A boy haunted by visions of a dark tower from a parallel reality teams up with the tower's disillusioned guardian to stop an evil warlock known as the Man in Black who plans to use the boy t... Read allA boy haunted by visions of a dark tower from a parallel reality teams up with the tower's disillusioned guardian to stop an evil warlock known as the Man in Black who plans to use the boy to destroy the tower and open the gates of Hell.A boy haunted by visions of a dark tower from a parallel reality teams up with the tower's disillusioned guardian to stop an evil warlock known as the Man in Black who plans to use the boy to destroy the tower and open the gates of Hell.
- Awards
- 4 nominations total
- Dr. Hotchkiss
- (as José Zuñiga)
Summary
Featured reviews
I'm not sure what was going through the heads of the people involved with this limp mess of a movie. it manages to achieve the double whammy of being completely incomprehensible to non-book readers whilst also being highly insulting to fans of the novels.
As for Matthew McConaughey, I've never been much of a fan and this tragic performance confirms my suspicions that he is one of the most one-dimensional and overrated actors in the business. Idris Elba manages to salvage some artistic integrity from the ruins with a reasonable performance but there is not much one can do with such a godforsaken script.
I love the Dark Tower novels and would recommend them to anybody. It would be difficult for even the best in the business to adequately bring the story to life through cinema but these clowns didn't even try. One of the laziest and Hollywood productions of all-time.
First of all I would like to mention the aspects of the movie which were pretty good: -The scenery: The wastelands of Roland's world were beautiful. -The special effects/fight scenes: I was actually surprised how good the action scenes in this movie were. The special effect guys did a very good job. The fight scenes with Roland shooting bullets in slow-motion and Walter O'Dim's scenes were extremely fun to watch. -The actors: In my opinion the actors did a pretty good job. They did their best with the horrible script the writers handed to them.
And now the negative aspects: -Awful writing: I have no idea how can four (!!!) writers create a stupid dialog and story like this. It's not even the book's fault, because as I know the story is completely different than the one of the books'. -The constant switching between the two worlds, the involvement of the "asian medium lady" and her village, the repetitive usage of the Warriors' praying were so unimportant that it makes me mad. Not to mention the ending...as if it was made for 6 years olds. -Sloppy directing: The director was nominated for BAFTA Award, so I am pretty sure he just did not give a damn about making the movie at least mediocre with the absence of a proper script. The cuts in this movie (when there's no fight) are very annoying, and I am pretty sure I could have cut it to be more watchable than Nikolaj Arcel did (and I have not directed anything yet).
Summary: The books had a perfect material to create an excellent movie series, but someone decided to create an upset, a ruined cinematography from it. I am pretty sure it is the fault of the negligence of the people behind this movie (writers;director). If a Sergio Leone directed this movie with the given universe, it would have become a classic. Now it's a movie nobody will remember after a couple of months (if yes, then it would be due to their hatred for the production crew).
"The Dark Tower" had a good story, albeit somewhat shallow in comparison to what I have heard about the novels from friends who read them.
They had a good cast, whom did indeed put on great acting performances in bringing out their characters on the screen.
One of the major things that kept "The Dark Tower" afloat for me was some really nice CGI and special effects throughout the entire movie.
Wonderful connection to "IT" (Pennywise) and good tie-in with The Shine ability from "The Shining", if you are familiar with those from other works of Stephen King.
All in all, then "The Dark Tower" was a tad above mediocre end result that could have been so much more. It just felt shallow and superficial, and it was definitely like they were in a rush to get through it. Which was a real shame, because it was painstakingly obvious throughout the entire movie, and it definitely served as an anchor holding it back.
Did you know
- TriviaThe Dark Tower is a series of eight books which span an entire connected universe which links several other books and stories by Stephen King, including Bag of Bones, The Talisman, Black House, The Stand, Everything's Eventual, From a Buick 8, Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia, The Eyes of the Dragon, and 'Salem's Lot, with minor references to IT, The Mist, and The Shining.
- GoofsRoland starts out with a wounded right arm, using his left to shoot and to pay the doctor with a coin in the hospital, but on the bus he takes pills and drinks a Coke with his right arm while holding his left arm limp.
- Quotes
Roland Deschain: I do not aim with my hand. He who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand. He who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.
- Crazy creditsRight at the very end of the credits, you hear the ominous whistle.
- SoundtracksHow Little We Know
Written by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer
Performed by The Nick Perito Orchestra (as Nick Perito Orchestra)
Courtesy of Muzak Archives LLC
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- La torre oscura
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $60,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $50,701,325
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $19,153,698
- Aug 6, 2017
- Gross worldwide
- $113,231,078
- Runtime
- 1h 35m(95 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1