Climbing the Dark Tower: The Movie

Like Roland the Gunslinger before us, we've finally reached the Dark Tower. I began this series in preparation for this movie, reading the entire series to get ready for it. After going through those 4000 or so pages of characters and mythology, how do I feel about the movie adaptation I read them for? Well, I'm sorry to say, kind of disappointed. Not that it's a bad movie, though it's certainly not a great movie, but it just didn't have the feel of the series. That ineffable quality that made the books unique and engaging. I'll try to explain what I mean.

The Gunslinger (Idris Elba) follows the Man in Black
across the desert.

Just to get it out of the way, it's not because the movie isn't a straight adaptation of any of the books. The mix and match approach to the material, picking out elements from across the series to create a mostly original story, is fine and fits with things established in the series canon. It was probably a smart move for making a stand-alone Dark Tower movie, because it is a very big series with much to condense. No, my problem is with the story the filmmakers tell with those chosen elements. It works fine for the most part, though the character motivations are somewhat shallow, but the story lacks the epic quest in a huge fantasy world feel that the books had and were essential to the story. The movie feels more like a generic fantasy-adventure film with Dark Tower iconography painted on it, and it works fine as that. But as a Tower Junkie, I wanted a bit more.

Compounding that problem is how small the world of the movie feels. Mid-World (where the actual Tower itself is located and where most of the action in the books happens) doesn't have the scope it did in the books and visually has a bit too much of a generic post-apocalyptic look. This is partly because travel between Mid-World and Earth, which was extremely difficult and required special circumstances in the books, is far easier in the film. Characters cross between Mid-World and New York basically on a whim and it makes the whole affair feel very small. Not helping is the short runtime. All the basic beats of the story are there and if you haven't read the books, the movie will explain everything you need to know, but it's in such a rush to get through things that very little has the dramatic weight it seems like they should. Like even the importance of the Tower itself only warrants a few mentions and the implications of it falling are kept rather vague. There are a few slower, quieter moments, my favorite being when Roland teaches his companion Jake to shoot while reciting the Gunslinger's creed, but they're few and far between.

The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) garnering
respect from his minions.

The two leads are the best part of the movie, but even with them I feel I have to temper my praise. If nothing else, the film got the animosity between the gunslinger and the Man in Black right, even if it kind of simplified that animosity to just, "You killed my father!" Idris Elba is good as Roland, embodying the character's gruff, no bullshit personality nearly perfectly. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't play up Roland's fish-out-of-water nature too much in the New York scenes and let Elba's underrated comic timing make them as funny as they should be. Matthew McConaughey is even better as the Man in Black, you can tell he's having fun playing an unrepentant bad guy and putting an evil spin on his affable hillbilly persona. Part of me wanted him to ham it up a bit more and really play up the Man in Black's more Joker-esque elements. But my hesitation in praising the two comes from that while they're good, both Elba and McConaughey are just doing variations on their stock film personas and if they had pushed their performances just a bit further it would have felt more like they'd walked off the pages of King's books. The rest of the cast is fine, though the script doesn't give them a lot to do.

One thing I found very odd was the film's presentation of the Man in Black. He comes across almost like a Bond villain, orchestrating the effort to destroy the Tower with an army of henchmen who venerate him whenever he appears. This is in marked contrast to the books, where the Man in Black was the lieutenant to the bigger bad and more often worked by himself. Other people knew about him, sure, but the Man in Black was usually working his own schemes and attacking from behind the scenes rather than taking direct action like here. Despite visual references to him everywhere, the Man in Black's boss the Crimson King is never mentioned nor does it seem like the Man in Black is a subordinate to anyone. I don't dislike this change and it works in the context of the movie, I just found it kind of strange.

The Dark Tower isn't a bad movie, but it's not a very good one either. The things it does right balance out the things it does wrong, making it a pretty average experience. As just a fantasy/sci-fi adventure, it's enjoyable enough and Roland's gunslinging is legitimately cool. But as an adaptation of the series, it kind of falls flat. It lacks the epic feel of the quest from the books and doesn't explore the ideas and the characters in the same depth. The movies just doesn't have the same feel as the books did, which hurts it as an adaptation. If you want the real Dark Tower experience, stick with the books. But just as a movie on its own, it's all right. It's definitely not a must-see, but if you're interested I'd say go see it. My disappointment as a Tower Junkie probably made it sound worse than it is.

Final Score: 3/5