The Dark Tower (2017)

[Mal12345]

Preview here:

The Dark Tower running time has Stephen King fans concerned | The Independent

With the arrival of this 95 minute movie based off of a Stephen King nonology, I'm afraid that it will consist of a merely glossing over of the entire series. As described at the link above, it is supposedly "all killer and no filler." I guess it will be good for filling 1-1/2 hours the day I go to see it.

 

[Totenkindly]

It's not going to be a retelling of the books.

They are riffing off the themes of the seven-book series, which is plausible due to a particular plot point late in the series.

So expecting it to be a retelling or to follow much directly from the books at all is kind of mistake. I could tell this just from the trailers, which seem to give Jake a more predominate role.

 

[Obfuscate]

i haven't finished the series as of yet, but i can tell changes in plot points will bug me... i plan to watch it, but not in the theater...

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm not familiar with the book, but the trailer doesn't really look that good.

 

[Totenkindly]

Opens in a few days but the reviews are STILL being held back. Nothing released yet.

Which, along with a run-time of only 95 minutes, can be a bad sign. "Detroit" (Kathryn bigelow movie) has been releasing its reviews since early last week and that movie is sitting at Certified 95% on RT at the moment before it even opens.

I'm not sure the film has been advertised well at all, and it's like the studio has been kind of hedging its bets... not wanting to invest much extra in it in case it flops. On one hand, you can say it is a known property (for Stephen King readers), but it's also clearly obvious the film will just be a sequel/adaptation of sorts of the book series, if you know how the story works.



EDIT: Apparently they are still considering the TV series angle too, after the film hits. But if the film thuds, well...
DARK TOWER TV Series Still In The Works | Birth.Movies.Death.



EDIT2: And now other articles are dumping on it.
‘The Dark Tower’ Test Screenings Almost Led to Replacing Director | IndieWire
‘The Dark Tower’: Inside Troubled Journey for Stephen King Film | Variety

 

[Tomb1]

I want to see it. I liked the line in the trailer, "did you tell the kid whoever walks with you dies by my hand"

 

[anticlimatic]

Test screen bombings and producer committee over involvement...

So much for that movie. At least IT could still be good.

 

[Totenkindly]

Sony Was Right To Gamble on ‘The Dark Tower’ Even If It’s Terrible | Observer

But I think it's kind of doomed to be a failure, after a bad marketing campaign and inability to really determine what the approach should be. Plus, they picked a guy whose only real directing experience was in a period movie that got good reviews mostly for set and a bit for the story... but notably not a horror/action/alternate-fantasy movie with a $60 million budget (compared to about a $7-8 million dollar budget for A Royal Affair).

I mean, what got him fast-tracked to have them think he could handle the project of that scale? This is kind of what like what Fox did with Josh Trank -- he made a low budget film (Chronicle) that at least was in the same genre as Fantastic Four, but they basically dumped him on a high profile larger-budget picture that had been in development hell for six years before release, then fought with him for creative control... It looks like Sony might have done the same kind of thing here, with another Development Hell movie.

Get more experienced folks with this kind of film to handle the reins next time.

I could end up eating my hat if it comes out better than expected, but pretty much where there is a lot of smoke, there is likely to be a fire (or, well, a dragon) around, and there is a ton of smoke here.

 

[Tomb1]

i also got a kick out of that pocketwatch music from a few dollars more (morricone is a beast)

 

[Totenkindly]

Reviews started hitting the Internet this evening.

The most positive are "a merely average adaptation of rich source material." It received 3 positive reviews on RT from the 14 reviews currently there. Here are the summary blurbs for the positive reviews:

It's a highly competent and watchable paranoid metaphysical video game that doesn't overstay its welcome, includes some luridly entertaining visual effects, and -- it has to be said -- summons an emotional impact of close to zero.

Idris Elba and Tom Taylor have a wonderful dynamic together, and the gunslinging action scenes are appropriately cool. But it all feels strangely... conventional, somehow.

It's a visual spectacle of action and fantasy that leaves the audience wanting more.

Most reviews are more negative unfortunately. Uproxx's had the most amusing open I've read so far:

Title: What the hell happened?

The Dark Tower is so astoundingly awful that when you leave the theater you’ll likely be less mad you wasted your time than flabbergasted that something like this could a) happen and b) be released as something that, theoretically, is going to launch a multi-platform franchise. The Dark Tower has been in production for around ten years in some form or another. This final product reminds me a lot of the GOP healthcare plan: You’ve had all this time and THIS is what you come up with? I can already picture John McCain strolling into a theater this weekend, giving a dramatic thumbs down, killing The Dark Tower forever...

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Well, it's usually a bad sign when even the trailer looks like crap.

 

[Tomb1]

whatta hilarious review

 

[Tomb1]

Okay, seen it. Elba and the kid tremendous, so not battlefield earth bad. But the villains stunk and the plot see-sawed between warp speed and slow as fuck.

 

[Totenkindly]

Saw it today and already posted my Letterboxd review.

