“The Dark Tower” wants to be the capstone of Stephen King’s multiverse. Instead it is a mess. Roland Deschain, the gunslinger played by Idris Elba, chases the Man in Black across the desert, and the movie never quite decides whether it is a western, a horror film, or a children’s adventure.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Roland’s Chase
Elba is the best reason to watch this. He carries the weight of centuries on his shoulders, and his face registers the exhaustion of a man who has spent his life hunting a single target. But the script buries him under exposition. Every other character exists to explain the rules of King’s world, and that means Roland rarely gets to act.
Matthew McConaughey plays the Man in Black, and he commits fully to the role. He is charismatic, funny, and genuinely disturbing in equal measure. His scenes are the only ones that feel alive.
The Problem With the Script
The film suffers from a fundamental structural flaw. It tries to compress decades of source material into two hours, and the compression fails. The result is a series of set pieces that never cohere into a narrative. Here is what went wrong:
- The pacing drags in the middle section, where Roland travels through various worlds without clear stakes.
- The dialogue is often clunky, full of exposition that stops the action dead.
- The ending rushes through major plot points without giving the audience time to care.
What Works
There are moments of genuine tension. The chase scenes are well staged, and the desert setting is used to good effect. The score, composed by Marco Beltrami, does a solid job of building dread. But these moments are islands in a sea of confusion.
The supporting cast does what it can. Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers is a decent anchor for the younger audience, though his character’s function is largely reduced to exposition delivery. Abbey Lee as Shambala and Fran Kranz as the prophet both get wasted potential, their performances lost in a script that never gives them room to breathe.
A Broken Tower
The film’s biggest failure is emotional. Roland’s journey is meant to be about loss, duty, and the cost of being the last of a dying civilization. The movie touches on these themes, but it never lets them land. The final confrontation feels rushed, and the resolution offers little payoff for the hours spent getting there.
It is a shame, because the premise is rich. The Dark Tower stands at the center of King’s multiverse, and the idea of a gunslinger chasing a demon across parallel worlds has real power. This version simply does not earn that power.
“The Dark Tower” is not a terrible movie. It is a frustrating one. It has a great lead performance, some strong set pieces, and a score that deserves better. But the script is a disaster, and it drags down everything around it.
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