Review of The Dark Tower (2017) by Foreglow — 07 Aug 2017

The Dark Tower is nowhere near as bad as the critics and fans are making it out to be. Despite the trailers making this look like a straight up action film with bad dialogue, it is in fact a fantasy story containing acting and directing so good that you will forget the script's sometimes lackluster lines. Good actors can make a bad line disappear, and these actors do just that. It's very loosely based on the books, and is considered a continuation rather than an adaptation.

The movie centers around a psychic boy named Jake, a cowboy-knight named Roland, an evil Man In Black named Walter, and a Dark Tower that holds the universe together by keeping monsters out. The Man In Black wishes to destroy the Tower so he can rule a chaotic universe. He needs Jake to destroy the tower. Jake needs to find Roland to save him from the Man In Black. Roland seeks the Man In Black for revenge. Each character pursues another, and around and around they go.

The movie does a better job of laying the groundwork than the first book in the series, in many regards. Of course, the first book is notoriously confusing. Just like the first book, 3 of the main characters have been left out. This non-departure from the source material helps to facilitate a digestable entrypoint for newcomers.

Idris Elba is wonderful as Roland. Some people argue he does not fit the description of Roland in the book, and they would be right. Roland is described as an ugly Clint Eastwood/Steven King look alike, who appears emaciated and ancient beyond belief. Mr. Elba is none of these things. However, he understands how to convey all the necessary aspects of the character. He is full of grit and grump, beleaguered, yet heroic. His performance has convinced many a skeptic to sing his praises, with good cause.

Tom Taylor plays an excellent Jake. He fully embodies the worry of a troubled boy who may be going insane, but also the innocence and excitement of someone finding a portal to another world. Child actors often get a well-deserved bad rap, but Tom Taylor delivers every line perfectly.

Matthew Mcconaughey was really and truly awful as The Man In Black despite having come so far as an actor and playing such wonderful roles in the last few years. As an all powerful wizard, he was neither intimidating nor believable, opting for an over-the-top take on the character that just doesn't work. It's understandable why he went that route. The rest of the movie allows for, and even encourages, over-the-top at times. However, that was the greatest weakness of the film, and Mcconaughey's performance is the embodiment of that weakness.

The score varied from average to well-above average, rarely grabbing your attention, but always fueling the emotions on screen. The cinematography, particularly of the first two thirds, is some of the best in years. Praise should also be cast on the editing. Contrary to the cut-per-milisecond style that has become ever so popular in modern movies--and especially action scenes--The Dark Tower does not fear lingering on a beautiful scene and letting you soak in it, or staying with a character as we see emotions fully processed through their face and body. It's as if the editor knew that they didn't need to cut haphazardly to instill a false sense of excitement, or to cut away from a less than genuine performance. They trusted the story, visuals, and acting to hold our attention, and that faith was well placed. At least, it was well placed for the first two thirds, before falling into so-so territory by the last third.

The movie should also be praised for doing with $60 million what many others fail to do with $120 milliom. I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed. The ambition of this project far surpasses others, despite the budgetary constraints.

The humour peppered here and there was phenominal as well. Marvel has the jarring idea lately that they should throw humour into every nook and cranny possible, hoping the 15 good jokes make up for the 15 that fell flat. No such philosophy is necessary here. For the first time in years, I felt like every joke worked. None of it felt forced.

Of course, the movie had its problems. The tone should have been dark. It was too over-the-top for its own good. It added the strange element of futuristic technology that was completely absent in the books, and the technology was overdone in the style of bad science fiction. The costuming department seemed to think they were making a new Matrix movie, instead of the dusty cowboy/fantasty it should have been.

It wasn't a great movie, but considering the source material is known for being unfilmable, it's a shock they made a coherent movie at all. I have newfound confidence that they can learn from the mistakes of this film and make a truly great second installment. Hopefully they do, so we may meet the other three main characters (yes, Oy the talking dog counts!), hear some ZZ Top backbeat, and maybe even meet Blaine the Train.