Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came . . .
Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
The Plot: Our world is but one of many, and they are all held together by the Dark Tower, a nexus of reality that sends out energy protecting all of the worlds from powerful evil forces. In a realm called Mid-World, the dark wizard Walter (McConaughey) works to destroy the tower; opposing him is Roland (Elba), the last of the Gunslingers who are sworn to protect it. On Earth, when teenager Jake Chambers begins having visions of Roland and Walter, he quickly finds himself drawn into their world and their conflict.
Review: I'll hold my hands up immediately and say I'm not an impartial reviewer when it comes to this film. Not only is Stephen King my favourite author (even beating J.K.Rowling), but I consider his Dark Tower series to be a masterpiece, his magnum opus if you will. I've been eagerly awaiting some sort of screen adaptation of the series for years, as it's been through the kind of development hell that you'd expect given the sheer volume of source material (seven main novels plus one additional novel over the course of twenty years). Oh, how sad it is that this is result.
If, like me, you've read the novels, you'll understand the sheer scope and scale of them, the depth of the story that King has woven that reaches out to link with many of his other stand-alone novels. How do you even begin to capture a tale of this magnitude? Well, if you're the director and writers of this film, the answer is to take the core plot from the first novel The Gunslinger, cherry-pick some small moments and themes from the remaining six novels and sprinkle those in, then tack on a traditional action-movie style ending. And do all of this in an hour and half.
Yes, you read that right. The film clocks in at a grand total of 95 minutes. What the actual fuck.
Arcel has said the film is both a sequel to the novels and an adaptation of them. Again, if you've read the novels (and I keep using that phrase, apologies but it's for a reason), you'll understand why that's possible. But the film is entiretly unsatisfactory as either, giving neither the story or its characters the outing they deserve.
Now, that's not to say that nothing happens here. A great deal happens in fact - the film proceeds along a brisk but smooth pace - but it's biggest problem is that it crams so much in whilst explaining very little. The core concept of the story - Roland's quest to stop Walter - is given none of the depth of the novels and Walter's motivations for bringing down the Tower are explained in a single short sentence. I tried to put myself in the place of someone who has never read the books, and I imagine they will be left puzzled as so much happens that's either explained poorly or isn't explained at all. For example, at one point Roland is referred to as Roland of Gilead, with no further explanation of what the significance of that title means. Frustrating for someone like me who's read the novels, no doubt confusing for someone who hasn't.
It doesn't stop there. The entire film felt like it had been made purely for those familiar with the novels. Here's a few examples of things I spotted that were given no explanation at all:
- A Tet Corporation logo in the opening credits, complete with turtle and a rose
- Logos for the Sombra Corporation
- Graffiti reading "All hail the Crimson King!" complete with eye motif
- Breakers - the psychic children being used forcefully by Marten to bring down the Tower
- The Low Men - called "Skin Men" in the film
- Brief uses of the High Speech - one character greets Roland with "Long days and pleasant nights", and another character is heard saying "Thankee-sai"
- Walter is seen using more than one of the powerful orbs that make up Maerlyn's Rainbow
- Walter's base of operations is mentioned as being in the Wastelands
One of the things that the film does get right though is the references to King's other stories, something that becomes important in the novel series: Jake's psychic power is referred to as his "Shine"; in Mid-World, Jake and Roland encounter the remains of theme park complete with a "Pennywise" clown ride; the portal co-ordinates for Walter's base are "1408"; again I could go on and on. There's lots of little references scattered throughout for eagle-eyed fans of King's novels and films to pick up on and enjoy.
To try and claw this back to being a film review and not just a glorified comparison to the novels, it's not a complete disaster. Visually it's superb, with gorgeous shots both in New York City on Earth and in the broken environments of Mid-World, and the (far too brief) shots of the Dark Tower itself are wonderful. The one real action set-piece (prior to the "final battle", if you will) is an exhilarating display as Roland takes out an entire room of adversaries. McConaughey is terrific as Walter, giving a real sense of malice with the limited script he's been given to work with here. Elba doesn't fair as well, but I place the blame firmly on the script. Roland just isn't as fleshed out as he deserves to be. In his supporting role as Jake, young actor Tom Taylor does okay but is a bit wooden in places. It's acceptable given his age.
It's just such a shame that these high points are far outweighed by the lows. To take such an epic story, cut out close to 95% of it and then wrap it up neatly in an underwhelming final battle sequence is incredibly disappointing.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Whilst not a complete disaster, this is a messy, frustrating adaptation of a truly outstanding novel series that fails to bring any of the depth and scale of the source material. Frustrating for fans of the series in its treatment, and frustrating for newcomers due to the sheer amount of plot and story that's left unexplained, this goes down as a clear miss when it comes to adaptations of King's work. A real shame.
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