What Really Went Wrong With The Dark Tower
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Date: 2020-07-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
GrimmWarrior19
Not gonna say it was completely bad, it just didn't give much, if any of the important context FROM the books. I mean, come on, the source material is laid out in black and white, sometimes in full color for those with certain volumes that have been made. Yeah, the gunslinger was a white guy but that's hardly the worst selling point and I like Idris Elba a LOT he's a badass actor, even had the right sort of personality down packed for his role, although some lines were out of character. I imagine Hollywood catches a lot of flak either way, being pushed for equality in roles but the bottomline is that he was miscast here and it was the same with 007, it ain't Elba's fault, guy pushed through the negativity and still delivered a great character. As much as I don't want the dark tower to become another Hulk debacle, I still think the gunslinger needs to be recast, only reason for that is because without it, they cannot make a true adaptation of the series. There is a great deal of racism in Drawing of the Three that the characters have to get past during their travels and eventually brings them closer together as a result, Eddie (a white New York druggie from the 80's) and Susannah/Odetta/Detta (a handicapped black lady with split personalities from 1964. There's a lot of dark humor and drama that could get a producer or even actors/actresses in hot water for sure but it's part of the story, it's very human and a big reason WHY the dark tower was a hit with many readers. That is what we wanna see, not a half-assed sequel using special effects as a distraction or a milk-drinking prequel that does the same and still doesn't measure up, further corrupting the original work. The people making these films need to remember the face of their fathers!
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Not gonna say it was completely bad, it just didn't give much, if any of the important context FROM the books. I mean, come on, the source material is laid out in black and white, sometimes in full color for those with certain volumes that have been made. Yeah, the gunslinger was a white guy but that's hardly the worst selling point and I like Idris Elba a LOT he's a badass actor, even had the right sort of personality down packed for his role, although some lines were out of character. I imagine Hollywood catches a lot of flak either way, being pushed for equality in roles but the bottomline is that he was miscast here and it was the same with 007, it ain't Elba's fault, guy pushed through the negativity and still delivered a great character. As much as I don't want the dark tower to become another Hulk debacle, I still think the gunslinger needs to be recast, only reason for that is because without it, they cannot make a true adaptation of the series. There is a great deal of racism in Drawing of the Three that the characters have to get past during their travels and eventually brings them closer together as a result, Eddie (a white New York druggie from the 80's) and Susannah/Odetta/Detta (a handicapped black lady with split personalities from 1964. There's a lot of dark humor and drama that could get a producer or even actors/actresses in hot water for sure but it's part of the story, it's very human and a big reason WHY the dark tower was a hit with many readers. That is what we wanna see, not a half-assed sequel using special effects as a distraction or a milk-drinking prequel that does the same and still doesn't measure up, further corrupting the original work. The people making these films need to remember the face of their fathers!
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Rufio
People who have read the books are not complaining to be racist.
One of the main plot points of the books, in fact a MASSIVE plot point of the books is that Roland being white travels with a black woman who is from the time of the black civil rights movement. Their interactions, their dialog, their developing friendship etc, is very much part of what makes the books great. Stephen king spends alot of time showing the woman marching for equal rights, going to jail, being spat on by white people etc. Pretty much painting a very vivid picture of the times. So when she meets and travels with Roland in another world it all plays a huge part in the character development and driving plot. Idris Elba, fantastic actor no doubt, however for the ongoing success of the movie franchise and the die hard fans who wanted to see the dark tower saga come to life on the big screen, and done the justice it deserves, it was a big let down. Not because of race but because of poor casting choices and a lack of understanding to the source material.
My views are of course bias having read the books.
Why they couldn't have stayed true to the source material is beyond me. Roland a white male main character, Odetta/Detta a black female main character. Happy days.
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People who have read the books are not complaining to be racist.
One of the main plot points of the books, in fact a MASSIVE plot point of the books is that Roland being white travels with a black woman who is from the time of the black civil rights movement. Their interactions, their dialog, their developing friendship etc, is very much part of what makes the books great. Stephen king spends alot of time showing the woman marching for equal rights, going to jail, being spat on by white people etc. Pretty much painting a very vivid picture of the times. So when she meets and travels with Roland in another world it all plays a huge part in the character development and driving plot. Idris Elba, fantastic actor no doubt, however for the ongoing success of the movie franchise and the die hard fans who wanted to see the dark tower saga come to life on the big screen, and done the justice it deserves, it was a big let down. Not because of race but because of poor casting choices and a lack of understanding to the source material.
My views are of course bias having read the books.
