The Dark Tower (2017)

My god.....I was down right BORED in the fist 25 minutes. I had heard all the critic slamming literally all over the place, everywhere you looked and listened; television, you tube, magazines and of course right here on IMDb. Stephen King is my number one favorite writer. I have read practically everything he has ever graced us with. If I wasn't able to read it then I would listen to the audiobook. I am fully aware that King's material is relatively notorious for being hit and miss transitions but the thing is this was a miss of truly groundbreaking proportions. It's a miss for both readers and non-readers. This movie has crossed over a line. A line that is almost impossible to put into words. I found myself thinking of the worst adaptions like Graveyard Shift, The Mangler, The Tommyknockers, Children Of The Corn, why, because it definitely belongs in that rock bottom category. The funny thing is if I HAD to I would rewatch any of the four that I just mentioned. I will NOT watch this again. The Dark Tower very thinly disguising itself as quality with grotesquely typical superhero CGI made me feel as though I was watching a damn video game. Even the most recent bad adaptions like the unnecessary remake of Carrie was better than this, Cell was better, at least Cell had a story, 1408 was better.

I strictly made myself purchase a matinée ticket just to be safe...$8.00. It was the multitude of negativity that drew me to wanting to see for myself. I really wanted to say what other people were saying here about ignoring the critics because a lot of times critics do exaggerate, especially when the books are so widely cherished by so many people over so many years. In this case the critics are not only correct but the movie even has people being ridiculously sympathetic towards it. This film does not deserve ANY sympathy. To the book readers AND non-book readers, the movie is TRASH.

Ignore the positive reviews on here. As far as The Dark Tower is concerned the critics are right, 100%. If you do decide to go see it then I strongly suggest to buy the cheapest theatre ticket you can and brace yourself.

I honestly do not know if Stephen King backed this project to its maximum. You simply cannot believe everything you see or hear in interviews. Although if he did, then it is very easy to see him fleeing across the desert dressed in black.....his back to all of his fans.....whipping his arm around as sharply as he can giving all of them the bird.

Fmovies: You have Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey 8 books of material, and you put together a 95 minute movie? I absolutely hate that critics have to hold their reviews on these movies so the public cannot be forewarned. Its like restaurant critics not being able to tell you the food is dog meat until after you place your order. Then there are those fans who loved the books, so they delude themselves into thinking the movie is good enough. Frankly the history of Stephen King material and film is a mixed bag. The Shining is obviously superior, but when's the last time you dug out Dreamcatcher? It just continues to shock me how inept some of these productions are.

This film reminds me of the situation surrounding the making of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film was turned down by one studio after another as none of the studios wanted to commit to making 3 films. One of the studios actually agreed to make it, but only if the script was condensed into a single film. Thankfully the people that had the rights and were pitching the films understood that the idea of translating the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in a single film was a laughable proposition and the end result would have been a terrible film that would ultimately do no justice to the source material. They were willing to bring it down to 2 films instead of 3, but the studio wound up turning them down.

The final studio they approached was New Line and because all of the other studios had turned them down, they pitched it to New Line as a 2 film series as opposed to a trilogy. Amazingly, New Line agreed to take on the project but only if it was made as a trilogy. Clearly someone at New Line smartly recognized that Lord of the Rings was an amazing project and the only way to do it right was to make it a trilogy. And anyone who has read the Lord of the Rings trilogy understands first hand that there is just way too much material to be condensed into a single film or even 2 films. And as we all know, the films wound up being a HUGE success and made New Line billions. At last look the Trilogy had made more than 6 billion world wide.

Like Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower series is just way too big to be condensed into a single film. Any film studio that was legitimately serious about doing the Dark Tower series justice would understand that right out of the gate. The Lord of the Rings was 3 books and the running time for the extended versions of the films was 682 minutes or just over 11 hours long. .The Dark Tower series is 8 books and many of them are BIG books. Anyone who thinks that amount of material can be condensed into a single film is living in la la land. I knew going in that this was going to be a cheap attempt at making money off of Stephen Kings name and the popularity of The Dark Tower series and that's exactly what it was. The Dark Tower series is one of my all time favorite book series, as is Lord of the Rings, and this film is literally a bad joke compared to the source material. How they got Matthew McConaughey to sign on to this film when he has had such an amazing run the last 4-5 years is simply beyond my understanding. I will never understand how such an amazing writer has had so many terrible films made from his books.

