killing his father in what a reader must assume is the defeat at the end of the Battle of Gilead. Roland feels defeated and isn't interested in finding or protecting the Dark Tower. Jake has to convince him. In the books, what made Roland a tragic figure was his unrelenting quest for the Tower, and that people he loved were sacrificed in that he reach it. In the movie, we only know Roland lost his father. We don't know about his friendships, the betrayal of his mother, or his eventual matricide. We know almost nothing about Roland, except he is revered by strangers, but we don't know why--unless we read the books.
Not a lot of magic in the movie. Walter uses magic to kill, but the portals are all technology from Mid-World. The door portals on the beach would have been interesting to see. It would also have been interesting to see Roland's mind taking over Eddie Dean's body, but, not happening in this version. Eddie and Odetta/Detta/Susannah are missing, but they would have cluttered the movie. I don't see them adding anything to the movie. Eddie Dean's naked gunfight against the mobsters would have something to see.
The Gunslinger's Creed was said too many times.
The conclusion wrapped up nicely. I don't know what a possible sequel would cover, unless it involved The Crimson King, mentioned only in graffiti in the house at Dutch Hill. If Walter was in service to the His Unholy Redness, I would think there would be an scene to establish that so that we would know another evil was lurking. But Roland and Jake go back to Mid-World, and that is that.
Walter is too powerful, like a super Sith without a lightsaber. It was a little unbelievable, and almost like he was trying channel Christopher Walken's Gabriel from "The Prophesy" movies, but without that Walken coolness. They came up with a clever way to kill him. I think killing him may have been the wrong thing to do, if whatever Walter is is actually dead. After all, Walter O'Dim dies in "The Gunslinger" after his palaver with Roland, while Roland sleeps for centuries, as it seems. But Walter is also Martin, The Good Man John Farson, Randal Flagg, and others. Death may not be death to him.
The world has moved on, except now that seems to merely imply the world has aged. In the books, it means reality is unraveling, that time and distance are no longer certain. Direction changes. A moviegoer who hasn't read the books won't understand this key element, and that it is one of the reasons Roland seeks the Dark Tower, to stop the world from moving on, and to reverse it.
Roland's motivation is to find the Man in Black and kill him out of vengeance for killing his father in what a reader must assume is the defeat at the end of the Battle of Gilead. Roland feels defeated and isn't interested in finding or protecting the Dark Tower. Jake has to convince him. In the books, what made Roland a tragic figure was his unrelenting quest for the Tower, and that people he loved were sacrificed in that he reach it. In the movie, we only know Roland lost his father. We don't know about his friendships, the betrayal of his mother, or his eventual matricide. We know almost nothing about Roland, except he is revered by strangers, but we don't know why--unless we read the books.
Not a lot of magic in the movie. Walter uses magic to kill, but the portals are all technology from Mid-World. The door portals on the beach would have been interesting to see. It would also have been interesting to see Roland's mind taking over Eddie Dean's body, but, not happening in this version. Eddie and Odetta/Detta/Susannah are missing, but they would have cluttered the movie. I don't see them adding anything to the movie. Eddie Dean's naked gunfight against the mobsters would have something to see.
The Gunslinger's Creed was said too many times.
The conclusion wrapped up nicely. I don't know what a possible sequel would cover, unless it involved The Crimson King, mentioned only in graffiti in the house at Dutch Hill. If Walter was in service to the His Unholy Redness, I would think there would be an scene to establish that so that we would know another evil was lurking. But Roland and Jake go back to Mid-World, and that is that.