Why they couldn't have stayed true to the source material is beyond me. Roland a white male main character, Odetta/Detta a black female main character. Happy days.
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Theodore
Idris Elba is a great actor, but I cannot picture him as Roland after having read all 8 books. Roland is a lean, white man with blonde hair that is surprisingly strong for such a thin person. The never-ending journey to the dark tower has been long and treacherous and it has taken its toll on the protagonist. Thus, having a big man (white or black) play Roland completely misses the point. It's as simple as that.
I can obviously only judge the movie through the eyes of a book-reader. And it's blatantly absurd for the director to claim that they ended-up with a 90' movie out of 8 books of material because they didn't want to overwhelm the audience. No, they made a series of bad decisions that resulted in a bad movie. They didn't develop the characters, there was no info on Mid-World, no mystery about the tower, no mention of Gilead's importance and on and on and on.
And why weren't the book-readers enough of an audience? As far as I'm aware, the books are bestsellers having sold millions of copies each. Why not cater for them I wonder? We were waiting for a Dark Tower movie for years and years.
What a waste of time and money.
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Idris Elba is a great actor, but I cannot picture him as Roland after having read all 8 books. Roland is a lean, white man with blonde hair that is surprisingly strong for such a thin person. The never-ending journey to the dark tower has been long and treacherous and it has taken its toll on the protagonist. Thus, having a big man (white or black) play Roland completely misses the point. It's as simple as that.
I can obviously only judge the movie through the eyes of a book-reader. And it's blatantly absurd for the director to claim that they ended-up with a 90' movie out of 8 books of material because they didn't want to overwhelm the audience. No, they made a series of bad decisions that resulted in a bad movie. They didn't develop the characters, there was no info on Mid-World, no mystery about the tower, no mention of Gilead's importance and on and on and on.
And why weren't the book-readers enough of an audience? As far as I'm aware, the books are bestsellers having sold millions of copies each. Why not cater for them I wonder? We were waiting for a Dark Tower movie for years and years.
What a waste of time and money.
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Pam
What went wrong? It's a poorly written, poorly filmed, poorly edited movie.
Elba carried off his character and carried the whole movie.
The central character of a kid makes it a kid's movie, but it was sold as a tough guy, John Wick action and gritty effects, but nope, a kid's movie.
Also, McConaughey flubbed the bad guy role, he just didn't get the job done.
If anything, I agree that another 30 minutes of make me care plot and character development could have made a world of difference, but the first 30 minutes were so dull and went completely unused -- so many characters and scenes and loose ends, then 'ka blammo, this tow thing is being blown in half by fire and surely it can't still function after so much damage' but nope, scene swap, one cheap bullet bouncing idea is all it takes to end the bad guy after millenia. yeah. sure. I'm really going to encourage friends to go see this kid's movie.
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What went wrong? It's a poorly written, poorly filmed, poorly edited movie.
Elba carried off his character and carried the whole movie.
The central character of a kid makes it a kid's movie, but it was sold as a tough guy, John Wick action and gritty effects, but nope, a kid's movie.
Also, McConaughey flubbed the bad guy role, he just didn't get the job done.
If anything, I agree that another 30 minutes of make me care plot and character development could have made a world of difference, but the first 30 minutes were so dull and went completely unused -- so many characters and scenes and loose ends, then 'ka blammo, this tow thing is being blown in half by fire and surely it can't still function after so much damage' but nope, scene swap, one cheap bullet bouncing idea is all it takes to end the bad guy after millenia. yeah. sure. I'm really going to encourage friends to go see this kid's movie.
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James
The studio pulled the plug on that expensive idea. (three movies + tv series)
This studio deserves to fail. If a studio is not learning the lesson of the X-Men extended franchise (yay first spearheading it, MCU, DCU and the lotr trilogy and the fact that there is a tremendous semi-nerd audience that just wants a quality movie, they deserve to wither and die off. You make Dark Tower shit, you're done.
Hell, in TV look at the SG-1 universe that CARRIED sci-fi for years. TEN years of full-length seasons on sci-fi that stayed fresh and new, spawned spin-offs, and ended on its own terms. Same with WB's Smallville.
Whether or not you liked any of these or feel the quality went down, they were hugely successful.
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The studio pulled the plug on that expensive idea. (three movies + tv series)
This studio deserves to fail. If a studio is not learning the lesson of the X-Men extended franchise (yay first spearheading it, MCU, DCU and the lotr trilogy and the fact that there is a tremendous semi-nerd audience that just wants a quality movie, they deserve to wither and die off. You make Dark Tower shit, you're done.
