#mid-world

Film Review | The Dark Tower

Full disclosure: I have not read any of the Dark Tower books. I marginally enjoyed the movie and I think it may be due to having no knowledge of the book.

I thought that the gunslinging action was inspired, creative, and exciting! And thank god, because we spend a lot of time with Roland and Jake. I thought that McConaughey was decent and menacing as the Man In Black; I think they could have gotten someone totally more menacing, but the burnt caramel in McConaughey’s voice worked alright.

That all being said, I think the movie makes a lot of jumps in assumptions of what the audience understands. The Dark Tower keeps demons out and Roland wants revenge on the Man In Black. Beyond that, Jake doesn’t really seem to matter that much and could’ve been cast better, I have a lot of unanswered questions, and the world-building is just really ambiguous.

We also don’t really get a good look at the threat of the demons, so that’s kind of a faceless boogieman that most likely was left in shadows due to a limited VFX budget. Ho hum. See it or don’t, I hear if you read the books, you’ll be disappointed.