The Dark Tower

If Stephen King fans go to see the film expecting an adaptation of his favorite book series, they will be exposed to an outright hellish experience. The Dark Tower, however, is not an adaptation, but rather an alternative variation on the first part of King's opus, which its creators also try to pass off as a kind of canonical continuation of these books (and yeah, it makes sense, but it's just something substantially different than most people were hoping for). The film evokes the feeling that this is an incoherent concoction of the motifs adopted from the books, entwined in a hasty and extremely condensed shapeless form, which seems terribly abbreviated and incomprehensible, and which most of all resembles various recent adaptations of fantasy novels for teenagers from The Giver to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Although The Dark Tower is not worse than these films, given the quality, meaning and scope of King's masterpiece, this devaluation is truly terrible. (25/08/2017)

I never thought an hour and a half could drag on like this. The Dark Tower has its moments, both Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba fit their roles excellently and Nikolaj Arcel is confident in the action scenes, but unfortunately it's all pretty banal, ordinary and boring. Plot-wise, The Dark Tower never surprises with anything, which doesn't matter when it pretends to be an action B-movie. Unfortunately, however, it more often than not tries to pretend it's a grand fantasy full of fascinating worlds, other dimensions, terrifying monsters and mysterious creatures. And given that the ventures outside our reality end up in a desert with one theme park, one village, and a few completely uninteresting side characters, it comes across as a bit funny. The Dark Tower looks like a pilot for a more ambitious fantasy series that would like to show its world to viewers in the episodes and seasons to come. Unfortunately, it shows so little the first time around that I have no desire to be there the next time (though there probably won't be a next time anyway). It's not a disaster, but there really isn't much of the downright interesting stuff to send you to the cinema for. (27/07/2018)

A fantasy flick akin to Equilibrium and Dark City, which have the stench of B-movies, but benefit from good casting, an effective fantasy atmosphere and, above all, deal with a really intriguing idea. Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are well-suited to their roles and the little boy is also good. In other words, The Dark Tower is an okay movie in my opinion. (31/08/2017)

I haven't read the book, but I believe that it is definitely more interesting. The film feels very rushed in places and what can we say, cramming seven books into ninety minutes is impossible, a longer running time would have been better. I have no complaints about the acting, Idris Elba is a proper hero and Matthew McConaughey as the bad guy is excellent – it's a wonder that A-list actors are in such a B-movie. The action is decent, nicely shot, only the scene with the demons was too dark. There’s almost no atmosphere, so I wouldn't describe the film as horror even though it is labelled as such here, but for one viewing I think it's decent, inoffensive fun. 65% (08/10/2017)

It's a mystery to me why they didn't do a better job with this. The premise calls for mature serious fantasy by Peter Jackson, not just a maturely told children's tale where everything is too simply outlined and resolved. I certainly wouldn't call it a dud – for that the film is under control directorially and there are a number of nicely and stylishly edited scenes; but it should have taken a different, darker and more varied route. Elba is a proper good guy, McConaughey as the bad guy the best thing about the whole film. I want an expensive and similarly cast TV series. (06/02/2018)