Hell, in TV look at the SG-1 universe that CARRIED sci-fi for years. TEN years of full-length seasons on sci-fi that stayed fresh and new, spawned spin-offs, and ended on its own terms. Same with WB's Smallville.
Whether or not you liked any of these or feel the quality went down, they were hugely successful.
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Magnus
The entire point of the book series was that Stephen King wanted to make an American Lord of the RIngs very much inspired by Sergio Leones movies - and a main reason why Leones movies are so epic is that he takes his time and the music played a huge part as well.
Now, I HATED the music in Dark Tower, it sounded like it was made for a SyFy-movie, and the movie certainly didnt take its time to build up any kind of atmosphere, being sort of a condensed version of 5 books + lots of expositions = the worst of part of the LOTR movies, Sergio Leone did rarely if ever use expositions in his movies.
I liked the actors, the action and the sound effects. So it was an ok movie but far from an epic movie.
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The entire point of the book series was that Stephen King wanted to make an American Lord of the RIngs very much inspired by Sergio Leones movies - and a main reason why Leones movies are so epic is that he takes his time and the music played a huge part as well.
Now, I HATED the music in Dark Tower, it sounded like it was made for a SyFy-movie, and the movie certainly didnt take its time to build up any kind of atmosphere, being sort of a condensed version of 5 books + lots of expositions = the worst of part of the LOTR movies, Sergio Leone did rarely if ever use expositions in his movies.
I liked the actors, the action and the sound effects. So it was an ok movie but far from an epic movie.
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braveintofuture
Howto make a novel adaptation movie:
-Get all the books.
-Leaf through the books to get the names of some characters and locations.
-Ignore the books. This is now your story!
-Make up a story you like and include the characters and locations.
-Add some references to movies you enjoyed which have nothing to do with the novels just because it's cool.
-Find some actors to play the characters. The books are not general knowledge? Then use some well known actors so the general audience can get connected to the movie.
-Now hire the original author to be included in production to please the fans.
-Don't let him screw up your story. Remember: This is your story!
reply
Howto make a novel adaptation movie:
-Get all the books.
-Leaf through the books to get the names of some characters and locations.
-Ignore the books. This is now your story!
-Make up a story you like and include the characters and locations.
-Add some references to movies you enjoyed which have nothing to do with the novels just because it's cool.
-Find some actors to play the characters. The books are not general knowledge? Then use some well known actors so the general audience can get connected to the movie.
-Now hire the original author to be included in production to please the fans.
-Don't let him screw up your story. Remember: This is your story!
reply
John
I was really excited when I found out that a movie was being made about the dark tower. Then I read that one of the actors was Matthew and thought to myself that he would make an excellent Roland, or even be great at playing Eddie Dean. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Despite not being happy after seeing the trailer, I went to see it anyway because I am a huge fan of the books. I read the first book in 1990 and was hooked. I was always worried that something might happen to S. King and the story would not be finished. Anyhow, the last time I was this disappointed in a video was just after the end of the last episode of LOST. This movie has totally ruined the story. That is all.
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I was really excited when I found out that a movie was being made about the dark tower. Then I read that one of the actors was Matthew and thought to myself that he would make an excellent Roland, or even be great at playing Eddie Dean. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Despite not being happy after seeing the trailer, I went to see it anyway because I am a huge fan of the books. I read the first book in 1990 and was hooked. I was always worried that something might happen to S. King and the story would not be finished. Anyhow, the last time I was this disappointed in a video was just after the end of the last episode of LOST. This movie has totally ruined the story. That is all.
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You're
I'm not gonna lie to you and say I've read every book and know how a Dark Tower adaptation should have played out. I'm not even gonna make the claim of being a Steven King fan as I think most movies and TV mini series based on his work fall flat on their face. But I will say this. I'm not an old man but I'm not exactly a young one either. In my time, I've seen ALOT of movies. Many of them good. Many, many, MANY more of them. not. I'm not a film student but I like to think I've been around long enough to tell good from bad. As a stand alone film, The Dark Tower is VERY far from a bad movie and certainly DOES NOT deserve a paltry 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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I'm not gonna lie to you and say I've read every book and know how a Dark Tower adaptation should have played out. I'm not even gonna make the claim of being a Steven King fan as I think most movies and TV mini series based on his work fall flat on their face. But I will say this. I'm not an old man but I'm not exactly a young one either. In my time, I've seen ALOT of movies. Many of them good. Many, many, MANY more of them. not. I'm not a film student but I like to think I've been around long enough to tell good from bad. As a stand alone film, The Dark Tower is VERY far from a bad movie and certainly DOES NOT deserve a paltry 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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