THE DARK TOWER - Official Trailer (HD)

Stay-At-Home Theater: THE DARK TOWER. Ignore the negative reviews and decide for yourself. This is an entertaining movie, with good effects. I was disappointed, but still liked it - - but not enough to want to see it again, and not enough to want more. That's where it fails, if this was intended to be the first in a series. On a positive note, it's only 95 minutes as opposed to the 2.5 to 3 hours that most epic special effect films are these days. And, if it was intended to be a one-shot then it does a fairly decent job of capturing the main points of Stephen King's epic series. The acting by Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey is as good as can be expected, considering that the film doesn't explore much of their back character (a little for the Gunslinger, but next to nothing for the Man In Black) and a script that tries hard to reduce them to cardboard props. The real focus here is on the young Jake, the best developed character in the film and the most compassionate and likable.  I'm wondering what kind of film this could have been with a 2.5 to 3 hour running time. Oh well. This might be a good time to read the books again. I only got as far as the third volume the first go-around. King's writing and world-building in those was incredible.