The best way I can describe The Dark Tower is that everything about it was half-assed.
With a running time of only a short 95 minutes, the producers and creators really missed the mark on this one.
If you know Stephen King's novel (and even I have never read it myself), you would know that the rich universe he has created here has plenty of materials to draw from. But this movie version was watered down and, even worse, did not bring in the full potential of two of its biggest Hollywood stars in Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.
Elba as the Gunslinger had a few cool moments drawing his gun, but not nearly enough for the enjoyment of the character. McConaughey could have been so much more as the evil Man In Black, but we did not get enough character development from him.
The young boy Jake played by Tim Taylor looked uninspired but he probably did the best he could with the shallow material. And the introduction of side characters like Claudia Kim felt abrupt and forced and did not gel with the overall flow of the story.
I do not believe the fault was solely on director Nikolaj Arcel as the entire movie did not look like it failed. But it is also hard to say where the movie went wrong, was it the script or did a lot of things ended up on a chopping floor?
In the end, I could see what the movie was going for. A little bit of heart came through from quite a messy progression. Clearly though, the movie was nowhere near its potential.
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