The Dark Tower

Unofficially charting a surprisingly long line of failed franchises from 2017 that was The Mummy and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, there was still one more on my list and it was the highly anticipated adaptation of the Stephen King series The Dark Tower.

Apparently Stephen King's series is a fascinating story which has built a dedicated fanbase but I saw none of that potential here in a mainstream film that must set the record for having the least amount of exposition. Who are these characters, what is the dark tower, where is it, and why does no one go there? The film gave me nothing other than a boy living in New York who has visions of the tower being destroyed by McConaughey's bad guy and that Idris Elba's gunslinger must save the day.

The Dark Tower is a strange experience as it never truly 'gets going' and with a brief runtime of 85 minutes, I wasn't sure whether to feel delighted or if I'd been robbed of a better film. It is entertaining at surface-level as the plot swiftly jumps along and Elba is the best thing it has to offer but I can't help feeling this was a half-hearted Hollywood attempt to cash in on Stephen King's series before the TV series, that is apparently going ahead, launches with Amazon. Once again, an arthouse director has been picked-up by a studio to be pushed around at their will when this really needed someone with a strong vision like Guillermo del Toro to craft something worthy of King's work.

In a word: underwhelming. The Dark Tower is inoffensive in its treatment, unless you count McConaughey's sleepwalking performance, but it fails to be memorable in any way possible. I hope the TV show does better justice to the source material than this flaccid studio attempt.