Film Review - The Dark Tower (2017)

The Dark Tower is based off of the series of novels by Stephen King and stars Idris Elba as the Gunslinger the last of his kind and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black determined to destroy the Dark Tower that binds the universe together but a young boy named Jake may hold the key to save the Tower from destruction.

Part of me was not looking forward to this movie mainly because of the very poor track record of King adaptations on film and to be honest the only really good one that comes to mind for me is Misery from 1990 by Rob Reiner so this one did not have a high tower to climb so to speak to deliver the goods.

And by that standard it delivers but it’s also a very bland and predictable film that’s only really elevated by Elba and McConaughey as the 2 main characters both bring a lot of charisma, charm and determination to their roles and when their on screen they do enough to hold your attention.

But when they’re not on screen the film feels very predictable in terms of its storytelling in that you think to yourself “That’s gonna happen, that’s gonna happen, that’s gonna happen” and it does and the film has a very bland look that feels contrary to the striking horror esque imagery King’s writing tends to put in your mind and one wonders or at least I did if this movie might have benefited from an MA type of tone that would properly do justice to King’s writing.

And so that was the Dark Tower and again its fine but forgettable and given the poor track record of King adaptations that’s more than enough, 2 out of 5.