The official film adaptation of Stephen King's fantasy western is a disaster. Beginning with Jake (Tom Taylor) in NY, it draws from more than just the first book. The boy is having dreams about the Tower that include the Man in Black; but revealing the primary antagonist so early robs him of any and all mystery - he's a man who ought to be partially defined by his elusiveness. But that's only the beginning of the film's failings; there are many, many more.
Idris Elba is weak as Roland Deschain, the book's famous gunslinger. The world in which he exists, Mid-World, gets minimal characterisation, as do its peoples. There's no allure, no sense of history, and no understanding of the series rich lore. It barely even qualifies as a western; it has more in common with sci-fi.
The filmmakers claim it's canonical; I've read all eight of the books and can understand why they think that, but it doesn't deserve to be perceived as such.1½ skin masks out of 5
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Since I learned that Detta wasn't present, and it could therefore be an alternate incarnation of the story, akin to Keanu's slice of the Hellblazer universe, I watched it.
I TRIED to watch it.
I finished up to about halfway through book 4, right after it (the book) was initially released. In the interim, I completely forgot Jake existed. I only stuck with the movie for half its runtime because the Hero-gets-help-from-a-kid' schtick works in the Simon's Quest novelization.
As far as my memories were concerned, they had changed EVERYTHING. My oldest friend informed me that what the Man in Black was doing, was in Book 7. It made me glad I didn't make it there, because man it seemed like a really silly plot point, to me. I randomly read about some of the even more outlandish things that happened in those later books, on the wiki. It's a LOT too much, for me.
Unlike most people I've heard talk about it, I was super disappointed in Idris's performance, instead of believing he did his best with what he had to work with. Which hurts, because I'm eternally fishing for something of his that I won't have any problems with, to replace Pacific Rim. Not saying Matt was a good Man in Black, but he channeled my hatred for him as a person into making me hate a villain. Brass-tacks job, done.
But, that's the only job that got done...
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