The Dark Tower isn't worth your money, save you cash and buy the books [Review]

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It might not be a movie you want to spend money on, grab the book instead

Young Post Reporter |
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This film has been in development limbo for nearly a decade, and it is such a shame that this was the final product.

A loose adaptation of Stephen King's series of fantasy novels, The Dark Tower follows 11-year-old Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) as he realises that his dreams are actually visions of another world. A world, where the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) uses children as batteries in order to destroy the titular tower. Trying to stop him, though, is Roland (Idris Elba), - the last of an order of knights known as "gunslingers".

The movie is a poor attempt at bringing this universe to life.

King has often described The Dark Tower series as his magnum opus - which makes the decision to divert from the books and turn this movie into a generic YA dystopian film all the more strange. Instead of an epic Western in a mutant-ridden world, The Dark Tower is 95 minutes of incapable adults telling kids their dreams are stupid, and a giant portal opening over New York City.

The leads are given precious little to work with, but nevertheless, McConaughey and Elba play their roles convincingly. The visual effects are stale, the action scenes choppy and so poorly edited that it becomes impossible to follow a single character's movement.

This film has been in development limbo for nearly a decade, and it is such a shame that this was the final product.

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