The Dark Tower could have and should have been so much more. I found it really hard to get deeply invested in these characters, considering this is just one small part of a really long story, when there’s hardly any back story or explanation of what is really going on. We are all aware the tower is the wall between good and bad, and Matthew McConaughey’s character is trying his best to destroy it all. This information is right there for the world to see in the trailer, so lower your expectations headed into this one, there are not many surprises. I wanted this dark and powerful “Man in Black” to actually win because McConaughey is great when he’s a bad guy. That’s saying a lot considering the real star here is Idris Elba. His story is limited for details, but this guy can shoot and actually has a conscience for his doing his job and protecting the innocent. I cared more about these two and their mystical powers more than the main character, Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), who is able to save and destroy everything all by himself. My only real question about this whole mess is, if the Man and Black was more powerful than anyone else, couldn’t he have just ended everything and let loose his terrible CGI monsters? It is kinda hard to believe that fate would boil down to these three characters, all carrying an enormous amount of baggage, for a save the world kind of movie. There was a lot left on the table and whether they ever choose to expand on this dark universe is another story for another time. With a little bit more screen time, this movie could have dug a little deeper and given us a fantastic final product, like award-winning kind of stuff. Instead we are kinda left with a glimpse into a potentially awesome fantasy world where the fight for good and evil actually has some dark consequences.
star rating: 5/10
Ten Stars or Less 