I loved the dark tower series by Stephen King… So today I went to cinema and watched the film adaption directed by Nikolaj Arcel. I hadn't read anything about the film beforehand which turned out to be a big mistake. I'm not going to be sugar coating it: The film was an epic failure. So boring and flavorless. A total train wreck for a movie. To have such an amazingly rich source material available and then deliver something so soulless should be a crime.
According to wikipedia this film had been in production since 2007 and there had been numerious director changes which explains a lot… If I had known this info beforehand, I'd have not wasted any money on this. The film just didn't feel right and didn't make any justice to this magnificent story. The extremly short (90 minutes or so) screenplay was just crammed full of stuff. I'm not even going to start mentioning how little it reminded me of the actual novels.
As for the actors… Although I had imagined Roland in my head to be a much older white man, I think Idris Elba was definitely an intresting choise for this role. He is an extremly talented actor and has pulled off so many memorable perfomances over the years, but in this film he failed. He didn't bring Roland I know from those books to life. Roland in those books had certain kind of aura and he carried himself with dignity. When Roland in this film recites the gunslinger oath, I simply wasn't feeling it. It was just something which they had to put into the film to be able to call it a dark tower film.
Matthew McConaughey as Walter wasn't how I had imagined him either. He was all style and no substance, and unable to exhibit anything approaching nefariousness or real villainy. The kid actor who played Jake was okey I quess, but his performance wasn't really memorable. As you can notice, there is a clear pattern here. This film lacks hearth and I'd say that filmmakers have forgotten the faces of their fathers… Just avoid.