Stephen King's The Dark Tower

I thought the movie was okay, and I wrote a review for the newspaper I work at saying as much. I do wonder if my reaction would have been different if it had been tainted by negative reviews before going in, though. The plot's nothing to write home about, but I liked Elba and Mc Conaughey. I'm not too familiar with Walter from the Dark Tower series, but I have read The Stand and from what I saw of Randall Flagg in that book I feel like Mc Conaughey nailed it.

The film became a Young Adult PG-13 film set after the events of the series.

Okay Rotten Tomatoes has it at around 16% now with the consensus " Go then, there are other Stephen King adaptations than these". This is getting absolutely razed, like holy shit.

I do not watch with my bias; he who watches with his bias has forgotten the face of his father.

I watch with my eye.

I do not write with my pen; he who writes with his pen has forgotten the face of his father.

I write with my computer.

I do not review with the heart of a fan, he who reviews with the heart of a fan has forgotten the face of his father.

I review with my mind.

- RT's oath.

edited 4th Aug '17 12:22:41 PM by Gaon

the dark tower lies in ruins

Eh, I'm the sort of person who enjoyed the hell out of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - I still might go see this.

I mean, nothing can be Maximum Overdrive bad, right?

edited 4th Aug '17 6:59:29 PM by Pseudopartition

Thorgi's review talks about seeing a group of 20 people in the middle of the theater who sat thru the credits — not waiting for a post-credits sequence, but bitching about how unfaithful the film was to the books.

"I mean, nothing can be Maximum Overdrive bad, right?"

Ever see After Earth? This film has the same wan, bored tone.

edited 4th Aug '17 8:21:53 PM by AnotherGuy

"What did you see?"

"A tower, a man in black... a black man."

Okay, stupid joke over, carry on.

Just saw the movie. It was great.

Honestly I really liked the movie.

The biggest problem is that... pretty much absolutely nothing is explained. But this being a sequel to the books everything you need to know is in the books. Which is great for readers like me who just want to skip hearing what we already know and just want to see the final cycle since King did say it was the last time around. but... not so much for all new visitors to the series.

The reason Idris Elba is a bad choice for the Gunslinger isn't just cause he's "the obligatory black hero" or any shit like that. No, it's really due to the fact that, in the book, the Gunslinger being white is a major point in his character arc where he meets a character who hates him for being white. It's important to his character, and for the movie to get rid of this aspect feels like a huge copout.

I honestly forgot that even happened. I don't remember it affecting him at all, it didn't seem to bother him and he didn't really go through any character development because of that experience. It was just a thing that happened. I definitely don't consider it a major part of his character and I doubt that that situation would be adapted anyway. The character in question talks like they're in a blaxploitation film and calls him a "honk mofo" and stuff like that. I really don't see that flying nowadays. If they do a sequel I imagine that that character will be very different.

edited 8th Aug '17 8:08:50 AM by TommyFresh

That...sounds kinda iffy.

Yeah, it is pretty iffy. So I wouldn't really shed any tears if they radically alter that part of the story. Assuming they even get that far, of course.

edited 8th Aug '17 9:22:54 AM by TommyFresh

Steven King's books from what I've read (Under The Dome,Gunslinger) tend to be on very weird in general,surreal even

It does not surprise me that they omitted the racism for being white,that would have caused a shit ton controversy

edited 8th Aug '17 1:28:14 PM by Ultimatum

Basically, one of the characters had a head injury that caused them to form a second personality. The personality was basically the most aggressive persona they could imagine, including being as aggressively racist as they could imagine. Said person wasn't actually liked that and thus formed those perceptions around what they believed aggressive and racist people were like.

Its weird and they would still be horribly aggressive even without that. Assuming again that they even get that far.

edited 8th Aug '17 1:27:19 PM by Zeromaeus

Saw it this afternoon with a friend of mine. It had a good deal of Narm Charm for us. We're more or less writing partners and we'd had this dumb idea for a steampunk-western anime about gunslinging knights in a barren wasteland so we had to go see the movie just for its similarities to our own premise. I have a passing familiarity with the books and King's multiverse and it seems like the movie did little of it justice. Still the action was cool and I appreciate the movie's willingness to get on with things and not waste too much time with exposition and just get to the story - as purposeless as it all seems - why is the Tower important, what the Crimson King is, the nature of the "darkness," etc. - all stuff in the books they didn't bother putting in the movie but it still had the balls to run with this crazy premise and come out okay - if not good. At the end of the day, badass gunfighting was cool and I'd much prefer to see a long and epic adaptation of The Stand starring Mc Conaughey, because he could nail that iteration of Flagg far better than this one.

Roland's Fish out of Water stuff was hilarious as well. "You have forgotten your father's face" will soon become my friend group's new go-to insult of dishonor.

I thought the part where Walter cast a "hate" spell on a random little girl could have been expanded on. He cast his spell, she had a crazy look in her eyes, and nothing happened. :S

Saw it. Liked it and want more. It felt short but I liked that it didn't dwell on things and just moved on with the plot. There were moments when a frame lingered on something that I think is a reference. That isn't a bad thing, I enjoyed the references I understood.

I wish there saw more of Walter. I just want to see him go wild, to see the extent of what he can do. Tell me this isn't the last of him.

The Man in Black never stays down. If they adapt The Stand, you'll see way more of him. If they continue The Dark Tower, I have no doubt he'd come back.

edited 9th Aug '17 11:19:52 PM by Zeromaeus

They're trudging on with the mini-series, though Mr. King is also referring to it as a "complete reboot". He also offered his two cents on why the film didn't work out properly, he put them on the fairly massive size of the source material and forcing a PG-13 rating on what is pretty much a very inherently violent novel.

(A TV series of The Stand was also mentioned, for those holding out for that, as well as a possible feature film of Salem's Lot.)

Actually, since im currently reading The Dark Tower (i've read all except the final book in the series, so no spoilers please), I wonder if it would even be possible to make a book-accurate adaptation. You might be able to do it with the first 3 (though they would have to be quite long films), but a good chunk of book 4 is a flashback, and for that matter, a whole lot of book 5 is also pretty much a long flashback (plus, you may need a Salem's Lot movie as well).

People have been saying for years that the best option for the Dark Tower is a TV series and, honestly, I have to agree.

A series should work. Its hard to condense that much material even into a three hour movie.

Same for most of his works.

Well, Amazon has picked up the rights to a series based off of it:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a850789/stephen-king-dark-tower-tv-series-coming-to-amazon/

Still no news whether it's a complete reboot or a continuation of the movie, though the former is more likely.