Steemians, I…I put too much faith in Hollywood on this one. I argued for all the months leading up to the release of the new movie that, since it wasn’t a straight adaptation, the movie would certainly be different, but in good ways. I assumed that it would be more a sequel to the books, and it was, but it was also just…
Hot fucking garbage.
Here’s the link to my article here on Steemit (a reproduction of the original article first published on The Weekend Collective a little over a year ago):
http://steemit.com/books/@bucho/o-discordia-an-argument-for-the-dark-tower-movie
I'm a huge fan of the series. I read all 7 books every other year and I love the characters. I love the setting, I love the imagination, and it's honestly the only thing/series I'll read by Stephen King as I don't care for any of his other stuff.
So believe me when I tell you that I loved the trailers I saw leading up to the movie's release. I believed Elba would be both an interesting and a provocative choice for the role of Roland during this iteration of the journey to the Dark Tower holding all the worlds together. Ditto for casting Matthew McConaughey as Walter O’Dim (aka, The Man in Black). I think both men work in their respective roles, but they’d be best served in a narrative that wasn’t put together so haphazardly. These are good actors that deserved a better script and a better writer.
Now, the series spreads out over 7 thick ass books, all of which contain some key pivotal moments for the characters involved. And since I didn’t expect a literal translation, I expected the narrative to deviate in certain ways that made sense for the sequel-ized version of the story – that which would come after the ending of the books.
And sure, plenty was different, but it still felt like all 7 books had been crammed together into a single 94-minute movie rather than a completely new narrative propelling our heroes forward through Mid-World and End-World toward their inevitable ends at the foot of the Dark Tower.
But here’s the thing…there’s not much buildup to the mythos that is Roland of Gilead, and there is plenty of mythos to draw you into his world, at least in the books. But that’s the problem; there’s always more nuance to a story that’s put on the page. Adaptations or sequels tend to gloss over the important things in order to serve the overall narrative. Too much got glossed over here, too much got tossed to the wayside and there could’ve easily been another hour added to this movie to help alleviate these issues.
The movie could’ve been SO MUCH BETTER…had the producers and the director just taken the fucking time to do it. There are plenty of tiny moments that allude to other parts of the books that never fully made it into the movie (the spider crawling across the desert sand through the Tower drawing was a nice homage to Susannah Mio’s baby).
But honestly…if you’re a fan of the books and you had high hopes for the movie, totally knowing it was more a sequel than a straight adaptation, just ignore this. DO NOT let your curiosity get the best of you. While the taheen and the low men are represented well on the make-up and CGI front, the story leaves a whole fucking lot to be desired. If someone unfamiliar with the books came into this movie, they’d be unbelievably confused. There’s just not much in the way of world-building to help the layman find their footing in this world, and that’s unfortunate as it’s a pretty goddamned interesting world…when its given the proper treatment.
I honestly cannot believe how bad this movie was, even with my expectations of it not being a straight up adaptation.
I’m legit angry.
