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The Dark Tower Is a Bittersweet Treatment of the Epic Book Series

The Dark Tower is a simple action film, when it should be something greater.

By Escape From Earth / Jonas PetterssonPublished 7 years ago 4 min read
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Title: The Dark TowerCountry: USAYear: 2017Director: Nikolaj ArcelScript: Akiva GoldsmanActors: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor

Stephen King started the series of books that is The Dark Tower with The Gunslinger in 1982, later followed by six main books and two side stories. It's a powerful work that, among other things, takes place in a different world than ours, and is about the gunslinger Roland Deschain's walk towards The Dark Tower—the central point of every possible universe. There is also a hunt for the magician Walter O 'Dim, also known as the Man in Black, whose goal with the Tower and the rest of all existence is destruction and death.

In 2007, J.J Abrams was involved in the movie adaptation of The Dark Tower, around the time Cloverfield was coming along. When this didn't happen, the adaptation went through a long series of film studio difficulties, until the film was finally finished with the help from Sony Pictures and Media Rights Capital and recently had its premiere in the cinemas. At the time of writing, the film certainly did not get the best response from the critics, and after seeing it myself, I understand why.

In a world in decline, the last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, has ended up in an endless battle with the magician Walter O'Dim, who has to be stopped from toppling The Dark Tower, that is of importance to every universe in existence. The young Jake Chambers from our world gets visions from Roland's world and starts looking for a way to get there.

To start positively, Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey made brilliant performances as Roland and Walter. McConaughey tends to steal the show in the things he's in and so is the case here. Even Elba definitely convinces the viewer that he is exceptionally skilled with his weapons. When it was clear that he was cast to play Roland, it provoked controversy, since the character in the books was inspired by Clint Eastwood's "The Man with No Name." That isn't the issue of the character portrait, though. For me, rather, the movie version of Roland becomes a little bit too stereotypically heroic, when in the books he was all the more complex. A little more depth in both Roland and Walter wouldn't have hurt, but it might be saved for any potential sequel and the TV series that is planned.

Whether the film is faithful to the source material or not, the answer is no, if the 95 minutes of the movie was not indication enough. Not long before the film was released, it was clear that it was not an adaptation of the books, but in fact a sequel to the books. There is some logic to this if you look at how the last book in the series ends, but it still feels like an excuse not to tell the epic story as it should be told. The story of the film is similar to that of the first book, but is designed to accommodate the entire battle between Roland and Walter in one and the same movie. Those who expect a long walk towards the Tower, like Frodo's journey to Mordor, will be disappointed, as this is rather a relatively simple action film that rushes through a story that should be spread out in a more epic way.

The ones who've read the books know the Tower, the characters, and Mid-World, in which most of the story takes place. The film starts with a text about the Tower's purpose and it's basically the only thing we'll find out about it, sadly. There is no room for building up either the Tower, the world, or the characters, but what matters is that Roland and Jake get to Walter's retreat before it's too late and the Tower falls. It's probably for the best if you view the movie as separate from the books, with the possibility to like it better, but to me who has read the books it's hard not to shake your head at how the story is told. It is not impossible that any sequels and aforementioned TV series will give more life to the movie version, but this remains to be seen.

With all that said, the movie is entertaining throughout. The action scenes that are included are really well made and a pleasure to watch, while references to Stephen King's other works go by here and there—The Shining and It are two of these. It's nice to see, at least until the end of the film, which is far too abrupt and left me feeling that there should be more to it here. What I'd rather see would be a true interpretation of the first book—The Gunslinger—or a significantly longer depiction of this particular story, where the Tower, The Man in Black, and Roland are all explored more.

The Dark Tower is obviously very loosely based on its source material and it's really sad that what we eventually got was a simple action movie. For those who have read the books, there is a risk of disappointment and for those who haven't read the books there may still be the feeling of confusion and maybe even that's something is missing. But I would lie if I said that the movie wasn't engaging because it has got a number of fun moments.If it's true that there are other worlds than these, I hope there is a world that got a better adaptation than this.

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About the Creator

Escape From Earth / Jonas Pettersson

Has been in love with fiction for a very, very long time, whether it be movies, books and video games in the shape of horror, science fiction and other strange topics.

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