The Dark Tower: Stringer Bell as Roland Deschain?

[red snow]

19 minutes ago, Sci-2 said:

It was about what I'd expect from a sanitized PG-13 version. Probably worth a rental or Netflix viewing but seeing it in Dolby was a decent experience.

Really a little more effort on the special effects (Jake on the field of roses), along with some flashbacks to the last time around would've raised the bar in my mind.

6/10.

You would have thought this would have been a no-brainer. Plug the books in a way that there's an incentive to still read them. It shouldn't have been too confusing either - unless the Gunslinger changes actor each cycle. From what I've heard of the plot Roland has lost his mojo too. Giving visual hints/flashbacks at how the character has been through this cycle untold times should have helped establish the character.

[Martini Sigil]

Holy toledo this was an absolute dud... if the TV has any hope.... they'll start from scratch and pretend this abomination never happened

 

 

[PyroclasticFlow]

1 hour ago, Martini Sigil said:

Holy toledo this was an absolute dud... if the TV has any hope.... they'll start from scratch and pretend this abomination never happened

 

 

Spoiler

 

Right off the bat this was all over the place, starting off with elements from the last book with the breakers. Jake's whole background was, I don't know, felt rushed through writing and into production, there could've been more there. Roland should've lost use of his right arm fighting the creature in the theme park if they wanted to incorporate Drawing of the Three into the movie. The village with the seer felt like Wolves of the Calla, minus some important story characters. 

A couple of things I did appreciate, as a sort of nod to the hardcore book fans out there, was the numbers popping up. I was adding everything I saw and getting 19, expect the top down shot of the city bus(6761). The roses popped up a few times in graffiti, and a sort of nod to Blaine in the theme park with a brief shot of a face on a train. My favorite was the Geico commercial from the hospital, and Roland asks Jake if creatures still talk in this world (my favorite billy-bumbler).

 

 

[red snow]

12 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

Holy toledo this was an absolute dud... if the TV has any hope.... they'll start from scratch and pretend this abomination never happened

 

 

I guess there's enough wiggle room with the prequel setting to do it in such a way that it doesn't have to be connected to the film. A bit like SG-1 did with the stargate film where it used the film's characters and had the same concept so it felt like it was sort of connected to the film but wasn't.

[The Anti-Targ]

I'm guessing that with the very modest budget, for Hollywood, the movie will break even. But it's not a good look. I think it could do much better as a TV series. As a multi-book fantasy it really should be a TV series.

[red snow]

5 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I'm guessing that with the very modest budget, for Hollywood, the movie will break even. But it's not a good look. I think it could do much better as a TV series. As a multi-book fantasy it really should be a TV series.

Weirdly if the show is covering Roland's early life, there's possibly more cinematic events in the flashback portions. Some fantasies work better as films some TV. All of Abercrombies books with the exception of the first would make great films but that might also be due to Abercrombie being very tight with his editing and rarely letting his stories drag on.

How they could have made the film without Blaine the train, when having the possibility to cherry pick is beyond me. Although not including a character essential for that may be part of the problem. But seeing Blaine flying along at maniacal speeds with its passengers trying to solve/tell riddles would have looked good. Just don't end the film on the same cliffhanger as the book.

 

[The Unborn]

On ‎04‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 6:22 PM, Martell Spy said:

Well, I didn't want to admit it, but it's definitely a misfire of some sort. I actually liked it. However, I had several problems with it and more problems with it the more I thought about it. Almost no material from the Gunslinger was my biggest problem with it, likely. Idris Elba was the best thing about it, but they foolishly decided to under use him.

Still hoping for a sequel though. It could happen in this age where Divergent gets a sequel and maybe they'll get it right this time. I will not be happy if we don't get to ever see Blaine or Eddie Dean on the screen. It looks like the TV plans are somewhat locked in, so we may be safe there.

I don't think it was an absolute dud because there was a certain level of competence to it and the actors were great, at least the main ones. I think some dark tower fans will like it as I did, but it will also piss off a good chunk of the fan base at the lack of the Gunslinger elements. I'll leave it there for now, as people may be about to watch the movie.

 

I saw it yesterday and I agree with you. I liked it, but that's mainly because it was well acted for the most part and I was happy to finally see The Dark Tower being brought to life, but I think it would've been a whole lot better as a tv show on HBO or something. The PG-13 ratings really didn't help matters and I was left scratching my head at the plot and how it was adapted.

Spoiler

Where was ''Hey Jude?'' I missed the song Why is Jake so powerful in the shine ? He had it in the books but he was FAR from being THAT powerful. And why is the man in black so fricking powerful? It seems to me that he could probably destroy the Tower by himself instead of needing... kids ?  Why does he have the 13 bends of the rainbow when most have been destroyed ? I know it's sort of a sequel happening after the end of the last book, but there is no explanation or even clues on how it plays out, because de book ends the same way the first book starts, so I thought that was the loop, but it's like everything rebooted or something... Nothing in the movie was really explained, but when some things are it's badly made (refering to Walter's line ''the guns of Roland were forged from the sword of Arthur of the Eld, called Excalibur on Keystone Earth'').

