“The Dark Tower” is hollow. There are other worlds than these. The Dark Tower is a confused story looking for a theme. Here’s what we learn about the movie version of Jake, who is basically like the kid reading "The Neverending Story" in that he constantly tries to explain to the audience what's going on. The movie is not a sequel for the books. and the Terms and Policies, Director Nikolaj Arcel has … As an avid fan of King and his epic work, I find this offensive. + by Marty Sliva Posted Aug. 3, 2017, 2:44 p.m. Comments; Shares. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” With that great opening line, an obsession began for millions of readers of Stephen King’s series of books that would eventually be known as The Dark Tower. Google+. [Full review in Spanish]. A cold, antiseptic translation of King's world, with only a gruff Elba to inject it with any spark whatsoever. The Dark Tower takes bits and pieces of Stephen King's rich mythology to create a bare bones adaptation that will enrage fans and bore everyone else. Although not the misfire it could have been, Arcel's treatment of The Dark Tower is perhaps more sacrilegious than an utterly tone-deaf train wreck because, to be blunt, it's boring. The Dark Tower Cert: 12A 1hr 35mins Rating: It is not often that I’m tempted to give up on a film after less than 15 seconds but for The Dark Tower I was seriously considering making an exception. Did I mention the portals? The movie is a pastiche of buzzwords, disconnected of any sense. Of course, that child is Jake, who it turns out has the same power as the young man at the center of “The Shining.” He can read minds and other such things that Walter will harness to blow up the tower. A thoroughly average adaptation of some truly incredible source material. It is soulless. Facebook. Faint praise, but this movie will take all it can get. As stated….it adds new monsters and new artifacts. The Dark Tower is the type of film you blind buy out of a clearance bin and enjoy as a one-time watch. The Dark Tower review: "As baffling as it is dull" By Ken McIntyre 08 August 2017. The Dark Tower movie mixes a lot of Stephen King novels to spit out an insipid work that is very easy to forget. The Dark Tower. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced. Acting 8. … The Dark Tower follows the story of Jake Chambers, a boy from New York who lives with his mother and step-father. I got distracted. The Dark Tower sounds to me like a cheap collection of rather tired clichés strung together into a whole which doesn’t offer any emotional depth, any real dramatic colour or compelling musical narrative. The two leads here—Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey—work just fine in these iconic roles, and you just want to pick them up and put them in a better movie, one that doesn’t seem stuck in the valley between trying to satisfy hardcore fans of the series and the moviegoers who have never heard of Roland and Walter. ( Spoiler Free Review) Well, it's been a few years since I finished reading The Dark Tower Series and I have decided to share a few thoughts. And McConaughey dances on the edge of hamming it up in the villain role, reining it in just enough that one can see how well he could have been utilized with a better script and vision for the project. La Tour sombre (The Dark Tower) est un film de fantasy et de science-fiction américain réalisé par Nikolaj Arcel, sorti en 2017. Livraison gratuite (voir cond.). It is a film that never quite figured out what it wanted to be, and so elected to be nothing much at all. Copyright © Fandango. Dark Tower Link; What I like about the Dark Tower. Weird humorous bits feel like they have been spliced in, trying to find as big an audience as possible. Ninety-five minutes is very short for something that needs to tell such an epic tale...It's like someone made a CliffsNotes version of the screenplay, then someone else came along and said, "This is too wordy," and made a CliffsNotes of the CliffsNotes. The Dark Tower was interesting, but as I said, so much of the story was left out that in the end it was a disappointing film. It is soulless. It’s fitting that Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series is cyclical. Walter wants to destroy this tower, and he knows that there’s a child out there with the power to help him do so. Directing 8.5. … Forgot your password? The new creatures are specific to this tower and would not likely be used in other adventures. Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the ambitious and expansive story from one of the world's most celebrated authors, makes its launch to the big screen. Overall 8.0. It’s not long before Jake and Roland team up, but Jake questions whether or not his new gun-toting pal is going to help him save the tower or if he just wants vengeance against the man in black. Truncated and jarringly edited, The Dark Tower both feels too long and too short. Spanning eight novels and needing well over one million words, the saga took more than 30 years to craft (the first volume was published in 1982 and the most recent in 2012) and boasts connections to many of the author’s other works. Stephen King fans, prepare to be disappointed. The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) is locked in an eternal struggle with the Last Gunslinger (Idris Elba), as one tries to bring the tower down and the other tries to defend it. As with almost everyone in this film, he’s a device, a way to push the exposition forward to meet a contractually-mandated running time. These books had vision. Barrages of strangeness (such as a wood monster or the spontaneous ability to slow down time) are so poorly defined that they lack all significance to the heroes. Over the next few books—The Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands, and Wizard and Glass—King did some of his best writing (the series would actually stretch to seven books and a series of comics, but it’s the initial quartet that holds a special place in my heart). The Dark Tower is based on a series of books that’s considered by some to be Stephen King’s crowning achievement. How does it fair? The Dark Tower series is an incredibly varied set of books, written over the course of more than 30 years - written by a young man starting out on a wholly uncertain writing future - written by an old man looking back on a glittering career - and punctuated by all his experiences, discoveries, epiphanies. … Most of what made the novels so flavorful is sucked from the proceedings resulting in a product that commits the biggest sin a film can commit: blandness. They used iconic imagery to explore timeless themes. Retrouvez infos & avis sur une large sélection de DVD & Blu-ray neufs ou d'occasion. I only mention all of this to place the failure of the long-delayed “The Dark Tower” in the right perspective: this isn’t just a mediocre movie—although it is most definitely that—it is a wasted opportunity to fulfill the promise of that opening line from 35 years ago. Artifacts themselves are a fascinating addition to any adventure. Google+. for thematic material including sequences of gun violence and action. The Dark Tower has been called Stephen King’s magnum opus for a good reason. