The Dark Tower (2017)

A quiet Saturday afternoon with a couple of hours of down time led me to scoping out a film to watch on Sky. After a brief search, I read the two line description which sounded up my street - fantasy, Stephen King, Idris Elba - and decided to give it a go.This may be very different to many of the reviews I have read after having watched the film, in that I had never read any of the books, knew nothing of the story or the characters and therefore had zero expectations!I am not going to lay out the plot here other than it is the time honoured good vs evil; dark vs light; potential end of times etc etc.And do you know what? I really enjoyed it. Even down to an ending that could have been played out rather differently, but took a sensible route instead. I have seen others mention Never Ending Story as a parallel and I can sort of understand why although there is a darker undertone here and the emotional aspect of the story I think was handled well.My advice? If you have an open mind and this is a genre you like then have a look and I reckon, like me, you'll have an enjoyable experience.

Okay, I admit: I am ready to watch any movie featuring Idris Elba. Unfortunately, he does not have the refined powers of discrimination exhibited by the likes of Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. Basically, our favorite binge tv star (The Wire) will accept any and every script. So watch this nonsense, if you must, but I cannot recommend it except, of course, for the glimpses of Idris.

Just read the books and you will understand it. Dark Tower books are a modern cult saga, and it is one that close all the story circles with cohesion and bright, all the loose ends got together as one big shot. The movie is not a sequel for the books. The movie is a pastiche of buzzwords, disconnected of any sense. The movie is not a part of King's world as The recent footage of "It", for instance. The movie is a big mistake.

Granted, I have not read the books from Stephen King, but I am familiar with them as I used to work in a bookstore. I was looking forward to watching the adaptation of the novels here, and was expecting quite the unique experience."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.