So I saw The Dark Tower, and… I guess I’m not sure why so many people seem to hate it. Caveat: I haven’t read the books, which I’m working on rectifying now, but I’m familiar with the basic plot and some of the events of the series.
It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t amazing, but the story wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, and the acting wasn’t terrible for the most part. About the only thing I didn’t really buy was the ease with which Jake puts aside a certain incident that would tear most young boys apart.
Idris Elba was fantastic as always. Matthew McConaughey did a decent job as the Man in Black, though the script doesn’t give him a lot to do other than be menacing and throw a few offhanded evil bits as he passes people on the street–one of which, making a young girl having a happy moment with her mom in the park hate her mom, bothered me more than even the people he killed.
But a lot of the complaints I’m seeing in reviews just don’t make sense to me. People claim the plot doesn’t make sense–but it made sense to me. Others complain about specific story choices, as if the fact a writer/director did it differently than they did makes it bad. Well, if I had a nickel for every time a movie I liked went in a direction I wouldn’t have gone, I’d have a nice stack of money and wouldn’t need a day job. But “I wouldn’t have done it that way” doesn’t mean “This is bad.”
The movie was clearly being set up to lead to more films as well as a TV series. Sadly, the response of most fans means that’s unlikely to happen.