Review: The Dark Tower

Even if one wasn't aware that it was based on Stephen King's eight-novel multiverse and that the production was plagued with last-minute re-edits and clashing visions, there's something about The Dark Tower that feels both overstuffed and underdeveloped. It's also a film adaptation that feels less like a King work than a half-baked mishmash of The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. It's not that The Dark Tower is bad per se, it's just that it could have been so much better.

The tale centers around eleven-year-old Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), whose dreams involve the Gunslinger (Idris Elba), the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), and their battle over the titular tower, which somehow holds multiple universes that are on the verge of collapse. The Man in Black seeks to destroy the tower in order to bring ruin to the world, and he kidnaps psychic children and uses their powers or their "shine" in order to attack the tower. Jake, as it is soon revealed, has a most powerful shine, though his mother (Katheryn Winnick) and stepfather (Nicholas Pauling) believe that his visions and the detailed sketches of those visions may stem from Jake not being fully recovered from his father's death.

When his mom reluctantly decides to send him to a clinic, Jake notices that the people who have come to collect him are the monsters wearing human faces from his dreams, he makes a break for it and heads to a fairly creepy house in Brooklyn that he saw in one of his visions. There he discovers a portal that leads him to Mid-World where he encounters the Gunslinger and where his unauthorised entry is noted by the Man in Black, who sends his crew to get Jake so that he can use Jake's abundant shine to finally fell the tower.

The Dark Tower clocks in at under 100 minutes and its running time proves a detriment. Characters and motivations are barely sketched. Who exactly is the Gunslinger and why is he duty-bound to protect the tower? Who exactly is the Man in Black? Why does the Man in Black want to to destroy the towers and unleash monsters from a parallel universe? How would that benefit him? How exactly did Jake's father die? Did his death have anything to do with Jake essentially being the Chosen One? If you're looking for answers, then best to go read King's novels for you won't find them in this film.

The film becomes marginally better in the second half if only because Elba's swagger on the streets of New York City is something to behold. There's also the Gunslinger's discovery of such things as painkillers and sugar - it's cutesy but Elba sells it. McConaughey's performance as the Man in Black also comes into more focus; the nonchalant manner with which he issues his commands and the immediacy with which his victims respond is chilling. Yet their inevitable showdown never really feels like the epic battle between good and evil that it ought to be. It's a shame though since, barring James Bond, the Gunslinger would have been an ideal franchise character for Elba, who truly deserves to be more than a supporting player in blockbusters such as Star Trek and Thor.

Though The Dark Tower may be disappointing for King fans, it does feature several Easter eggs to King's other works that may at least keep them occupied.

The Dark Tower

Directed by: Nikolaj Arcel

Written by: Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel

Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, Jackie Earle Haley, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, Dennis Haysbert, Tony Zuniga, Katheryn Winnick, Michael Barbieri