The Dark Tower movie review

The Dark Tower, released in 2017 is part of Stephen King's the Dark Tower series. Now, many people where confused by what exactly this movie was, and were expecting a movie adaptation of the Dark Tower series of books, but that is not what this is. This is in fact a sequel or continuation of the series rather than a retelling or a movie adaption of the books. This movie is also not meant to be a stand alone movie, it is basically set up to launch a television series and a movie series that are to tell the story of Roland's next journey to the tower, after the books ended. Going into this movie it is important to know what this movie is. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed". The Dark Tower, is the story of the Roland, the gunslinger (played by Idris Elba) is on his quest to get to the Dark Tower, and also to avenge the murder of his father and everyone he's ever loved at the hands of the Walter/Randall Flagg/the man in black (played by Mathew McConaughey). In the beginning of the movie we start with meeting Jake Chambers (played by Tom Taylor), he is a troubled kid, who is being plagued by bad dreams and visions, which he has been making drawings of. He is having problems at school, and his mother and step father are worried about him, so they decide to send him to a place where he can get the help that he needs. But Jake notices something, that one of the people who came from the institution to get him is not a real human, but one of the creatures from his visions. So Jake does a runner by escaping out the bathroom door. Jake then finds his way to a house that he saw in his dream that happens to be a portal to Roland's world Midworld. From there on it is a game of cat and mouse with Roland and Jake (the beginnings of the ka-tet), and the man in black. The man in black is trying to destroy the Dark Tower which would bring about the end of the world as we know it, as the Dark Tower is the center of all things and holds the balance of all of the worlds. To do this he is harnessing the power of people with mental powers (this brings in one of the many tie-ins to other King works because this is referred to as the "shine", as in the Shining). Jake has a very powerful "shine" and has become a target that Walter needs in his goal to bring down the tower. So we have a lot of action, and fun leading up to the climactic show off between Roland and Walter. What this movie does well, is pays homage to many other works of Stephen King, including The Shining, It, 1402, Hearts In Atlantis (which really is a part of the Dark Tower series when you get down to it, same goes for Insomnia), and many others. This movie has amazing intense action scenes, that are used in the perfect times and places so that they enhance the story but don't become the only thing keeping the movie going (which is something I tend to hate about action movies). There are also some great comedic parts, especially when Roland comes to Keystone Earth, and walks through the streets of New York City with Jake, which is a pretty alien word to him. I love the exchange R: "what is this", J: "a hotdog", R: "Barbaric....what breed?" There are a lot of great parts like this that keep the movie fun, and as any true Stephen King fan knows with Walter (or Randall Flagg as he is known in The Stand, or Eyes of the Dragon) there is bound to be some humorous lines. The characters were all well cast, and the actors I feel did a great job at portraying the characters, McConaughey actually surprised me by making a wonderful man in black. The kid that played Jake, is pretty much how I pictured him from the books. Idris Elbis as Roland was also a wonderful performance, and he made a perfect Roland, however this needs to be discussed. Before this movie came out, there was a huge controversy over Idris Elba playing Roland, the issue being in the books Roland was always describes as being, basically Clint Eastwood. When the news was reported that a black actor had been cast to play him, there arose a huge outcry, with some fans stating that they refused to ever see the movie, and reasonings ranging from him not looking how they pictured to him all the way to straight up racism. King, however felt that Idris is a talented actor and perfect for the role of the gunslinger, and honestly, I agree with him. Sure I had been picturing Roland as Clint Eastwood all this time, but the reality is, the part went to the actor who was best for the role. This movie however was ripped apart by the critics and didn't perform as well as hoped in the theaters, which surprised me because when I went the theater was sold out, and every seat full. A lot of the negative critiques of the movie though, seem to point to a misunderstanding of the intention of the movie in the first place. This was in no way meant to be film adaptation telling the whole story of the Dark Tower, or even to tell the story of the first book. The movie is short, yes and could have been longer, and I do think that the main issue was the suffering from a PG-13 rating, rather than going for the hard R. But the movie isn't supposed to be an epic, it isn't a Lord Of The Rings over 9 hour trilogy, that isn't what this set out to do. This movie was supposed to set up and introduce the audience to the Dark Tower franchise, which was supposed to be followed up with a television series, and a series of movies. Like I said before, this movie is basically a pilot episode, and because of the way that it was received, I don't think that we are going to get a chance to see the rest of it be released, I don't think we are going to get to meet the rest of the ka-tet, or see Roland face off against the Lobstrocities, and have to continue with missing fingers... There is so much that could have happened to follow what should have been one of the most amazing franchises in film history...but I fear that that is not likely to happen, because people didn't understand what movie was trying to do, and that disappoints me. What are my thoughts on this movie though? This movie did exactly what it was meant to do for me, it made me excited to see my favourite book series finally be made into films and television. This movie excited me because it gave me a taste of what I would be seeing, the fantastic creatures, and settings, and the father/son love that is growing between Roland and Jake, the tasteful action, and great story telling. This movie excited me, and I loved it, but now knowing that the rest probably won't happen, it actually makes me really sad. I do love this movie, it is exciting, tells a great story, brings familiar characters to life, is perfectly paced not too fast nor too slow. I get what the critics are saying about the flaws of this movie, but honestly because I am a Constant Reader, and a very huge fan of Stephen King, I liked what was done here. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, if you don't know the series, and know nothing about Stephen King, it is just a short exciting and fun movie, though you will miss a lot of the material that is there for us Constant Readers and King fans. If you love King but don't know the series, this movie is loaded with fun easter eggs tieing it into other King works, and if you are a fan of the series, then this would be a fun movie bringing to life some of the great elements of the books, just don't expect a film adaptation, but instead a continuation, in the same way the graphic novels were not an adaptation but told additional stories about Roland and his original Ka-tet. I honestly really do love this movie, and think it is great, I agree with Stephen King's thoughts on this one.