This week we saw The Dark Tower, the latest film to be adapted from the books of Stephen King. However, unlike many other King novels we had not read any of the Dark Tower stories so went into the film with an open mind.
From Director Nikolaj Arcel, the film is a science fiction fantasy with a bit of a western thrown in.
The film introduces us to Roland the Gunslinger (Idris Elba) who is trying to stop the Walter the Man In Black (Matthew McConaughey) who wants to destroy the Dark Tower and end the world.
We know this from visions had by Jake (Tom Taylor) an 111-year-oldboy. Jake’s own mum (Katheryn Winnick) is concerned and desperate to get him help, where as his stepdad (Nicholas Pauling) just wants him sent away as wants his mum to himself.
Various members of Walter’s following soon learn that Jake is the chosen one who has enough power to destroy the Dark Tower, this results in Walter killing Jake’s stepfather and mother.
Jake whilst on the run from them finds a portal to another world and comes across Roland, who agrees to protect the boy, as he believes this will get him face to face with Walter, the man who killed Steven (Dennis Haysbert), his father which will give him the chance to seek his revenger.
Issues with portals will see Jake having to take Roland to our world as they seek escape from Walter who will stop at nothing to get the boy to destroy the dark tower leading to a showdown between the Man in Black and the Gunslinger.
And really not a lot more happens that that, for a modern day film it has a very short run time of 95 minutes so never goes too far to outstay its welcome, but even then it does feel slow in places.
The film does offer King fans lots of little in jokes to look out for, such as seeing Cujo or Jake’s pal playing with a model car that is clearly Christine and the film does have an exciting finale but overall we had hoped for better, with the cast involved, which also includes the likes of Claudia Kim; Jackie Earle Haley; Fran Kranz and Abbey Lee.
It’s not a bad film, just not a memorable one either, we think we will read the books before we watch a sequel!
You can watch the trailer here:
You can find the books from Amazon here:
Buy or rent the film here:
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