Movie Review: The Dark Tower

I read all seven books on the Dark Tower. Somehow. I guess I could be considered a “fan” of Stephen King by the number of books by him I have read, even if I don’t always enjoy his writing very much. He is good, don’t get me wrong, but lately there are too many words in his books to tell the story.

With that said, I did get excited about The Dark Tower movie. After all, I had read all seven books (how many thousands of pages is that?). I had invested time in these characters and I was curious to see how they would translate to the big screen.

To my dismay, early on I learn my favorite character, Eddie, would not be in the movie. Nor would Susanna, as a matter of fact. I liked Jake’s casting, which made me happy, as well as Matthew McConaughey as The Man in Black. Now, I like Idris Elba a lot. I think he’s great! But, he is not the Gunslinger. I had always pictured someone more like Clint Eastwood, or at least someone like Viggo Mortensen as Roland Deschain. Something more like a cowboy. I have nothing against casting someone of a different race as a character, but this time… I cared.

I then heard this movie was not going to be the books, but based on the books… or something like a sequel of the books (if you have read the books, then you know what I’m talking about). 

So I watched it anyway. The only thing the movie had from the books were the three main characters and the locations. Sure, it was sweet to watch some of the places where things happened in the books, except completely different things happened there. Just like number 19, it wasn’t as important as it should have been (only a little).

The movie was a little slow at parts, too. The best thing about it was The Man in Black and taking a look at MidWorld… apart from that, there was nothing much to enjoy.

cheers!