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) directed, and I'm not sure why. interminable Stephen King adaptation a uniquely flavorless slog It’s rare that a film so convoluted manages to be so determinedly boring. Facebook. Twitter. If you have a rickety foundation and you build atop it, your structure will collapse. King brings all his After the passing of his father, Jake begins to have nightmares about a Man in Black (Mathew McConaughey). The first book was actually called The Gunslinger, and it was a relatively small volume of brilliant sci-fi/fantasy that used iconic imagery to begin the crafting of a world that would become as rich as those created by George R. R. Martin or J.R.R Tolkien. A movie review by James Berardinelli. Honestly, I kind of wish it was. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. The Dark Tower is the fast food equivalent of the summer blockbuster. The Dark Tower fails majorly to take its science-fiction source to epic levels, but still manages to mildly entertain. THE DARK TOWER MOVIE REVIEW - It's time for yet another Stephen King book series to come out as a film adaption! Equal parts horror, spaghetti western, and Arthurian myth, the sprawling, epic book series pulls in a multitude of genres to create something that is fantastically unique in its own. It has its flaws, but its strengths carry it through. There’s a scene with a demon in a house that just ends and much of the final act material features a Jake who looks a lot closer to puberty than when the movie began. In these nightmares the Man in Black uses children in a machine to shoot a light at a large, black tower. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy A sloppy kind of popcorn entertainment like a McRib you ingest with your eyeballs. Pinterest. Worst of all, it’s clearly been chopped up by those reported reshoots and test screening edits. Can't say that I hate this movie as much as some do. Elba brings a nice gravity to Roland that fits the character well, a combination of a man haunted by the ghosts of his past and driven to do what’s right to avenge them. Dès février 2007, l'écrivain affirme avoir vendu les droits d'adaptation du cycle pour 19 dollars, le nombre 19 étant un élément récurrent dans l'histoire, à J. J. Abrams et Damon Lindelof, cocréateurs de la série Lost : Les Disparus4. Roland, Walter, and eventually Jake cross between worlds through portals. It is a film that never quite figured out what it wanted to be, and so elected to be nothing much at all. He also has visions of a massive tower, which we learn is basically keeping the order of the universe. Plagued by reshoots and dogged by rumors of poor test screenings, “The Dark Tower” once looked like it would be one of the more notable failures of 2017. “The Dark Tower” plays it so safe and takes so few risks that its greatest sin is in being the one thing those formative books never were for so many people: forgettable. [Full review in Spanish]. First of all, I have to say that this was a massive undertaking from Stephen King and he didn't disappoint ( well, until I got to the ending anyway...) The books are beautifully written and he has managed to create a whole new universe of places and characters whose only relation seems to be that mysterious Dark Tower. A movie adaptation has been in … The Dark Tower may not be the best Stephen King adaptation, but it's a worthwhile summer blockbuster with a sci-fi twist and an eye for world-building. Stephen King's The Dark Tower finally gets adapted and hits the big screen! Find out! Rated PG-13 Our Verdict. The use and abuse of flashback works as a kind of glue to inefficiently gather the gigantic plot gaps. Merlin 5.06 "The Dark Tower" TV REVIEW [lots of spoilers right from the start!] The Dark Tower Review. The Dark Tower review: a film working against itself on every level New, 23 comments This is not a terrible movie, but it does feel terribly confused about its audience Jake has prophetic visions of both the Gunslinger Roland (Elba) and the Man in Black Walter (McConaughey). Because that’s where this tower crumbles. ‘The Dark Tower’ Review: You Can’t Do an Epic on the Cheap by Matt Goldberg August 2, 2017 There’s no half-assing a fantasy epic. Jeremy Lebens August 7, 2017 Leave a comment. Plot of The Dark Tower Movie (Spoilers Ahead) To begin with, we have a kid named Jake Chambers played by Tom Taylor who is having visions about a Man in Black, a Dark Tower, and a Gunslinger. And while some may criticize Stephen King’s more populist works, that’s a charge that could never be lobbied at The Dark Tower. Writing 7.5. As is, it’s more forgettable than loathsome, the kind of movie that occasionally rubs salt in your wounds by reminding you what could have been, but mostly just dissipates from memory as it's playing. The Dark Tower - Review. The film, though, just doesn't hang together properly. This adventure has many of them. From the impure perspective of someone who hasn't read King's series, The Dark Tower isn't half-bad. Worst of all, it’s clearly been chopped up by those reported reshoots and test screening edits. Toutefois, Abrams et Lindelof, ne désirant pas s'e… This is both a bold, enjoyable swing, and a commercial miss. The Dark Tower didn't inherently need more King stuff; it needed less "magnificent white boy;" better female characters; more trust in Elba, McConaughey and its audience and a bigger budget. It’s easy to do so with this movie. 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