Review of The Dark Tower (2017) by Healingtoolbox1 — 03 Sep 2017

Cinema as mythmaking 101, pay attention. What we have here is a christian and/or metaphysical myth of a LIGHT Tower, A Tower of LIGHT, which keeps the world of waking human beings--and similar worlds--coherent and protected from an outer universe it perceives as monstrous and demonic. Thats one myth-archetype.

Next myth is a TV Western gunslinger written only two-dimensionally but brought to life by Idris Elba. That's two myths-archetypes.

Next is the Satan-Devil figure, given the 2D writing, done as well as I think Marvel could do him in Matthew's fine performance. That's three myths-archetypes. Then we have the boy-coming-of-age myth, Heroes Journey myth and common sub-myths and tropes. Tried and true mythmaking is what critics get awfully tired of. However, the audience I saw it with cheered and clearly several were seeing it at least a second time. Mythmaking done well is always a crowd pleaser.

I liked it. Why? It's done with conviction. Not often do we see a POSITIVE LIGHT Tower as a mythic element in a script. Compare with LOTRings where all the towers and mountains are negative downers. The LOTR Elf kingdom is more hospitable but plays only a minor role. Could this be extended into a series on TV, on film? Hard to say. From skimming the Wikipedia article on the book series, I think making it a young adult film makes more sense than a literal translation of book plot to filmed script. However the film makes little to no attempt to suggest where a sequel to the movie might go. It may be myself and only a few other esoteric-Christian mystics who see in this Dark Tower a LIGHT Tower.