A Shot in the Dark

          Stephen King is certainly one of the most accomplished and prolific writers of modern times. Unlike other authors with just as many novels to their name, King’s are well-written and memorable, and are often unusual but engaging reads. After establishing himself as a master of the horror thriller genre, in 1982 he dipped his toe into fantasy when he began his Dark Tower series with The Gunslinger. And now after decades, a film adaptation based on this series is being released. King’s stories have inspired cinematic classics like The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Misery, Carrie, Stand by Me, and The Green Mile. They have also inspired cinematic bile like Children of the Corn, Maximum Overdrive, Graveyard Shift, Dreamcatcher, and numerous awful miniseries’. Which camp will this film fall into?
          A boy called Jake (Tom Taylor) has recurring visions in his dreams about a Dark Tower collapsing and reigning chaos across the multiple universes it stands to protect. His parents and schoolmates assume he needs psychiatric help. When he spots agents of The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), an evil sorcerer trying to destroy the Tower, he manages to escape to an alternate universe called the Mid-World where he comes across Roland (Idris Elba), the last gunslinger sworn to protect the Tower but now on a mission of vengeance against the Man in Black.
          Somewhere in The Dark Tower, there’s a really good movie. The mythology is captivating, the western motifs unique, and the other worlds rich and intriguing. So then why does the movie focus so much on Earth? Jake is the central character of the film, but he’s not in any way an interesting one. The story spends way too much time with him trying to solve the mysteries of his dreams before he leaves Earth, and the drama with his mother and stepfather you never care about. And when he brings Roland to his world the filmmakers go for typical fish-out-of-water gags. The plot is incredibly simple, perhaps insultingly so, yet there are so many incongruities and plot holes. I think this derives from the fact this film isn’t adapting any one Dark Tower book, but rather an amalgam of them with added stuff. And that makes for a film that’s overall not very cohesive and hard to invest in. The movie bumps around from place to place and introduces elements of the universe that don’t factor into anything. The Dark Tower also really emphasizes that all Stephen King’s stories take place in the same universe. This is okay when it comes to a minor reference or easter egg, but Jake has the exact same telekinetic ability as Danny Torrance in The Shining, and any time someone refers to his “shine” you can’t help but be taken out of the film instantly. There’s even a scene that plays out identically to Danny’s introduction to Dick Hallorann. Though not as bad as The Mummy, these connections distract from and interrupt the story.
          The faults of the movie’s plot and direction are all the more disappointing given how great Idris Elba is as the Gunslinger. He carries this film, and just exudes raw coolness. His stunt choreography and gunplay is pretty awesome to witness too. Roland is a really interesting character with a backstory I wish this film touched on more. In fact we don’t learn a lot about the Gunslingers, or the nature of the Tower itself, except it somehow protects the worlds. Matthew McConaughey is also pretty good as the Man in Black, conveying the characters’ otherworldly menace. However he has a few significant flaws himself. For one thing, his real name’s Walter, which is the least intimidating name ever. And the film just doesn’t characterize him well. Though his base appears and we see he has minions, we don’t know where or why. His magic is incredibly powerful; he can command people to do anything and kills them effortlessly, but it becomes kind of a crutch in the believability of his character. How is he susceptible to bullets? Why can he only read Jake’s mind when the plot’s convenient? Why does he think Jake is the one who can bring down the Tower for him? Taylor’s not horrible, but pretty bland as Jake, whom he plays as every pre-teen outcast you’ve ever seen. Fran Kranz and Katheryn Winnick are also in this movie. Claudia Kim is okay as a seer, and Jackie Earle Haley’s pretty good. And Dennis Haysbert cameos as Roland’s father.
          I hate that The Dark Tower teases a good, epic fantasy, but chooses instead to tell a much lesser multiverse story that feels like a patchwork of ideas whittled into a basic macguffin-will-destroy-the-world synopsis. I feel like there’s greater things to be explored. Director Nikolaj Arcel was the screenwriter of the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so he does know good storytelling. Probably, this whole thing ought to have been an adaptation of King’s original 1982 novel. I want to see The Gunslinger and the Man in Black again, even played by Elba and McConaughey again, but not like this.