Therein lies the problem. This series was meant to be exactly that, a series to be developed. I'm not sure if film was the best medium over something like an HBO/Netflix type A list series. For me, this was a massive missed opportunity.
Gf wanted to see a movie, and this was the only thing starting around the time that we hadn't yet seen. We both thought it was ok. Not terrible, not good, just passable for something to do. Kept us engaged at least, and now I have the urge to watch some Wire or True Detective season 1. I knew nothing about the story going in. If I had, probably would have been more disappointed in it.
So coming at this from the perspective of someone that hasn't read the books, this was a reasonably entertaining fantasy-western-action movie, somewhat weighed down by having a kid in a prominent role. Although, even having not read the books, it was still clear that they were trying to cram too much into one movie, and failing to adequately expand on what was there. I'm curious, how many of the books were in this movie?
Basically all of them (and this inevitably pretty much nothing from any of them).
Hell, the first book, the Gunslinger is super-short (and originally a collection of serial stories from a late 1970s Fantasy/Sci-Fi pulp stories magazine King wrote for. In it ..
... they never even travel to Earth or anything along those lines.
Roland simply finds Jake about halfway through the book in the desert. Jake does mumble a bit about being from Manhatten, triggers a story relevant flashback to Roland's youth (!) when he was about Jake's age, gets saved once by Roland but than gets killed fairly quickly when Roland has to decide between chasing the Man in Black or saving Jake (and, well, doesn't save him, because priorities).
Aside from a bit of vision and foreshadowing (and Jake saying he's from Earth), there's really no multiverse in the first book.
Also, Jake doesn't really have any psychic skills or The Shining-Easter-Egg powers in any of the books. That's unique to the movie. Jake's only "skill" is seemingly doing a multi-verse jump everytime he gets murdered in some unpleasant fashion.
one of the podcasts i listen to - hollywood outsider - seemed pretty upbeat on dark tower, wonder if the metacritic is wroong. have a free ticket to detroit tomorrow, no interest in seeing it, might check out this movie instead
So I saw this movie and I thought it was perfectly ok. It wasn't an incredible movie by any means, but it wasn't bad at all and I enjoyed the ~90 minute or so runtime, never once bored or wondering what was going on. I can kinda understand more why Hollywood hates rotten tomatoes, while this movie isn't gonna win any awards it DEFINITELY deserves better than 18% on RT. Thats ridiculous that Dunkirk gets 93%, Detroit gets 87%, and this gets 18%. To me that just says there are way too many pretentious critics who only want artsy movies nowadays and won't give a fair shake to a crowd-pleaser type of movie.
I know pretty much nothing about the Dark Tower series and left the movie feeling like I don't really know much more. No real character arcs, nothing really special, but some decent action scenes and world setup. Its too bad this is bombing so badly, I think a TV show woulda been good.
Which is exactly why it is bombing. If it had been some random other series and not an attempt to cram the Dark Tower into a Young-Adult type film, it would likely be in the 40-50% range. The issue is that they took source material that is very popular and well-loved by one of the most iconic (Hate him all you want) American authors of the last 40 years and tossed it out the window, keeping just names and a few ideas.
Fans have been waiting for a movie/show version of the series for decades and Hollywood shit in their pocket.
Which is exactly why it is bombing. If it had been some random other series and not an attempt to cram the Dark Tower into a Young-Adult type film, it would likely be in the 40-50% range. The issue is that they took source material that is very popular and well-loved by one of the most iconic (Hate him all you want) American authors of the last 40 years and tossed it out the window, keeping just names and a few ideas.
Fans have been waiting for a movie/show version of the series for decades and Hollywood shit in their pocket.
i couldnt have said it any better. been waiting on a DT, Talisman and Eyes of The Dragon adaption for 30 years now. and i finally get my wish and its like a bad joke on all of the fans. Sony can go fuck off, they are as bad as Uwe Boll with their handling of beloved franchises.
I have a really, really, really hard time believing that the majority of the 106 movie critics that gave this movie a "rotten" score (below 6/10) have read the dark tower series. I don't even see mention of the book at all on the home review page, just talk about how its incoherent and underwhelming, which I'd agree with, but again the vast majority saying its a 5/10 or lower movie is just weird to me. I'd rate it as a 6.5/10 or so, maybe a 7.
I have a really, really, really hard time believing that the majority of the 106 movie critics that gave this movie a "rotten" score (below 6/10) have read the dark tower series. I don't even see mention of the book at all on the home review page, just talk about how its incoherent and underwhelming, which I'd agree with, but again the vast majority saying its a 5/10 or lower movie is just weird to me. I'd rate it as a 6.5/10 or so, maybe a 7.
I think that pretty well sums it up. DT has been something people have wanted for a long time. Heck, the trailer was pretty hype and it really got most excited I think. I think i'll wait until video or DirecTV rental.. whatever. I want to see it just because I've always thought this should have been a movie but it's a real shame it's bombing.
4/10.
Too predictable, too much of the useless kid, and no real sense of scope. It also tried to cram way too much shit into one movie. Without Elba and MM, this movie would have been made for Sci-fi fodder, at best. The story was basically gutted to fit into one movie, then gutted again to try to center it around the kid who could not act worth a shit. Final CGI confrontation was not as bad as people made it sound, but it lacked any suspense and MM was criminally underused in the movie.
Have to agree on the points made, that the movie was too condensed, trying to introduce a complex world and story in a 1.5 hour timeframe, thus simplifying it into a way too predictable storyline in order to appeal to as large an audience as possible, but still missing a lot of point plots. Like making the demon bite seem like a huge plot point, then resolving it with in passing with some antibiotics. I don't see how they can salvage this in any way with the planned sequels and TV series. Making Jake the centerpiece instead of Roland was a huge mistake.
Man, I've been looking forward to this for years. What a complete letdown.
Felt like parts of the various books were just thrown together. I don't expect movies to perfectly true to the books they based on, but fucksakes, at least keep the basic framework going.
Idris was the best part of the movie for me, he actually did Roland really well IMO.
MM as Walter/Flagg, meh he was alright, but just seemed a little wooden for me, I usually like MM in most things, so perhaps it's just how his role was written.
I have a hard time seeing anyone else besides Jamey Sheridan from The Stand miniseries as Flagg though. Can hate on the series, but damn did that guy pull off Flagg well.
Man, I've been looking forward to this for years. What a complete letdown.
Felt like parts of the various books were just thrown together. I don't expect movies to perfectly true to the books they based on, but fucksakes, at least keep the basic framework going.
Idris was the best part of the movie for me, he actually did Roland really well IMO.
MM as Walter/Flagg, meh he was alright, but just seemed a little wooden for me, I usually like MM in most things, so perhaps it's just how his role was written.
I have a hard time seeing anyone else besides Jamey Sheridan from The Stand miniseries as Flagg though. Can hate on the series, but damn did that guy pull off Flagg well.
I saw it at a drive in theater with New...the best parts about it was that it was a nice evening out of doors and the fact that we could take in our own cocktails. I was pretty hammered so it hurt less to watch.