"The Dark Tower" is an adaptation that does little to please fans while merely allowing those with no awareness of the novels to burn an hour and a half when better viewing options are available in the world. It's the kind of film you might expect to see pop up on AMC at 11pm and watch in passing if you don't feel like going to bed yet but not something that will glue you to your seat if in fact you even make it to the end...

I agree with Tomb1 about Elba and the kid -- they had some chemistry in the role, and if they had had a better movie, then maybe things could have worked.

"The plot feels like someone spent one afternoon skimming through a few of the seven books, picking out a few characters, locations, and lines they thought would be cool to see in a movie, then cobbling together a generic, uninspired plot from the mix. " Another one of my comments. Horrible adaptation, ho-hum movie if you haven't read the books.

I'm just ... disappointed. about the only great thing is that the movie has now escaped Production Hell, so maybe in the future someone can try again.

 

[Tomb1]

It was like an outline for the trilogy that could have been.

 

[Mal12345]

The Dark Tower topped all other movies over this weekend.

 

[Mal12345]

From a reviewer:

"e sure that the minds behind this movie have a deep understanding and appreciation of the source material. Secondly, this is not an adaptation. This is an original story set in the same universe as the novels. If you followed the series you know that there are other worlds than these and this movie takes place in one of those other infinite possibilities. There are echoes of the books of course, enough to earn a knowing chuckle from the Constant Reader and enough Stephen King Easter Eggs to fill a basket of Youtube "What you Missed" type videos. The characters are true to themselves. Jake is Jake, Roland is Roland, and Matthew McConaughey's Walter o'Dim a.k.a Randall Flagg a.k.a. The Man in Black is so deliciously vile his performance alone is worth the price of admission. If you're a Stephen King fan you owe it to yourself to see this new chapter in Roland's eternal quest. Certainly the movie has problems just as certainly as the books did. Just ignore the ending as much as you did the last two books and you'll have a great time."

I agree with that.

 

[Totenkindly]

Here is something I liked: The action scenes were below par, honestly, compared to everything else that's been coming out for years; but Roland was really good at loading his gun. That was almost more fun to watch than any of the shooting he did (because we pretty much know he's gonna hit anything he fires at).

I think the most impressed audience demographic will be teenage and young 20-something males who like to play Gunslingers in D&D/Pathfinder and other similar games. There's material here for RPGs.

Meanwhile, a lot of the "Dark Tower" fanbase will see the movie (as I did) regardless of reviews, because of love for the source material.

From a reviewer:

"e sure that the minds behind this movie have a deep understanding and appreciation of the source material. Secondly, this is not an adaptation. This is an original story set in the same universe as the novels. If you followed the series you know that there are other worlds than these and this movie takes place in one of those other infinite possibilities. There are echoes of the books of course, enough to earn a knowing chuckle from the Constant Reader and enough Stephen King Easter Eggs to fill a basket of Youtube "What you Missed" type videos. The characters are true to themselves. Jake is Jake, Roland is Roland, and Matthew McConaughey's Walter o'Dim a.k.a Randall Flagg a.k.a. The Man in Black is so deliciously vile his performance alone is worth the price of admission. If you're a Stephen King fan you owe it to yourself to see this new chapter in Roland's eternal quest. Certainly the movie has problems just as certainly as the books did. Just ignore the ending as much as you did the last two books and you'll have a great time."

I agree with that.

I have watched so many movies from so many genres that there was nothing in this movie I couldn't get (and haven't gotten) elsewhere, done much much better.

If you managed to enjoy it and plan to spend your money buying the home release, though, then good for you. that's not really what is being discussed in terms of "quality" -- it just means there was something in it that you liked, for whatever reason. I still manage to find some enjoyment in movies that aren't actually that good, if they happen to touch on something of interest to me. [The Underworld series is a good example of this for me -- frustrating that they end up being so bad dramatically, but it's just a concept I like. Or The Ghost in the Shell remake... disappointing movie, not that good, but I really like the idea of it and the mechanics/visuals.]

 

[Mal12345]

Meanwhile, a lot of the "Dark Tower" fanbase will see the movie (as I did) regardless of reviews, because of love for the source material.

Assuming anybody reads the reviews. I didn't bother reading any beforehand. As for the books, I only read 3.25 of the series a few years ago until I almost died from boredom.

I have watched so many movies from so many genres that there was nothing in this movie I couldn't get (and haven't gotten) elsewhere, done much much better.

I made many comparisons to movies I've seen in the past, but what saved this for me was the originality of the script in general. In my own experience, I can't compare the destruction of a Dark Tower to any movie I've seen before. The round, stacked black building where it takes place was amazing. I feed off of originality, and that to me was highly original.

Of course, the movie (and the series) was full of tropes. For a horrible example from one of the books, a computer was defeated by using illogic, a method employed in many Star Trek:TOS episodes 50 years ago.

 

[Mal12345]

I've been thinking that if the movie suffers from anything, it's that it was too much like the books. Because the books are, as with all Stephen King writing, mediocre.