Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad..."The Dark Tower"

The Dark Tower (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Tom Taylor, Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughy

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel

The Story:

Jake (Taylor) is having mysterious visions about a Gunslinger (Elba) and a Man in Black (McConaughy). Apparently the dark tower that holds the entire universe together is under attack, and unless the gunslinger defeats the bad guy, the world as we know it will end.

Since the dawn of time, there have been good Stephen King adaptations, and there have been bad Stephen King adaptations.

I suppose there is also a third category: indifferent adaptations.

I'm not the best judge in the world to decide which movie falls into which category because:

1) I have not seen every Stephen King movie adaptation.
2) I have only read a handful of Stephen King novels to compare them to.

However, when the movies are good: Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, they often become cinematic treasures, adored for generations.

When they aren't...

And 2017 seemed to be the year for The Return of the (Stephen) King.

IT was a huge financial and critical hit, along with the Netflix Original adaptation of Gerald's Game.

But come on, you saw the trailers for this movie.

Did it ever really look like anything more than what was offered?

And what was offered, didn't look that spectacular to begin with.

8 novels, compressed into 90 minutes, that felt like over 3 hours of endurance waiting for something, anything of importance to happen.

I'm sure someone out there might have been a fan of this one, but I sure wasn't.

Final Grade: D