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If there was ever a film that was a regrettable sight and a painful reminder of wasted potential and crushed expectations, it has to be the live-action adaptation ofThe Dark Tower,starring two of the greatest actors this era has to offer: Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba. The 2017 movie, comprising the mythos and ambitious terrain of the original Stephen King novels failed to do the story justice within its 95-minute screen time and the result was more than just a box office disaster – it was a spectacular travesty in the name of book-to-movie adaptations.
Also read:Mike Flanagan Claims Idris Elba’sThe Dark TowerMovie “Salted” $113M Stephen King Franchise, Forced Him To Take a Different Approach
Idris Elba Was Set Up To Fail onThe Dark TowerAdaptation
As is the case with most of Stephen King’s novels, the grandiosity of his stories has never failed to make for good fodder for film and television adaptations. HisDark Towernovel series, inspired partly by Sergio Leone’sThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly(1966),Lord of the Ringsseries, and a work by the poet Robert Browning, remains one of King’s most ambitious novels to date. As such, adapting a mythology as immersive asThe Dark Towerinto a reasonably budgeted feature-length production was a terrible idea from the very beginning.
TheIdris Elbafilm, moreover, does the one thing that has always doomed the adaptations of books, animations, and video games to live-action: digressing from the source material to establish its own new arc. On top of its already discursive subject,The Dark Towerattempted to include plots and arcs from all of King’s eponymous novel series rather than focusing on one chapter of the epic sci-fi Western saga, resulting in a blundering mix of differently paced plot lines that annoys even those unfamiliar with the ambitious work of the author ofThe Shining.
Also read:After Idris Elba’s $113M Disaster, Stephen King WantsOculusDirector To Save Dark Tower Franchise
As reported by IMDb, the studio was partly aware of its failings and shortcomings in the sense that the early test screenings of the film returned terrible reviews. In the aftermath, Idris Elba was called back for $6 million worth of reshoots, merely to flesh out the Gunslinger’s character – the only part that was redeemable in the entire film – as opposed to making the overall plot more cohesive.
The Dark Tower’s Failings and Mike Flanagan’s Series Reboot
The film features Idris Elba in the lead as the last gunslinger in Mid-World, Roland Deschain, andMatthew McConaugheyas Deschain’s eternal Sauron-like nemesis, namely Randall Flagg, also known as The Man in Black. As the plot weaves in and out of an expansive adventure along the vast geography of Mid-World that only ends when it reaches the Dark Tower and The Man in Black, one element from the movie remains explicitly missing: the factor that makes the audience feel connected to and invested in the story by staying true to the source.
Also read:Mike Flanagan Teases New Project WithThe Last of UsStar Pedro Pascal as Fans Convinced Actor Attached With Stephen King’sThe Dark TowerProject
The Dark Towerswiftly navigates the expanse of its plot, and sets out on a path of vengeance without a proper story building surrounding the boy, the hero, and the villain, making the story seem more enthusiastic in filling the screen time withStephen KingEaster Eggs rather than actually contributing to what motivations drive the leading characters, and the narrative rushing to reach its epic conclusion and showdown rather than building the plot in all its fractured parts.
The 2017 film holds a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is currently being prepped for a multi-season series adaptation by horror auteur, Mike Flanagan [Doctor Sleep,Haunting of the Hill House]. The filmmaker, to the great relief of King’s popular fandom, revealed in an interview all the aspects that resulted in the 2017 movie’s failure, and how he wishes to steer clear of those in his series reboot, primarily by sticking true to the source and investing more in world and arc building.
The Dark Toweris available for streaming on Apple TV+ and Prime Video.
Source:IMDb
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2410
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
