Fantasy The Dark Tower (2017)

Kevin

Code Monkey
Staff member
Title: The Dark Tower

Tagline: There are other worlds than these

Genre: Fantasy, Action, Science Fiction, Adventure

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley, Katheryn Winnick, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Barbieri, José Zúñiga, Alex McGregor, Nicholas Hamilton, Nicholas Pauling, Eva Kaminsky, Robbie McLean, Matthew Thomson, Karl Thaning, Lemogang Tsipa, Robert Whitehead, Leeanda Reddy, Kenneth Fok, Charlize Churcher, Ben Gavin, Sara Cicilian, Lara Adine Lipschitz, Jabari Gray, Paul Riley Fox, Mark Elderkin, Joe Vaz, Christopher Stein, Andre Robinson, Alfredo Narciso, Dan Hirst, Zak Rowlands, Christiaan Schoombie, Keci Eatock, Marmee Regine Cosico, Bill Walters, Inge Beckmann, Reon Van Der Watt, Richard Lothian, Larry Nuñez, Michael Basile, Warren Masemola, Emily Child, Zanne Solomon, Mary Twala, Sarah Potter, Andrew Laubscher, Dominique Nieves

Release: 2017-08-03

Runtime: 95

Plot: A boy haunted by visions of a parallel world aids its disillusioned guardian in preventing the destruction of the nexus of universes known as the Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower (2017)

 
Based on the Stephen King series by the same name, The Dark Tower is a 2017 movie starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger devoted to protecting the Dark Tower from being destroyed by Walter Padick, played by Matthew McConaughey. The Dark Tower is a structure that exists between alternate universes and serves a barrier from demons breaking through a barrier and invading. Walter Padick is also known as The Dark Man who, of course, makes appearances in several other King works, most famously The Stand.


I had actually been looking forward to seeing this one as I am a King fan and usually like the TV & movie adaptions of his stuff. Plus I knew that the movie had references to other King works so it was a bit of a combined movie watching and Easter Egg hunt at the same time. :D

Unfortunately the movie was a bit of a let down. Elba and McConaughey were good with what they were given but story wise I think the pacing was just... off. The final showdown between Roland and Patrick was resolved in a way that made me think "If it was that easy why didn't he just do that stunt years ago?!" and the very ending, with Roland and Jake, felt weird, almost like there was a chunk of movie about 3/4 of the way through that was taken out of the final cut.

It has prompted me to go back and read the King novels again, so that is a good thing. There is talk of The Dark Tower being made into a series for one of the "premium" cable networks so I'll keep an eye out for that since the likelihood of a movie sequel in the short-term is slim.
 
Having not read the book or followed any hype, I enjoyed this film.
It wasn't the story that grabbed my attention as much as the effects that were used to tell the story.
"Give Me More Sugar" was funny because society is addicted to sugar.
That sort of thing.
The gunslinger's reloading sequences were cool.
I also liked the 'house demon'.
Who says Excaliber must be a sword?
 

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