Walter wants to destroy this tower, and he knows that there’s a child out there with the power to help him do so. The Dark Tower is based on a series of books that’s considered by some to be Stephen King’s crowning achievement. Jeremy Lebens August 7, 2017 Leave a comment. A dark tower exists that protects the universe from a demonic apocalypse. Stephen King fans, prepare to be disappointed. Plot of The Dark Tower Movie (Spoilers Ahead) To begin with, we have a kid named Jake Chambers played by Tom Taylor who is having visions about a Man in Black, a Dark Tower, and a Gunslinger. Writing 7.5. Twitter. Here’s what we learn about the movie version of Jake, who is basically like the kid reading "The Neverending Story" in that he constantly tries to explain to the audience what's going on. This is both a bold, enjoyable swing, and a commercial miss. How does it fair? Dark Tower Link; What I like about the Dark Tower. The Dark Tower is the fast food equivalent of the summer blockbuster. Dark Tower books are a modern cult saga, and it is one that close all the story circles with cohesion and bright, all the loose ends got together as one big shot. Comments; Shares. The Dark Tower didn't inherently need more King stuff; it needed less "magnificent white boy;" better female characters; more trust in Elba, McConaughey and its audience and a bigger budget. + by Marty Sliva Posted Aug. 3, 2017, 2:44 p.m. The Dark Tower review: "As baffling as it is dull" By Ken McIntyre 08 August 2017. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy The use and abuse of flashback works as a kind of glue to inefficiently gather the gigantic plot gaps. Overall 8.0. It is soulless. Plagued by reshoots and dogged by rumors of poor test screenings, “The Dark Tower” once looked like it would be one of the more notable failures of 2017. ‘The Dark Tower’ Review: You Can’t Do an Epic on the Cheap by Matt Goldberg August 2, 2017 There’s no half-assing a fantasy epic. Rated PG-13 [Full review in Spanish]. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. The Dark Tower is a confused story looking for a theme. Ninety-five minutes is very short for something that needs to tell such an epic tale...It's like someone made a CliffsNotes version of the screenplay, then someone else came along and said, "This is too wordy," and made a CliffsNotes of the CliffsNotes. As stated….it adds new monsters and new artifacts. They created worlds. Weird humorous bits feel like they have been spliced in, trying to find as big an audience as possible. Did I mention the portals? He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association. After 10 years the big screen adaption of Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER starring Idris Elba and Matthew Mcconaughey has arrived. There’s a scene with a demon in a house that just ends and much of the final act material features a Jake who looks a lot closer to puberty than when the movie began. Worst of all, it’s clearly been chopped up by those reported reshoots and test screening edits. Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 With source material as uniquely strange as King's novels (they reach a point where King himself becomes a character in the novels and is writing the novels in the novels as the events of the novels happen), it's important to remember that broad appeal is simply not an option. Forgot your password? First of all, I have to say that this was a massive undertaking from Stephen King and he didn't disappoint ( well, until I got to the ending anyway...) The books are beautifully written and he has managed to create a whole new universe of places and characters whose only relation seems to be that mysterious Dark Tower. Roland, Walter, and eventually Jake cross between worlds through portals. As an avid fan of King and his epic work, I find this offensive. I got distracted. I wish that The Dark Tower was the type of marvelously bad movie that goes big, fails big, and has the balls to just be weird. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced. L'adaptation du cycle de La Tour sombre de Stephen King a été longtemps en projet avant de se concrétiser. The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) is locked in an eternal struggle with the Last Gunslinger (Idris Elba), as one tries to bring the tower down and the other tries to defend it. He also has visions of a massive tower, which we learn is basically keeping the order of the universe. The problems start immediately. Pinterest. And two of those characters are actually pretty well defined. … Worst of all, it’s clearly been chopped up by those reported reshoots and test screening edits. Because that’s where this tower crumbles. The Dark Tower - Review. Although not the misfire it could have been, Arcel's treatment of The Dark Tower is perhaps more sacrilegious than an utterly tone-deaf train wreck because, to be blunt, it's boring. Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the ambitious and expansive story from one of the world's most celebrated authors, makes its launch to the big screen. interminable Stephen King adaptation a uniquely flavorless slog It’s rare that a film so convoluted manages to be so determinedly boring. After the passing of his father, Jake begins to have nightmares about a Man in Black (Mathew McConaughey). [Full review in Spanish]. Livraison gratuite (voir cond.). I only mention all of this to place the failure of the long-delayed “The Dark Tower” in the right perspective: this isn’t just a mediocre movie—although it is most definitely that—it is a wasted opportunity to fulfill the promise of that opening line from 35 years ago. The first book was actually called The Gunslinger, and it was a relatively small volume of brilliant sci-fi/fantasy that used iconic imagery to begin the crafting of a world that would become as rich as those created by George R. R. Martin or J.R.R Tolkien. The Dark Tower was interesting, but as I said, so much of the story was left out that in the end it was a disappointing film. There are other worlds than these. “The Dark Tower” is hollow. From the impure perspective of someone who hasn't read King's series, The Dark Tower isn't half-bad. The Dark Tower takes bits and pieces of Stephen King's rich mythology to create a bare bones adaptation that will enrage fans and bore everyone else. Directing 8.5. In these nightmares the Man in Black uses children in a machine to shoot a light at a large, black tower. Artifacts themselves are a fascinating addition to any adventure. Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) directed, and I'm not sure why. The Dark Tower is the type of film you blind buy out of a clearance bin and enjoy as a one-time watch. It is soulless. “The Dark Tower” is hollow. The movie is a pastiche of buzzwords, disconnected of any sense. Dès février 2007, l'écrivain affirme avoir vendu les droits d'adaptation du cycle pour 19 dollars, le nombre 19 étant un élément récurrent dans l'histoire, à J. J. Abrams et Damon Lindelof, cocréateurs de la série Lost : Les Disparus4. And McConaughey dances on the edge of hamming it up in the villain role, reining it in just enough that one can see how well he could have been utilized with a better script and vision for the project. Don't have an account? Retrouvez infos & avis sur une large sélection de DVD & Blu-ray neufs ou d'occasion. Twitter. There’s a scene with a demon in a house that just ends and much of the final act material features a Jake who looks a lot closer to puberty than when the movie began. Copyright © Fandango. By trying to do both, the movie ends up doing neither. A few other characters flit around the fringe of this thin piece of storytelling, but it’s essentially a three-character piece. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. The Dark Tower's seven volumes sound like the perfect fodder for a long-running prestige TV series. The two leads here—Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey—work just fine in these iconic roles, and you just want to pick them up and put them in a better movie, one that doesn’t seem stuck in the valley between trying to satisfy hardcore fans of the series and the moviegoers who have never heard of Roland and Walter. Google+. [Full Review in Spanish]. The Dark Tower takes bits and pieces of Stephen King's rich mythology to create a bare bones adaptation that will enrage fans and bore everyone else. Elba brings a nice gravity to Roland that fits the character well, a combination of a man haunted by the ghosts of his past and driven to do what’s right to avenge them. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” With that great opening line, an obsession began for millions of readers of Stephen King’s series of books that would eventually be known as The Dark Tower. The Dark Tower may not be the best Stephen King adaptation, but it's a worthwhile summer blockbuster with a sci-fi twist and an eye for world-building. “The Dark Tower” is filled with references for King nuts, including, among others, a moment where Roland glances behind a pin-up poster while looking for an exit (“The Shawshank Redemption”) and the numbers “1408” above a portal. Over the next few books—The Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands, and Wizard and Glass—King did some of his best writing (the series would actually stretch to seven books and a series of comics, but it’s the initial quartet that holds a special place in my heart). Facebook. The most interesting core elements of the novel have been stripped away, leaving a generic husk of a story structure that will leave those unfamiliar with the books confused and/or bored, with hardcore fans settling in on the homicidal side of enraged. It is a film that never quite figured out what it wanted to be, and so elected to be nothing much at all. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. The Dark Tower follows the story of Jake Chambers, a boy from New York who lives with his mother and step-father. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Merlin 5.06 "The Dark Tower" TV REVIEW [lots of spoilers right from the start!] ( Spoiler Free Review) Well, it's been a few years since I finished reading The Dark Tower Series and I have decided to share a few thoughts. As is, it’s more forgettable than loathsome, the kind of movie that occasionally rubs salt in your wounds by reminding you what could have been, but mostly just dissipates from memory as it's playing. A sloppy kind of popcorn entertainment like a McRib you ingest with your eyeballs. The Dark Tower Movie Review: While The Matrix like action and slowmo bullet battles keep you hooked, the story fails to work on a deeper level as motives remain unexplained (perhaps for … A thoroughly average adaptation of some truly incredible source material. The Dark Tower. It’s easy to do so with this movie. Find out! Someone probably thought that making Roland, the title character of the first book, the lead of the first film wouldn’t satisfy a wide enough demographic. As with almost everyone in this film, he’s a device, a way to push the exposition forward to meet a contractually-mandated running time. The Dark Tower has been called Stephen King’s magnum opus for a good reason. The Dark Tower sounds to me like a cheap collection of rather tired clichés strung together into a whole which doesn’t offer any emotional depth, any real dramatic colour or compelling musical narrative. The tower can be destroyed by the mind of a child. This adventure has many of them. The movie is not a sequel for the books. Stephen King's The Dark Tower finally gets adapted and hits the big screen! A movie adaptation has been in … and the Terms and Policies, The new creatures are specific to this tower and would not likely be used in other adventures. It has its flaws, but its strengths carry it through. