The Dark Tower

It's baffling why they even made this Dark Tower movie. It has nothing to do with the books. The characters and plot are completely different. That makes it pretty painful for someone who's read the series, and I'm not sure there's anything there for someone who hasn't.

I knew The Dark Tower wasn't going to be good, but I figured I might as well see it anyway. I read all the books, but it was a while ago, so I don't remember much about them anymore. When I saw the trailer, my reaction was, "what was that, there was nothing there." Reviews said it was just painful to watch because there was so much potential, and they didn't do anything with it. I definitely agree with that.

It's so weird how they decided to change everything. In the book, Roland's sole focus is the Tower. In the movie, he's been completely broken by Walter, and only wants revenge. He doesn't even know who Walter is in the book. In the movie, Walter killing his father is a major plot point, and it's something that doesn't even happen in the book. The driving force of the movie's plot is Walter chasing Jake, whom he doesn't even care about in the book.

The series ends with the tower being saved, which is how they ended the movie. They intended to do a series of movies, so I'm not sure where they're going to go from here. Although since there were seven books, there's plenty of material and characters that they didn't touch. I don't remember Roland's ability with the guns being so supernatural. It was a bit much. Some of his fight scenes were cool, though.

I don't know why they gave Walter Christopher Walken hair. And McConaughey's performance was super weird. Of course he didn't kill Jake's parents in the book, and their  relationship with him was completely different. It's probably good that they deviated from the books in some ways. They left out the real way that Walter died. A succubus had sex with Roland, mixed his sperm with the Crimson King's, and then impregnated a member of Rowland's group, who was possessed by a woman who gave birth to a were-spider, who then ate the woman and killed Walter.

Stephen King comes up with some weird stuff. And that would've been a lot to fit into this movie. It was still an interesting movie, although if you haven't read the books it it's probably pretty terrible. I still liked Roland's character. The desert scenery was really cool. In the books, the portals they went through were just regular doors. I guess the technology angle makes more sense, but I think the regular doors are cooler.

I guess it was satisfying in a conventional way that Walter died. But that's just not what his dynamic with Roland is in the books at all. The movie totally misses the essence of the books.