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The Dark Tower
USA 2017
produced by
Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard, Erica Huggins, Genevieve Hofmeyr, G. Mac Brown (executive), Jeff Pinkner (executive) for Columbia, Media Rights Capital, Sony, Imagine Entertainment, Weed Road Pictures
directed by Nikolaj Arcel
starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Dennis Haysbert, Ben Gavin, Claudia Kim, Jackie Earle Haley, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, Katheryn Winnick, Nicholas Pauling, Michael Barbieri, José Zúñiga, Nicholas Hamilton, Inge Beckmann, Alfredo Narciso, Eva Kaminsky, Robbie McLean, Mark Elderkin, Matthew Thomson, Karl Thaning, Reon Van Der Watt, Lemogang Tsipa, Robert Whitehead, Charlize Churcher, Lara Lipschitz, Leeanda Reddy, Sara Cicilian, Lena Stein, Kenneth Fok
screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel, based on the novel by Stephen King, music by Tom Holkenborg (= Junkie XL)
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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For years now, young Jake (Tom Taylor) has had dreams of another world
- dreams that he insists are visions, visions he makes very detailed
drawings of. This has only intensified after the death of his father, and
the fact that his mother's (Katheryn Winnick) new boyfriend (Nicholas
Pauling) is a prick doesn't help much. However, mum is starting to worry
about her son, so eventually she wants to send him away for evaluation.
But he notices the people who come to pick him up (Eva Kaminsy, Robbie
McLean) are actually in league with the baddies from his dream, so he
bolts, makes it to a house he has seen in his vision, and finds a portal
to the other world ... where he bumps into gunslinger Roland (Idris Elba),
a man who has appeared prominently in his visions, and Roland gives him
the full story: There's a baddie called Walter (Matthew McConaughey)
roaming this realm who wants to destroy the "dark tower" that
holds together all realities and guards the universe from extra-universal
somethings because ... fuck if I know, sounds like a horrible idea, even
for a villain. Anyway, to achieve that he needs children from Jake's
reality who have "the shine" (some ESP shit), and Jake
apparently has especially much of that shine, which is why it appears
Walter is now after him. But Roland's after Walter to kill him, because
Walter has erradicated his caste, the gunslingers, and now he wants
revenge. Now of course, Jake doesn't want all realities to collapse, so
the two team up to find Walter's headquarters, as Walter's trying to find
them. So after many a shoot-out, chase, encounter with monsters and
whatnot in both Roland's and Jake's world, Jake is taken captive by
Walter's man and strapped to a chair so his shine can activate the cannon
aimed at the dark tower - but Roland's close behind to safe him, and ...
well, suffice to say all realities didn't crumble that very day. Now
I have to say this, the finale, a duel between master gunman Roland and
ESP-powered Walter is pretty neat, full of ideas that might not be totally
new (The Matrix readily comes to mind, but also the Franco Nero
miniature The Last Pistolero)
but well assembled, and even if the outcome is predictable, the film has
found a clever way to get there. Too bad then that the same cannot be said
for the rest of the movie, which basically feels like nothing more than a
generic YA thriller, full of over-used tropes, cut-out characters and
stale dialogue. The biggest flaw of this movie however is that it totally
fails at world-building, both on a narrative and a visual level, and
considering that much of the movie takes place in a parallel world, this
is a gaping hole. This means on one hand that all the locations look very
earth-like, a bit dull even, on the other we never manage to really have a
emotional connection to the story, as to why the dark tower is so
important and all - sure, it's explained in words, one just doesn't feel
it. And since this is the central conflict of the movie, this lack is a
significant loss for sure, as it robs everything of its dramatic urgency. In
hindsight, it's a shame but not a surprise that The Dark Tower
failed (not only artistically but also commercially) as it was first
announced in 2007, then going through years of pre-production hell before
finally getting made, which often means original concepts get watered down
considerably, and too many compromises being made along the way. Still,
back when there were high hopes for making a sequel and/or a TV series
developing the concepts of this movie further, something that was quickly
scratched after poor box office returns.
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