THE DARK TOWER review

THE DARK TOWER

starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Taylor

directed by Nikolaj Arcel

A review by Helen J. Reynolds


The Dark Tower is based on a series written by Stephen King, but fans of the book need not watch the movie adaptation. As with many successful book series, the movie version is drastically different.

Jake (Tom Taylor) is struggling to cope with his father's death and has been haunted by nightmares involving a dark meancing tower that - if it falls - will bring destruction to the world. His child psychiatrist talks of what this symbolises, but the money's been wasted as his dreams aren't dreams and there really is a tower at the centre of the universe, keeping the world safe from demons and darkness.

He also dreams of people - two in particular. One, a gunslinger sworn to protect the tower, and the other, a man dressed in black, hell bent on destroying the tower. He then stops dreaming and enters the world itself...

The plot is excruciatingly simple to follow. Every moment things are explained to the audience, with characters cutting through dialogue to get to just the essence of what's needed to be said (as though the actors were impatient to get it over with).


Style-wise, the film looks cool and there's certainly a lot of special effects, but this is a dumbed down story that leaves no time for either development or humour. The only really funny part of the movie is that Matthew McConaughey seems to have taken his script as a piss-take and plays the evil villian accordingly. He strides through the film with all the confidence of a man photo-bombing, and giving as many shits.

Idris Elba is great as the hero, but his performance -and not his character- are the standout of the movie. If a sequel is in the works, the lacklustre performance at the box-office should really set The Dark Tower's walls crumbling down. 

 A combination of:
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
John Wick (2014)
Cowboys and Aliens (2011)


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