If this 95-minute film was the pilot episode of an ongoing TV-series, it’d be a perfectly good set-up for future storylines. As a standalone film, however, it ultimately feels like an unsatisfactory and uninspiring retread of genre tropes, despite the best efforts of its two charismatic stars.

Premise: In modern day New York, 11-year-old Jake starts seeing visions of a Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) who is attempting to use psychically-gifted children to destroy a mysterious Dark Tower, and of an unnamed Gunslinger (Idris Elba) who’s hunting for the Man in Black. When Jake starts seeing the Man in Black’s monstrous minions (who disguise themselves by wearing human skin) in New York, he soon becomes involved in a mystical battle across worlds.

Review:

I’ll start off by saying that I’ve not read any of the eight books in Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series of novels, so I can only judge this film adaptation on its own merits. I’ve heard that the book series is an epic, mythological masterpiece, and some would even say that it’s Stephen King’s best work … but regrettably, none of that scale, ambition or originality seems to have been translated into the big screen version.

If, in years to come, the proposed film series and/or TV show materialises, then we might be able to look back on this film as being an enjoyable, if rather simplistic, introduction to the universe Stephen King has created. However, unless and until the storylines are continued in future instalments and spin-offs, this film in isolation leaves a lot to be desired.

“…very little explanations in terms of backstories or motivations…”

The plot, for example, is not only very flimsy and straightforward, but it also seems to be little more than an amalgamation of plot devices we’ve seen plenty of times before. We have a troubled-but-gifted pre-teen, who has visions of other worlds and ancient evils, and who ultimately gets drawn into much larger events that the grown-ups around him don’t believe are real. So far, so familiar. But then when further elements are added, they are so thinly sketched out for the audience that it’s hard to see things as anything more than two-dimensional.

Idris Elba plays Roland Deschain, apparently the last of the “Gunslingers”, but we’re not really told who or what the “Gunslingers” are. We’re told that the Dark Tower lies at the centre of the universe and apparently keeps the darker, demonic forces at bay, but we don’t get much more information than that, nor are the relationships between the worlds explained (are they “parallel dimensions”, or literal alien worlds?), nor is the ability to cross between worlds explained (it appears to be technological in nature, despite the fact that the Man in Black also is said to be a sorcerer able to use magic). As for Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black, although he is named later in the movie (and it’s clear that Roland Deschain knows who he “really” is), we as the audience are given very little explanation in terms of his backstory or motivations (especially as his goal of destroying the Dark Tower would appear to effectively destroy the known universe, with him in it)?

“…audiences are left with an awful lot of unanswered questions…”

As I said, I’m sure all of this is fleshed out in the books, and it may even one day be fleshed out in future films or TV shows … but here and now, audiences are left with an awful lot of unanswered questions and plot holes when watching this film.

And in an age where two-and-a-half-hour films are becoming increasingly common, a 95-minute film seems very slight, especially when it leaves so much unresolved, and its plot is so simplistic and unsatisfying. Once Jake meets the Gunslinger (that’s not a spoiler, it’s on some posters), the entire rest of the film pretty much consists of them travelling to one place, having an action scene, travelling to another place, having a rushed bonding scene, having another action scene, then it’s the end. I can’t help but think they would have been better off making a longer version of the film, that provided the viewers with a few more answers (or even just a bit more backstory to flesh the characters and the universe out), and which contained something more than the flimsy A-to-B-to-C plot that we’re given.

The decision to make this film “family friendly” also hasn’t really done it any favours. Whereas a more mature version of the film could have added some real menace to the villains and monsters, and might have injected some drama into the anaemic action scenes, this watered down version feels like Stephen King reinterpreted as The Never-Ending Story.

“…I get the impression that there is a much larger (and more interesting) story left to tell…”

I must stress that this isn’t a “bad” film per se – it clearly has lots of potential and it’s obviously only just scratched the surface of what the book series has to offer. Equally, I’d watch Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey all day everyday, and they do all they can with the material that they’re given … it’s just that they’re given so little to work with.

In this day and age, no filmmaker can take sequels and spin-offs for granted, and you need to ensure that every film stands on its own two feet (a lesson that surely should have been learned from The Amazing Spider-Man series and the countless other films that spent their time setting up sequels rather than telling a coherent story). Sadly, although I get the impression that there is a much larger (and more interesting) story left to tell in the universe of The Dark Tower, I worry that this film will not have done enough to capture people’s imaginations and warrant a return to Mid-World – which would ultimately feel like a huge wasted opportunity.

Hopefully I’m wrong, and in a few years’ time we’ll have had the intended sequel and spin-off prequel series to fill in all the blanks and flesh out the characters … but until that time, The Dark Tower film will remain little more than a taster of what might one day follow.