Witch and Hot Dog Fans of the King of Horrors are unlikely to call the eight-volume Saga about the Gunner the best work of an American novelist. This is a large-scale, detailed epic that unites all of King’s works into one huge universe and therefore the Dark Tower is interesting primarily as an amazing concept, and not as a whole fantasy cycle. To be honest, these novels are sometimes hard to read. What to say about the transfer to the movie screen - this idea initially seemed doomed. After ten years of production hell, filmmakers and ordinary viewers have already decided that the film adaptation of King’s epic will forever remain only a pipe fantasy. Well, after the long-awaited premiere of the film, it was already finally clear that it would be better to incarnate the film ' Towers' and remained just a dream.
On the way to the Dark Tower, many fell. The first victims were a duet of J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the creators of the series ' Lost' who just love to take on unrealizable large-scale concepts and bring them to mind. To the great regret of the fans, only the Dane Nikolai Arcel did not break the Tower. Behind him is the staging of several modest films in his homeland and the script for the Swedish film adaptation of the trilogy 'Millennium' Stig Larsson. An impressive track record for a director who was entrusted with bringing King’s epic multivolume to the screen, isn’t it?
It is worth noting that Arcel really tried to do his job with dignity. It is noticeable that the director tries to convey the atmosphere of the original novels, if not with love for the work of King, then at least with respect. The intriguing opening scene of the film in a good way surprises and can interest many questions even the viewer who read King. But then we see the main character, and 'The Dark Tower' instantly collapses to the ground. No, it's not about the black Roland, just below. The fact is that the protagonist of the cunning screenwriters decided to make a secondary character of the book Jake Chambers, a teenager who got into the Middle World. The decision is controversial: on the one hand, the desire of the filmmakers to attract teenagers to the cinema in this way is clear - after all, this is now the main audience of cinemas. Young little-known actor Tom Taylor, in general, plays well and looks convincing in his role. On the other hand, Shooter Roland himself turned into a textured and charismatic, but secondary hero. Now created by King under the impression of the role of Clint Eastwood in ' dollar trilogy' the savior of humanity has become a typical ' wise mentor', like Nicholas Cage of ' The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. By the way, the film with Cage ' Tower' generally suspicious: the same cliched and banal picture about a mentor and a student, in which an interesting concept is ruined by lazy performance. Alas, if a viewer who has not read King's novels watches 'The Dark Tower' he will absolutely not be able to understand what the original work can be interesting at all. So the worst thing a picture can do in relation to a famous writer is to discredit in the eyes of the audience the novels about the Arrow, from which only the names of the characters remain in the script.
But certainly the authors of the film adaptation can be understood: they really wanted to make a fascinating and intriguing movie, which was to be the beginning of a new franchise. Although there are many platitudes and inefficiencies in the history (which, by the way, can be attributed to ragged editing), the script has been adapted competently. I must say that 'Shooter', the first book of the series, is quite complex and not at all cinematic, which frightened many readers who tried to conquer the Tower. Therefore, to some extent, it was necessary to completely change the story in order to introduce the average viewer to the course of things, and anyway, the authors coped with this task. The finale of the picture leaves a huge scope for continuations and there you can safely follow the plot of the books and introduce heroes, because of the absence of which many fans were nobly outraged. Stronger fans of the cycle were outraged only by the choice of Idris Elba for the main role. But here it is impossible to dig: since the story threw out a character who just had a conflict with Roland because of racial differences, and the color of the hero’s skin does not matter.
But do not believe in the assurance of canonicity and formal continuation of history. Here it is worth bothering and noting that the artifact of the Rog Elda, thanks to which such a trick with the ears would have been possible and which was originally stated in the film adaptation, is completely absent in the film. As there is no mention of the main antagonist of the story of the Scarlet King (the inscription on the wall does not count, in the original script, which, incidentally, was leaked a year ago, his presence should have been very significant). But what the creators coped with by the hard five was with intertextual references to the King universe. Easter in the film is really a huge number, and they appear in the plot not just as a meaningless fan service, but as a full part of the story. Jake here has ' radiance', like the hero of the film Kubrick, in wandering through barren lands, the heroes will visit the amusement park Pennywise, a clown from ' It' and the password for moving between worlds here is 1408 (in the room of the hotel with the same room John Cusack in the world of the same name also got into the other world). And an attentive fan will be able to see a poster with Rita Hayworth, Overlook Hotel, St. Bernard Cujo and Marena Rose on the wall. For such a love for the details of the authors of the film can only be praised. And of course, it is necessary to praise Matthew McConaughey, who, unlike other artists, is not just in his place or on duty good. The actor brilliantly copes with the role of the eccentric, frightening and terribly dangerous sorcerer Flagg and now it remains to be hoped that the film adaptation of King’s & #39; Confrontation' will still be launched into production, because Matthew was going to play the same role there.
Already announced the beginning of work on the series, which will be a formal continuation of the film. However, the action will take place many years before the events of the film, when Roland was young. It is difficult to say whether something will work out of this venture. ' Tower' Originally it was necessary to film as a TV series, with a budget like ' Rome' or ' Game of Thrones'. The fate of the entire franchise is covered with otherworldly darkness. Critics defeated the picture, analysts do not predict financial success. Movies can pay off because the budget wasn’t big enough, but do we need that kind of happiness? This tape was not terrible or catastrophically failed. 'The Dark Tower' directed by Nikolai Arcel turned out to be just a normal picture, having little in common with books. And this situation does not suit the audience or producers from Sony. Such a movie has the right to exist, and fans can start waiting for a new film adaptation. After all, the work of King does not cease and will not cease to excite the imagination of people, which means sooner or later we will see a worthy film embodiment of the story of the Dark Tower.
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