Bottom line - this was a terrible film, one that does no justice to the source material at all. If your a fan of the Dark Tower books, do yourself a HUGE favor and skip this film. Its like a bad joke of the Dark Tower universe. Everyone involved with this film should be ashamed of being a part of it. The only reason I saw it is because I have a nephew than basically begged me to take him to see it and I have to admit, part of me was curious to see just how bad it really was and in that regard it didn't disappoint. It was just as bad as I expected it to be. This is Hollywood garbage, nothing more and nothing less. Do yourself a favor and put your money elsewhere.

The Dark Tower fmovies. My wife and I went to see this movie last night. This is probably the only review I've done in the past 30 years and that's because I believe this was "UNFAIRLY REVIEWED BY CRITICS", so I'm hoping you'll give this movie a shot after reading what I have to say.

I almost didn't go because the movie review in USA Today newspaper only gave it one star. Some of the user reviews here didn't seem very enthusiastic about the movie either. I'm 67, retired, and a King fan (I've red The Dark Tower books). My wife is 70, retired and not a King fan (she hasn't read any of the Dark Tower books). Just to provide some additional perspective some of the movies we've seen so far this year and how we rated (in chronological order) The Founder 5, A Dog's Purpose 5, John Wick Chapter 2 5, Logan 6, Kong; Skull Island 7, Beauty and the Beast 7, Power Rangers 5, The Fate of the Furious 8, Guardians of the Galaxy 2nd Vol 8, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Wonder Woman 9, The Mummy 5, Spider Man 6, War for the Planet of the Apes 8, and The Dark Tower 8.

I was worried standing in line to see the movie so when the previous show got out I started asking people (must have been close to 20) if the liked the show. (Would have asked more except my wife was feeling a little embarrassed.) Everyone said a hearty "Yes" except for one couple who shook their heads and said, "It wasn't like the books" and gave it a thumbs down. After that I was encouraged and looked forward to seeing the movie. I figured most of the critics were slamming it because it didn't follow the books closely. Frankly, from what I've seen, King books have always had a tough time being translated to the big screen.

Although this movie didn't follow the books "right on" the main gist of the plot and characters were there so I wasn't disappointed. Contrary to what some other critical and user reviews have said, the plot was cohesive, well thought out, and had similarities to the book. The acting was very well done all around, the action was excellent and was not jittery or blurry. It's easy to connect to the characters and the emotional points of the plot.

I started with a list of movies we've seen and how we rated so you can compare how similar, or not, your ratings were to put in perspective how likely you'd be to enjoy this movie. I wonder if critics and some users go to movies for reasons different from ours. We just want to see fun, entertaining, well acted movies that have been filmed and directed by good professionals. The ONLY ding we could give this movie was that it wasn't done in a manner similar to "Lord of the Rings" where it's carried out over 3 films with greater detail and depth. That might have been better, but maybe not. Regardless, I wish critics would at least rate movies like this with 2 stars as long as they're fun, well done and entertaining. There's no way this was a one-star film.

Unless you really need the movie to follow all the outline and plot of the books, I'm extremely confident you'll enjoy this movie. It's well worth going to the show to see. You'll like it!

Worst film of the year in my personal opinion. You have MM and Elba, you have 8 - EIGHT - books of material, and you do a movie that is hour and a half long, you butcher the material, and after all, you don't make the Gunslinger the central character in the movie.

This project should've been straightforward: Chronologically you start with the genesis of the conflict between Ronald and the Man in Black, you build your characters toward the conflict aka Last Stand, and you end the movie in the dark, just before the start of the first book. Movie of 2, 2.5 hours, dark, with R-rating. You exploit the potential of the brilliant actors at your disposal.

You just don't do this. Rubbish. I gave it three stars just because of McConaughey and his obviously good performance as the Man in Black.

The Dark Tower by Stephen King is an expansive story that spans 7 books, telling Roland the Gunslinger's journey to the Tower; involving different genres, many characters, many worlds - a big lore.

At a certain point whether you have read the series or not is probably irrelevant. If you haven't read the books, I would imagine the movie just will feel flat and lifeless, with only a few scenes from McConaughey standing out. There's very little plot and character development, all of which come across as a lump of clichés. If you have read the books, you'll likely find the movie a spectacular failure, wondering how the writers managed to dumb down such promising material to a 95 minute generic action movie, and making an actor like Idris Elba overact in a character that should have endless potential. The final result is so hollow and narrow, just watch the trailer and you may count yourself as having seen the whole thing.

If you are intrigued by the story, skip this movie, and give the first book of the series a go.