The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Hahaha amazing. While I'm as tired of bloated films as the next person, the world-building alone surely would need longer than eighty minutes after the credits are factored out
- The Narrator Returns
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
domino has gotten his wish: it's actually ninety minutes after the credits are factored out
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Variety lays out how a director unaccustomed to helming big budget films and two competing backers with authority to kill whatever they disliked resulted in the mess that bombed at all of its test screenings and resulted in a $6 million reshoot for what may be as little as five additional minutes' material
- The Narrator Returns
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Someone in the Dissolve Facebook group who saw it at a critics' screening compared it to the last Fantastic Four for the obvious reshoot and reediting seams (as well as its general quality).
- The Narrator Returns
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
The actual reviews are coming in, and are not far off from that. Uproxx compared it to both the GOP health-care bill and, even more damningly, Jonah Hex.
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Outside of possibly the house from the Wastelands, I recognize from the books none of the plot (or motivations, for that matter) shared in that review
- cdnchris
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Wasn't the house with the door in the second one? Man it's been a while, and I have trouble recalling much from the last three books. But yeah, nothing else in that review or even the trailer sounds familiar.
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
The word in the other reviews is that Idris Elba is the sole highlight (with McConaughey getting the second-place trophy almost by default), and that it's an active eyesore to look at, in addition to making no sense.
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
The doors are for sure in the second book, but I thought the stuff with Jake and the rose and the weirdly-shifting house was in the third book-- though you could be right, it's been a long time since I read these as well (and I'm unlikely to read 5-7 or revisit 1-4)cdnchris wrote:Wasn't the house with the door in the second one? Man it's been a while, and I have trouble recalling much from the last three books. But yeah, nothing else in that review or even the trailer sounds familiar.
- Big Ben
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
I believe this takes place after the books. Not that any of that helps. As if any of you needed confirmation of this I'm hearing there was massive fighting behind the scenes over vision and so forth. And test audiences responded in kind and well...yeah.
- cdnchris
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Actually I think you're right when I come to think of it. The rose was definitely the third.domino harvey wrote:The doors are for sure in the second book, but I thought the stuff with Jake and the rose and the weirdly-shifting house was in the third book-- though you could be right, it's been a long time since I read these as well (and I'm unlikely to read 5-7 or revisit 1-4)
I actually do want to read them again but it's a commitment and I feel pressed for time as it is. Not to offer too much information, but I read the last three while in the hospital and was hopped up on pain meds most of the time and don't remember a lot. So I recall reading them but don't remember anything about them. And I've been meaning to reread them ever since, but that was 12 years ago so i doubt it's happening soon.
- tenia
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Is there any possibility that one day, even in the far future, studios will understand how this is actually making things worse by wasting more time and money without helping in any way the final end-result ?domino harvey wrote:Variety lays out how a director unaccustomed to helming big budget films and two competing backers with authority to kill whatever they disliked resulted in the mess that bombed at all of its test screenings and resulted in a $6 million reshoot for what may be as little as five additional minutes' material
Oh, and I see Akiva Goldsman is again tied to a nice mess. Always in the good stuff !
- JamesF
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
The setpiece of Jake moving through the "living" house to get to the door to Mid-World is definitely from The Wastelands.
No surprise this is a car crash, especially with Goldsman playing such a pivotal role behind the scenes (did no-one see A Winter's Tale not that long ago?). Let's just hope that it's not such a failure that a proper HBO-style series isn't still a worthy proposition in ten years' time. I'd love to see what someone younger and hungrier with genre cred (say, Jim Mickle, Ti West or even Richard Kelly) would do with the series without having to make concessions for a four-quadrant summer tentpole or a theatrical running time.
SpoilerShow
(The second book is where Roland accidentally prevents his death while in NYC which messes up the timeline.)
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- mfunk9786
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
That's what this should have been from the beginning. HBO would have knocked it out of the park.The Narrator Returns wrote:Sony's moving ahead with the companion TV series
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Suuuuuure they areThe Narrator Returns wrote:Sony's moving ahead with the companion TV series
- domino harvey
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Just read a spoiler for the ending to the film and it is so stupid and against the spirit of the books that it reads like parody of bad Hollywood adaptations
SpoilerShow
Roland kills the Man in Black and decides the Tower's now safe and adopts Jake and retires to NYC to raise him
- Big Ben
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
domino harvey wrote:Just read a spoiler for the ending to the film and it is so stupid and against the spirit of the books that it reads like parody of bad Hollywood adaptationsSpoilerShowRoland kills the Man in Black and decides the Tower's now safe and adopts Jake and retires to NYC to raise him
SpoilerShow
Who knew killing Randall Flagg would only take Idris Elba. I'm apalled at this notion. Is the character even three dimensional in the film? Flagg, as awful as he is always felt like his evil was retribution against literally all of creation for being raped.
- swo17
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Let's be honest: this is the adaptation we deserve.
- domino harvey
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- knives
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Now it's a bit lower though.
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
It made 19 million for its opening weekend.domino harvey wrote:
- willoneill
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
Just came back from seeing this, and it's almost perversely impressive how bad this is. I'm not even sure what it is. It's not an adaptation at all, though it certainly contains ideas from all the books. If it is a sequel, that's only vaguely hinted at in one fleeting moment. I'd love to get the impression from someone who hasn't read the books, but I'm not that sadistic. I will say this: with good material, Idris Elba could have been an amazing Gunslinger. He's better in this than the film deserves.
This is only half true.domino harvey wrote:Just read a spoiler for the ending to the film and it is so stupid and against the spirit of the books that it reads like parody of bad Hollywood adaptationsSpoilerShowRoland kills the Man in Black and decides the Tower's now safe and adopts Jake and retires to NYC to raise him
SpoilerShow
Roland does the kill the Man in Black, but after that asks Jake to come back to Mid-World with him, because he could be useful. For what? Only Akiva Goldsman knows.
- JamesF
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Re: The Dark Tower (Nikolaj Arcel, 2017)
I had a couple of hours to kill yesterday between festival films so got a ticket for this out of morbid curiosity. I didn't hate it as much as I expected to - if you have to compress seven books of uneven but wildly imaginative genre smash-up into a 90-minute summer tentpole, then this is pretty much exactly how you do it, and I perversely admired some of its adaptation choices. Still, the ultimate result is a rushed, messy but sporadically moderately effective Matrix rip-off that with an extra half-hour to breathe and an R-rating for extra violence/weirdness might have been halfway decent, but alas is just sort of... there.
Oh well, I'm sure it will be easy to forget it ever happened, and we can wait and hope for an HBO series further down the line.
Oh well, I'm sure it will be easy to forget it ever happened, and we can wait and hope for an HBO series further down the line.