The Taheen didn't look like Taheen. The Low Men were well made though. I thought Jackie Earle Haley was vampire when I saw him, but I saw this morning his name in the movie was Sayre which I didn't catch upon viewing, who is a can toi(low men) in the books, but we didn't see any features that made me think he was one. I hate that they took some many things in the book and threw it in there randomly (Algul Siento/Devar Toi, the Dixie Pig shoot out). They should've included the Tull scene from the first book, actually they should've included a lot more things from the first book instead of the later ones. They also left so many line that made the books so good like ''Death, but not for you Gunslinger, never for you''. I wouldn't have killed Walter (I suppose he could be back). The demon luring Jake should've been an oracle. The demon in the house sucked. And I didn't see the point in the Horn of Eld if you're not gonna talk about it at all. And by the way, Roland is ALL ABOUT the Tower, so stop making him say he only wants revenge for god sake. The bit in the hospital with the talking racoon had me laughing, and the movie could've used more scenes like the one with the cola and the hot dog(savages lol).

 

Okay I'm done for now lol

 

There were some continuity errors that made me ARGGggG... like when Jake goes into the bathroom to escape and drops his bags of drawings in front of the door, only to have his bag with him later on after the pursuit.

[red snow]

Chris Stuckman's review seemed on the money with him saying "it was fine" and that non book fans will feel that way. Apparently the closer you are to the books the more you'll be disappointed by the film.

[Crazydog7]

You know if it provoked a strong negative reaction that would be something.  It reminded me of a pilot for a TV show that we are never going to get a chance to see the part two of.  The only comparable experience I have is last summer when I was all fired to go see the Warcraft movie only to see it and have a feeling of ??????  That’s it?  That’s what I wanted to see on the big screen all these years?  That’s the real curse of these films not to be “bad” just to be completely forgettable. 

[Spring Bass]

I'm hoping it survives as a TV series, although it would be hard one even for a premium cable channel. There'd be expensive sets and on-location shoots, counteracted a bit by the group being largely together (and some parts of the show mostly take place in the same area). 

 

 

[Guy Kilmore]

My wife and I caught it at the cheap seats and we really enjoyed it.  We both have read and enjoyed the books multiple times too.  Go figure, we must be that weird target Audience

I understand that the tv show is going to be based on Wizard's and Glass, which could work.

[red snow]

I just watched it and disappointed is my main feeling. The film itself had a lot of good elements, i enjoyed the action and there were some great lines (usually in the fish out of water scenes of Roland on Earth) eg "The animals still speak here?" but it was in such a rush that I never got a chance to be comfortable with a setting. There was enough in this film to make a 3 hour movie and while I'm all for lean editing the extra time could have elevated the film significantly.

What we got felt like a mixture of being an expensive pilot/series pitch to convince producers to make a film franchise and/or the movie special that comes out to wrap up a TV show that has been cancelled prematurely in its third season but were allowed to wrap everything up in 2 episodes. The problem is we don't get to see the back material to fill in the blanks/gaps in both scenarios. Although I feel I was filling in a lot of gaps with my exposure to the books.

It's just a damn shame that Elba was wasted on this as I can't see how they'd do a relaunch and keep him in it. I guess Ryan Reynolds managed to get another crack at Deadpool but Elba would have to be as passionate about Roland as Reynolds was about Deadpool in order to see him back.

I've watched "it", "Gerald's game" and "1922" this year. A great year for King adaptations which makes it such a damn shame that the one that should be the jewel in the crown is the worst. Maybe the difference is that the other films were all relatively faithful to the source material and did not rush things. Even "it" made the wise choice of splitting the film in two. This film feels like it's setting itself up for sequels while removing the main threat off the board from the get go.

I heard the TV show might still happen. If it does they should definitely go for Rolan - the early years. Then decide based on the success of that whether they want to expand into the Dark Tower proper in film or TV.

As an aside my thoughts on the other films are that Gerald's game just edges out "it" for me - probably because it's a done-in-one and Carla Gugino gives an awards worthy performance. "1922" was the most disturbing/scary of the films for me and again Thomas Jane gave a career best performance. "It" is the all rounder which probably explains why it was so successful. I think the Dark Tower rights holders need to examine the other films and have a long hard rethink on how to approach the tower the next time around.

[Isis]

I saw it this week and found it bland and disappointing. I wasn't expecting all that much but it was still a let down. 

There were some cool bits with Roland's guns though. Plenty of attention to detail there. 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

I saw it this week and found it bland and disappointing. I wasn't expecting all that much but it was still a let down. 

There were some cool bits with Roland's guns though. Plenty of attention to detail there. 

 

I read an interview with the filmmaker and learned a couple things. One, he was intending this movie as a sort of introduction. And 2, they intended for the second movie to be the Drawing of the Three. 

This was really putting the cart before the horse. There wouldn't be a never ending stream of Star Wars movies if a New Hope had been a bland movie. Maybe he has the juice with Sony though to make it happen. I hope so, despite this fiasco. I think the guy has fairly good skills, but made several bad decisions. And the biggest mistake was deciding this was just an introduction.