Stephen King's DARK TOWER TV & movie franchise 0

[Bosco685]

Two amazing actors that I cannot wait to see them take on one another in these roles.

[Chadwick]

This is on the therapist's desk, looks like it's shining   I really hope the movie is filled with this kind of stuff.

[Rodey]

I was wondering why that photo looked familiar and they kinda paused on it for a  beat

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

That was a pretty  good trailer.  It was a lot better than I imagined it would be.

[Foley]

6 hours ago, Chadwick said:

This is on the therapist's desk, looks like it's shining   I really hope the movie is filled with this kind of stuff.

The figure used as a bookend as well? Possible nod to the horn of eld?

[Bosco685]

How about the spaghetti western theme from Ennio Morricone? Even that was a nice touch.

 

[mattn792]

I gotta say that I've come around a bit on this movie after seeing the trailer, however that comes with the one major caveat that I had to detach myself from the source material to do so.  I think it will be a fun Redbox watch in that hero saves the world kind of sense, but it's going to fail hard as an homage to the source material.  McCounaghey in particular stood out as very little Walter and very much "I'm going to sell you this Lincoln Towncar today".  Add in the ninjas and the speed loaders and the no look headshots...hence the necessary detachment.  It is what it is.  I figure if I'm entertained and in the end King Arthur declares Idris Elba the new King of England or ANNA conquers Siam after the ninth nuclear world war, I'll walk away happy.

[thehumantorch]

On 5/3/2017 at 6:23 AM, Chadwick said:

 

Wow

[Bosco685]

 

[mattn792]

So it's...Snake Plissken vs. Neo?

I've been re-reading the series over the past year and am currently halfway through Wolves of the Calla.  My conviction to detach from the source material when eventually redboxing this movie keeps getting stronger. 

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 5/3/2017 at 8:23 AM, Chadwick said:

 

Looks good! 

[Bosco685]

 

[mattn792]

I don't know man, the more I see the more I think this -script is terrible.  I saw yet another trailer on NBC last night, and I'm getting quite convinced that they hired two "name" actors for this just to get people in the theater doors.  The essence of the series is going to get lost in all these wild explosions and fancy gun play gimmicks.  I've been saying all along that Idris Elba, for all his many talents, is simply not Roland Deschain.  And McCounaughey. in what appears to be his standard blow dried "I was driving a Lincoln before it was cool" persona, as Walter absolutely does not work.  Call me a purist.

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by mattn792

[Mr. Big and Green]

Did anyone notice at the 1:29 mark in the first trailer, Jake is walking under a old sign that says Pennywise backwards and there appears to be a  clowns hand holding balloons.

[F For Fake]

Feels like I've been waiting most of my life to see a Dark Tower flick, and unfortunately my hopes aren't high for this one. Looks like another generic Hollywood summer CGI energy explosions in the sky type of flick. Will cross my fingers and hope for the best!

[Bosco685]

 

THE DARK TOWER Starring Idris Elba And Matthew McConaughey - What Are The Critics Saying?

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I've waited most of my life to see this story told onscreen, and figured I'd be willing to forgive...well, quite a lot! The one thing I didn't anticipate, though, was to feel so unmoved by the film, to flatline my way through scene after scene. I appreciate what Arcel and company were going for here - and I'd encourage all Dark Tower fans to see it, if only to be informed enough to join the conversation that will surely surround this film for years - but I wish more than anything that I could say it worked for me.

SOURCE: B.M.D.

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While The Dark Tower may leave a little more to be desired, it's a pretty strong start to a promising series. Most importantly, it's a visual spectacle of action and fantasy that leaves the audience wanting more, while delivering one of the last thrills in store for this summer's box office season.

SOURCE: Cinema Blend

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Though far from the muddled train wreck we've been led to expect, this Tower lacks the world-constructing gravitas of either the Tolkien books that inspired King or the franchise-launching movies that Sony execs surely have in mind. Though satisfying enough to please many casual moviegoers drawn in by King's name and stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, it will likely disappoint many serious fans and leave other newbies underwhelmed.

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter

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The Dark Tower is a thoroughly average take on some truly incredible source material. While the fantastic leads do the best with what they’re given, it’s ultimately not enough to compensate for a lack of time spent building characters and their motivations in the -script. A good-looking shell of an great epic is all here, but peeling back the veneer reveals that there’s not a whole lot going on underneath. For a story where the literal fate of the universe is at stake, it’s disappointingly easy to not really care about anything that’s happening on screen.

