After reading the reviews and the rotten tomatoes score of 18%, I decided not to watch the movie. I wanted so hard for this movie to be good and the disappointment is huge. Here is what I would have done different.
The source material for the first book is so good, why go make something different? Sony suffered from a lack of vision and faith in the source material. Why try to remake the wheel?
The first book in the series should have been the easiest to portray on the big screen because of the episodic nature of the "The Gunslinger".
I would have set out to make a six movie series based on books 1-3 and 5-7. I agree that W&G should be made into a TV series. That is one thing that the producers got right.
There is enough material in the first book for a 2 hour movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I'm guessing that a lot of elements of the first book didn't make it to the movie. The incident in Tull and the attack under the mountain by the Slow Mutants were what I was most looking forward to.
Could you imagine how fun it would be to watch the gunslinger murder everybody in a town? This would have established Roland's anti-hero's credentials. The only thing I would have changed from the book is that I would end it with the story of how Roland won his guns. I would have the scene where Roland finally catches up to the Man in Black, and Walter reads Roland's future. I would end the movie in a dream sequence, showing how he first began his quest.
This would set up the second movie with the attack on Roland by the Lobstrosities and his trek along the Clean Sea. The second movie would roughly coincide with "A Drawing of the Three" Susannah Dean would be the star of the second movie. The third movie would include most of what happened in "The Wastelands" This would probably be a little longer than the first two movies, due to the length of the book. I always thought that "The Wastelands" was one of the strongest book in the series and the one that really hooked me.
The Dark Tower had potential of becoming another LOTR or Star Wars, but that dream appears dead. I can only hope that one day someone will either make a television series about the Dark Tower or another studio will take another shot at it (pun intended).
I've often heard at how difficult it would be to portray a story as rich as "The Dark Tower" on the big screen. I disagree because of LOTR and Harry Potter series. Both of those books were big in scale, with a rich well of source material. Both of those series were exceptional. Why should the "Dark Tower" be any different?
I'm not sure if the movie did well enough to warrant a sequel, but if not, I think that the next producer and director who decides to tackle the story, be a fan of the series. They need Stephen King in the studio to ensure that the movie does the book some sort of justice.
So the question remains.....what do you think went wrong with the first portrayal of the one of greatest fantasy series in modern literature? I'm especially interested in the opinions of those who saw the movie.
The source material for the first book is so good, why go make something different? Sony suffered from a lack of vision and faith in the source material. Why try to remake the wheel?
The first book in the series should have been the easiest to portray on the big screen because of the episodic nature of the "The Gunslinger".
I would have set out to make a six movie series based on books 1-3 and 5-7. I agree that W&G should be made into a TV series. That is one thing that the producers got right.
There is enough material in the first book for a 2 hour movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I'm guessing that a lot of elements of the first book didn't make it to the movie. The incident in Tull and the attack under the mountain by the Slow Mutants were what I was most looking forward to.
Could you imagine how fun it would be to watch the gunslinger murder everybody in a town? This would have established Roland's anti-hero's credentials. The only thing I would have changed from the book is that I would end it with the story of how Roland won his guns. I would have the scene where Roland finally catches up to the Man in Black, and Walter reads Roland's future. I would end the movie in a dream sequence, showing how he first began his quest.
This would set up the second movie with the attack on Roland by the Lobstrosities and his trek along the Clean Sea. The second movie would roughly coincide with "A Drawing of the Three" Susannah Dean would be the star of the second movie. The third movie would include most of what happened in "The Wastelands" This would probably be a little longer than the first two movies, due to the length of the book. I always thought that "The Wastelands" was one of the strongest book in the series and the one that really hooked me.
The Dark Tower had potential of becoming another LOTR or Star Wars, but that dream appears dead. I can only hope that one day someone will either make a television series about the Dark Tower or another studio will take another shot at it (pun intended).
I've often heard at how difficult it would be to portray a story as rich as "The Dark Tower" on the big screen. I disagree because of LOTR and Harry Potter series. Both of those books were big in scale, with a rich well of source material. Both of those series were exceptional. Why should the "Dark Tower" be any different?
I'm not sure if the movie did well enough to warrant a sequel, but if not, I think that the next producer and director who decides to tackle the story, be a fan of the series. They need Stephen King in the studio to ensure that the movie does the book some sort of justice.
So the question remains.....what do you think went wrong with the first portrayal of the one of greatest fantasy series in modern literature? I'm especially interested in the opinions of those who saw the movie.
