Review of The Dark Tower (2017) by Diane R — 05 Aug 2017

I'm a big Stephen King fan. I read the Dark Tower series and this movie was a very good introduction to this story for those who aren't that familiar with the story or characters. I don't need excess language or violence in a movie to make it entertaining.

I was glad this was PG13. They handled Roland, Walter, and Jake's characters very well. They were very similar to the book, keeping in mind this is not a movie of the actual books. Given that this isn't a movie of the books and that it needs to introduce brand new viewers to this world, it was a good introduction that handled the characters well.

On top of that, it reminded those who did know the plot of this concept that in Stephen King's world, there is a lot of crossover. If people are expecting all the intricacies of the series, they won't get it in this movie because let's face it, they are kind of weird and directed to a specific type of reader.

I think this kind of story needs to be done this way for the movie audience, a more generic introduction while building up and slowly introducing the more strange and detailed pieces of this world and the crossover connections btwn the King stories.

Stephen King movies are often not great when made into movies because so much of his plots are internal thoughts or hard to bring to life psychological and even physical details, but this movie didn't have that made for tv movie feel that didn't seem to give justice to the characters.

That is why the best representations are the mini series movies, in general. This felt like a Hollywood movie and I was glad. I didn't give it 5 stars because it was a little short and there was a story point I didn't like (I don't want to give spoilers), but, again, being a huge King fan, I was very satisfied with this movie.