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! The Dark Tower Cert: 12A 1hr 35mins Rating: It is not often that I’m tempted to give up on a film after less than 15 seconds but for The Dark Tower I was seriously considering making an exception. … THE DARK TOWER MOVIE REVIEW - It's time for yet another Stephen King book series to come out as a film adaption! Amazon.fr - Achetez The Dark Tower à petit prix. Instead, we get this chop job. These books had vision. Truncated and jarringly edited, The Dark Tower both feels too long and too short. The Dark Tower fails majorly to take its science-fiction source to epic levels, but still manages to mildly entertain. 2 years ago. In a movie, the script is your foundation and the script for The Dark Tower is rickety as hell. The new artifacts are creative and interesting. The Dark Tower Review. They used iconic imagery to explore timeless themes. The Dark Tower movie mixes a lot of Stephen King novels to spit out an insipid work that is very easy to forget. Faint praise, but this movie will take all it can get. Most of what made the novels so flavorful is sucked from the proceedings resulting in a product that commits the biggest sin a film can commit: blandness. King brings all his … La Tour sombre (The Dark Tower) est un film de fantasy et de science-fiction américain réalisé par Nikolaj Arcel, sorti en 2017. A cold, antiseptic translation of King's world, with only a gruff Elba to inject it with any spark whatsoever. It is a film that never quite figured out what it wanted to be, and so elected to be nothing much at all. Our Verdict. The Dark Tower review: a film working against itself on every level New, 23 comments This is not a terrible movie, but it does feel terribly confused about its audience So, instead of the origin story of Roland (which will apparently now be told in a television series, also starring Elba), our protagonist here is really Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), an essential character in the books reimagined here as a troubled New York teen without much of a real personality. Equal parts horror, spaghetti western, and Arthurian myth, the sprawling, epic book series pulls in a multitude of genres to create something that is fantastically unique in its own. Facebook. It’s fitting that Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series is cyclical. And while some may criticize Stephen King’s more populist works, that’s a charge that could never be lobbied at The Dark Tower. Google+. The Dark Tower series is an incredibly varied set of books, written over the course of more than 30 years - written by a young man starting out on a wholly uncertain writing future - written by an old man looking back on a glittering career - and punctuated by all his experiences, discoveries, epiphanies. Acting 8. Honestly, I kind of wish it was. Can't say that I hate this movie as much as some do. Spanning eight novels and needing well over one million words, the saga took more than 30 years to craft (the first volume was published in 1982 and the most recent in 2012) and boasts connections to many of the author’s other works. Outlines: A Queer Reading of Some Silhouettes, Resident Alien Blends Humor, Heart into Effective Escapism, Jules Goes to Therapy in Her Own Special Episode of Euphoria, HBO's Painting with John is a Magnetic Celebration of Arts and Artists. If you have a rickety foundation and you build atop it, your structure will collapse. Pinterest. Of course, that child is Jake, who it turns out has the same power as the young man at the center of “The Shining.” He can read minds and other such things that Walter will harness to blow up the tower. The Dark Tower running time has Stephen King fans concerned Its likeable child lead Jake (Tom Chambers) has plenty of vim about him. It’s not long before Jake and Roland team up, but Jake questions whether or not his new gun-toting pal is going to help him save the tower or if he just wants vengeance against the man in black. Sign up here. None of them are overpowering or unbalancing to the game. Jake has prophetic visions of both the Gunslinger Roland (Elba) and the Man in Black Walter (McConaughey). for thematic material including sequences of gun violence and action. Director Nikolaj Arcel has … 5.06 "The Dark Tower" Writer: Julian Jones All rights reserved. Toutefois, Abrams et Lindelof, ne désirant pas s'e… And Hollywood is obsessed with stories of teenagers who discover their bad dreams or hidden secrets are actually the keys to the salvation of the universe. Barrages of strangeness (such as a wood monster or the spontaneous ability to slow down time) are so poorly defined that they lack all significance to the heroes. The film, though, just doesn't hang together properly. “The Dark Tower” plays it so safe and takes so few risks that its greatest sin is in being the one thing those formative books never were for so many people: forgettable. A movie review by James Berardinelli. Tower ” is hollow avid fan of King 's the Dark Tower fails majorly take. And the script is your foundation and you build atop it, your structure will collapse both bold... Humorous bits feel like they have been spliced in, trying to find as big the dark tower review audience as.. 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