So I actually just finished reading the series a few months ago. Loved the books, I even liked the ending more than most (except for Patrick literally erasing the crimson king...fuck that..)
As a Dark Tower adaption, this abomination gets a 2/10 - 1 for Elba/McConaughey doing a really good job given the circumstances, and 1 for all the cool (but ultimately meaningless) easter eggs. As just another generic movie, I'd give it maybe 5.5/10. I honestly enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but it doesn't even come close to doing the books justice.
It could have been something really special given enough time to build the story. I don't know wtf they were thinking picking random parts from each book to try to cram it all into 90 minutes. No Oy? No Blaine? No Eddie/Susannah/Detta (would've loved to see them put a screaming racist amputee eating live rodents in a swamp on screen). Not a single mention of Alain, Cuthbert, Susan? They had every opportunity to include a "thinny" when they were in the woods but we got generic monsters instead. No explanation of the weird skin people, ratmen, etc (as a book reader I get it but in the movie they're just there)? The final battle was pretty fucking cool until he went full Angelina Jolie from Wanted with the ricochets. The kid playing Jake wasn't a very good actor and the whole movie revolves around him. This thing had no hope as a movie release. Why in the hell couldn't it have been a miniseries instead, given 8-10 episodes to work with it could have been great.
In hindsight, I wouldn't have paid money to see this. Definitely worth streaming when it's available in a couple weeks (lol). It's not the terrible movie that the 18% on RT would have you believe but it isn't the Dark Tower at all.
