For a film that’s been ten years coming, The Dark Tower certainly had some enormous audience expectations to live up to. Based on Stephen King’s series of eight volumes, the film is part adaptation part sequel to the books. After J.J Abrams and Ron Howard’s involvement and eventual departure, finally Danish director Nikolaj Arcel ( A Royal Affair , 2012) took over the reins in 2015.
The Dark Tower , intended to be the first film of a franchise, gives the audience 11-year-old Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) who has dreams about Walter Padick, the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) trying to destroy a tower in the sky. The demolition of the structure will unleash hell on all the worlds in the universe. Walter wants Chambers for his psychic abilities a.k.a his ‘shine’ to harness in to bring the tower down. The last of the gunslingers’ race, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) must stop the evil plan or the apocalypse will be nigh.
It’s of course, an impossible feat to be able to pack in eight books worth of storylines, arcs, character progressions and whatnot into a 95-minute movie. Unfortunately Arcel hasn’t pulled it off. The filmmakers have tried to be ‘creative’ and make the film a sequel instead of dealing with complications of a thorough adaptation. As someone who hasn’t read the books (but is inclined now to), the film continually oscillates between boring and confusing. What is this tower that protects the worlds of the universe? Who are the gunslingers? What made the Man in Black so awful? There’s no engagement with any of the characters in the absence of any backstory.
Suspending your disbelief will not help one bit either. It won’t stop that snigger when you hear McConaughey ever so seriously refer to his powers – that transcend controlling objects and people’s minds – as ‘magics’. Then there’s the Rajnikanth style larger-than-life action. Elba soars through the air but manages to shoot two enemies before hitting the ground. McConaughey catches some of those bullets and hurls it back at Elba who deflects them with clever swerves of his gun.
It’s only Elba’s performance that will prevent seats from getting prematurely emptied. The man was born to hunt and shoot the bad guys. Please cast him as the next James Bond already. In spite of the poorly choreographed action, the British actor manages to momentarily capture viewers. Plus, the film’s scant humour comes from his character: essentially Deschain’s comic unfamiliarity with modern earth. Sadly, a great actor like McConaughey is reduced to a menacing caricature. Give the film a skip and buy the books instead.
