“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
This is considered to be one of the greatest opening lines of a novel ever!
And finally, The Dark Tower had made its way to the big screen.
I’ve waited years for this, people!
And it was a good movie, but not as epic feeling as I had hoped.
I knew that The Dark Tower wasn’t a straight up adaptation, but more of a sequel to the novels. So I was prepared for it to be different from the books. And I actually like that idea! More stories from Mid-World! I’m all for it!
But the way it ended, which I won’t spoil, makes me question if we’ll get any more movies.
I do want to say that I thought the cast was great. There was a lot of people upset that they chose a black actor to play Roland when he is white in the novels or at least on the covers. I never thought much of it.
Roland requires someone who can completely immerse themselves in the role. And Idris Elba is that kind of actor. That was the most important thing to me. I needed to believe that this person was Roland Deschain. And I did.
Tom Taylor was great as Jake. And Matthew McConaughey was appropriately creepy as the Man in Black.
The Dark Tower really felt more like Jake’s movie than the Gunslinger’s. We meet Jake first and he is having visions of the Man in Black and his attempt to destroy the Tower. The Man in Black sends his people to find Jake because he has “the shine.” Jake escapes and follows his latest vision to a house with a portal that takes him to Mid-World and Roland.
While I didn’t mind the story being told from Jake’s perspective, I would’ve really liked to see more of Roland. He’s who I’ve been waiting to see on the big screen all these years.
One cool part of the movie is all the references to Stephen King’s other books throughout. I won’t spoil them because part of the fun is picking them all out. I loved that they did this! If you’re a King fan then you know all his works lead to the Tower in some way. I also really enjoyed seeing Roland in New York! Besides the fight scenes, these were some of the best parts of the movie.
While The Dark Tower did have some really amazing parts, what it truly felt like was a nice visit with old friends. A visit that made me long for the glory days.
