The Dark Tower with Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel.
3/5
TO fairly review the latest Dark Tower film directed by Nikolaj Arcel, an adaption of Stephen King’s epic novel series of the same name, it would be better to write two reviews.
One would look at the film as a production by itself without the books as the backstory, and one would weigh up the film as an adaption of the books. Either way, producing the film must have been a mammoth task, so much as the screenplay for Dark Tower was abandoned three times and has taken over a decade to finally come to the big screen since plans to film it started.
The film stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, a gunslinger on a quest to protect the Dark Tower—a mythical structure which supports all realities, including our world, called Keystone Earth, and “Mid-World”.
Matthew McConaughey plays the gunslinger’s nemesis, Walter Padick, the Man in Black, and Tom Taylor stars as the young Jake Chambers with psychic abilities, a New York boy who becomes Roland’s apprentice.
After dodging being placed in psychiatric care due to his visions, Jake discovers an abandoned house from one of his visions and discovers a high-tech portal which transports him to the post-apocalyptic Mid-World.
Here Jake encounters the last gunslinger, Roland, who emerged in his visions. Roland is pursuing the Man in Black who had also appeared in his dreams across a desert. Roland explains that Walter has been abducting psychic children, and is attempting to use their powers to destroy the Dark Tower, which would allow monsters from the darkness outside to invade and destroy reality.
Roland and Jake return to Earth to find a portal that will allow the gunslinger access to the Man in Black’s fortress, and to pick up ammunition along the way. Amid adventure, injury and loss, Roland teaches Jake the Gunslinger’s creed and the basics of gun fighting.
For newcomers, the film satisfies with graphic fantasy novel overture, visuals, and serves as decent big screen thriller entertainment.
Elba and McConaughey are both brilliant in their respective roles, and did an outstanding job with their interpretation of their characters, although Elba definitely didn’t come across as the lead actor. The script, and slapped-together narrative, let them down in the end.
As an adaption of King’s epic novel series, it feels unauthentic and disappointing, and sometimes hard to recognise. I hate to compare books to films but if the ambitious decision is made to adapt a storyline split into eight separate novels, fans would expect to see and sense even just a resemblance of the same depth, tension and character development. Significant events are glossed over and rushed through, the story is over-explained and still feels flat.
For fans familiar with the books, the film feels like a random jumble of narrative with all the books squashed together and set to fast mode.
For instance, Roland gets sick and needs medicine. This powerful gunslinger was brought to the brink of death with a rapidly spreading infection, fighting for his life, a dramatic tension that lasted the entire second book. In the film, Roland gets treated immediately when they visit Earth and he recovers instantly.
The film should have been all about world-building and filling it with some of the richest characters King has ever created. Since The Gunslinger was published 35 years ago, Dark Tower fans have been waiting patiently for the film. We shall perhaps wait a bit more for someone to faithfully produce the series.
