Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Movie review: The Dark Tower

 
 Roland, the last Gunslinger, is committed to preventing destruction of the Dark Tower by the Man in Black, Walter. Based on the book series by Stephen King, the Dark Tower holds the universe together and will result in darkness covering the world if it falls.

Matthew McConaughey (Walter), Idris Elba (Roland), Tom Taylor (Jake), Dennis Haysbert (Steven), Claudia Kim (Arra), Jackie Haley (Sayre), Michael Barbieri (Timmy), Fran Kranz (Pimli), Abbey Lee (Tirana).

The Dark Tower is a difficult film to review with the best description I've heard as; The film is inspired by the books, but not based upon them. The film is missing much of the original book, though given the depth of the book it is understandable, and in comparison to the entire book series it fails. However, as a film without reference to the book The Dark Tower is pretty good. The film implies characters, the story, and overall plot that have much more depth. And we want to see more. Those who have read the books will crave that depth.

Acting was decent with both McConaughey and Elba delivering pretty well. Should this mature into a franchise I can see both of them becoming quite popular. Taylor fit well and seemed to work well with others. Haysbert, Kim, Haley, and the remainder of the supporting cast did reasonably well and delivered good energy.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were nicely done if not fitting with the books. All depended strongly on CGI and were blended well with a fairly realistic feel. Dialogue was okay but could have added more depth on a few levels. Sound and soundtrack were appropriate throughout.

While The Dark Tower may not be the movie many of us King fans had hoped for, the film really is pretty good. The characters and main plot are introduced and the film presents good technical quality. Those who have never read the Stephen King series will probably enjoy this the most.

With a fair amount of violence and gore, some mild foul language, and some potentially disturbing scenes, this surprisingly should be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2017
Reviewed: 12.24.17
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Sci-Fi Based on a book, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Adventure, Action

copyright ©2017 Dave Riedel

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