Due to eternal recurrence shenanigans, it is equally accurate to call this movie an adaptation, a sequel, and a reboot of the novels. As such, it assembles a plot from elements of all the books, particularly The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, and The Dark Tower. While several moments from the books make it into the movie, the context changes, as do the finer details. The one that jumped out at me is that Roland didn't pay for the bullets he took at gunpoint; this seems out of character, but the movie does portray him as a more bitter, cynical tarnished knight, so it does fit this particular interpretation.
The pacing has been criticised, but I liked it. The overall pace is brisk, and the characters mostly act intelligently given their circumstances. Idris Elba is great as Roland, Matthew McConaughey is interesting as Randall Flagg, and Tom Taylor plays a Jake Chambers who has been mashed up with Patrick Danville to make a tagalong kid who I didn't want to strangle.
But how does it fare with newcomers? Alas, not so well. Those who are familiar with the source material understand the stakes and why everything is happening, but in order to cut the movie to a lean hour and a half, it seems like quite a bit of exposition was dropped. Sure, people complain about clumsy exposition in other movies, but the audience is rather expected to pick up everything and figure it out for themselves. That... isn't the best way to get people invested.
Also, this movie it totally looking to set up the sort of shared multiverse that is all the rage right now.
My advice? Read the books first, and if you like them, you'll probably enjoy this.
Good if you've read the books
This is a movie for the fans.
Due to eternal recurrence shenanigans, it is equally accurate to call this movie an adaptation, a sequel, and a reboot of the novels. As such, it assembles a plot from elements of all the books, particularly The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, and The Dark Tower. While several moments from the books make it into the movie, the context changes, as do the finer details. The one that jumped out at me is that Roland didn't pay for the bullets he took at gunpoint; this seems out of character, but the movie does portray him as a more bitter, cynical tarnished knight, so it does fit this particular interpretation.
The pacing has been criticised, but I liked it. The overall pace is brisk, and the characters mostly act intelligently given their circumstances. Idris Elba is great as Roland, Matthew McConaughey is interesting as Randall Flagg, and Tom Taylor plays a Jake Chambers who has been mashed up with Patrick Danville to make a tagalong kid who I didn't want to strangle.
But how does it fare with newcomers? Alas, not so well. Those who are familiar with the source material understand the stakes and why everything is happening, but in order to cut the movie to a lean hour and a half, it seems like quite a bit of exposition was dropped. Sure, people complain about clumsy exposition in other movies, but the audience is rather expected to pick up everything and figure it out for themselves. That... isn't the best way to get people invested.
Also, this movie it totally looking to set up the sort of shared multiverse that is all the rage right now.
My advice? Read the books first, and if you like them, you'll probably enjoy this.