The Dark Tower movie review: Forget the world, they couldn't even save the film

DIRECTOR: Nikolaj Arcel

CAST: Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Idris Elba

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, The Dark Tower is based on Stephen King’s 8 books long, The Dark Tower series. It’s a typical story of good versus evil. The film opens with Jake Chambers, a child who is tormented with visions of Man in Black, better known as Walter (Matthew McConaughey), who is using psychic children to destroy the Dark Tower in order to unleash monsters in the world. In his dreams, Jake also sees Roland, the Gunslinger, (Idris Elba), his only hope in this disdain world where nobody believes him, not even his mother.

Jake’s mother, his psychiatrist and everyone around him thinks the boy is going through some mental illness ever since he suddenly lost his father. As Jake’s nightmares turn into scary reality, he meets Roland, who is on his own quest to hunt down Walter in order to avenge his father’s death. Walter is a sleek looking villain who gives sexy a new name. Everyone is afraid of him as he can instantly make anyone “stop breathing” but it’s Roland over whom he has no affect on, which makes this chase of ‘good trying to protect the world from evil’ slightly interesting. Will Jake be able to make Roland see eye to eye and team up against Walter and his monstrous looking army in order to save the tower from being destroyed? Well, you’ll have to sit through the sloppy 90-minutes to find that out.

While the fantasy-cum-horror film fails badly to meet the expectations and doesn’t deliver much, the fatherly bond between Jake and Roland helps the film sail through. The Matrix inspired gun shots and slow-mo looks repetitive and doesn’t make an impact. The story telling feels a little rushed as it pulls us from one scene to another, without letting us form a connection between the two. At times, a lot is going on in the film while on the other hand, nothing is happening at all. Film drags us through the deserted mid-world before taking us back to New York with some cliché dialogues and hasty action sequences and boom, we land straight to the climax.

Matthew McConaughey’s performance in the film doesn’t have much to talk about, which in itself is sad news since he has delivered some remarkable roles in the past. Matthew as the villain in the film lacks conviction and life. He is all cheekbones and swag but that’s about it. While on the other hand we can’t help but wonder why Idris Elba, who plays the protagonist in the film, had to stoop himself low for the role. But then again, we don’t blame them, since the script wasn’t meaty enough to utilize the real potential of these two fabulous actors in the first place. Tom Taylor as Jake does justice to his role and looks convincing.

One doesn’t have to sit through the entire series in order to get the drift of the story as the film easily manages to portray it, even if in the most neglectful way, which kind of works if you are just in a cozy mood and want to catch a film, any film.