SOURCE: IGN

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The Dark Tower isn't really a movie for people who've never read Stephen King's Dark Tower books. It hardly bothers to serve up any exposition, so newbies are thrown right into the deep end of its convoluted mythology. But it's probably not for people who have read the books, either. The movie version is disappointingly lacking in the magic of King's novels. (The metaphorical, literary kind of magic, I mean – there's still plenty of magic in the plot, which the characters talk about constantly.) 

SOURCE: Mashable

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This isn’t to say the movie isn’t enjoyable to watch, because it is — Idris Elba and Tom Taylor have a wonderful dynamic together, and the gunslinging action scenes are appropriately cool. But it all feels strangely… conventional, somehow. Considering that the series is so beloved precisely for its indescribably epic qualities, that might be a kiss of death for some fans. But for those who are content to hear Roland evoke the Gunslinger’s creed on screen for the first time, or those who’ve always been just a little too intimidated by the series to dig into it (guilty as charged), the movie makes for an extremely accessible jumping-on point.

SOURCE: Nerdist

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The Dark Tower is so astoundingly awful that when you leave the theater you’ll likely be less mad you wasted your time than flabbergasted that something like this could a) happen and b) be released as something that, theoretically, is going to launch a multi-platform franchise. The Dark Tower has been in production for around ten years in some form or another. This final product reminds me a lot of the GOP healthcare plan: You’ve had all this time and THIS is what you come up with?

SOURCE: Uproxx

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"The Dark Tower" has been plagued by tales of last-minute re-editing and multiple cooks in the kitchen, but the movie that’s come out of all this is no shambles. It aims low and hits (sort of). It’s a competent and watchable paranoid metaphysical video game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, includes some luridly entertaining visual effects, and — it has to be said — summons an emotional impact of close to zero. Which in a film like this one isn’t necessarily a disadvantage.

SOURCE: Variety

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"The Dark Tower" is mainly noteworthy for McConaughey’s enjoyably bad performance as a force of evil who can set things on fire with his hands, order people to stop breathing, and grab bullets as they fly through the air. As McConaughey swans through scene after ridiculous scene, it’s almost as if he is deliberately aiming for a Razzie Award to go with his Oscar.

SOURCE: The Wrap

 

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

 this makes me sad.

Again, big Stephen King fan, read most of his books, and the Dark Tower series is one of my all time favorite stores from King (only behind IT and The Stand).

The reviews have been on the bad side, the marketing campaign is "eh".  Extremely excited when this movie was announced but right now there's nothing that make me say "I must see this".

Edited August 3, 2017 by AnthonyTheAbyss
Because I felt like it

[F For Fake]

The situation over at Rotten Tomatoes is pretty dire (22% last time I looked). I took the fact that most reviews didn't start showing up until today to be a confirmation of my fears. I'll go see it this weekend, because I'm a diehard fan of the books (even the crappy ones...Song of Susannah, I'm looking at you) but my expectations are pretty low. If it doesn't open with a black screen and the words "The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed," they've already missed a huge opportunity. 

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

3 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

The situation over at Rotten Tomatoes is pretty dire (22% last time I looked). I took the fact that most reviews didn't start showing up until today to be a confirmation of my fears. I'll go see it this weekend, because I'm a diehard fan of the books (even the crappy ones...Song of Susannah, I'm looking at you) but my expectations are pretty low. If it doesn't open with a black screen and the words "The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed," they've already missed a huge opportunity. 

 funny cause its true LOL.  Plus is always bothered me that she had the same name as "Susan" Delgado.

 

Wizard and Glass is my favorite.  Great love story and tragedy...it sticks out from the rest of the books in the series.

 

If the movie doesn't start like that just get up and walk out hahahahaha.

[F For Fake]

1 minute ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

 funny cause its true LOL.  Plus is always bothered me that she had the same name as "Susan" Delgado.

 

Wizard and Glass is my favorite.  Great love story and tragedy...it sticks out from the rest of the books in the series.

 

If the movie doesn't start like that just get up and walk out hahahahaha.

Yeah, Susan, Susannah...it's all bad news!  I'm partial to The Wastelands, but Wizard and Glass is terrific as well. Really, those first four books, taken as a whole, are pretty outstanding. There are things that I like about Wolves of the Calla and The Dark Tower, but overall they're kind of a depressing decline.

Well, i would do that, but the wife sez if I pay for a ticket, I gotta watch the whole thing!