Hacker Cinema
The Dark Tower
2017 · Film · 95 min
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel
A boy haunted by visions of a parallel world aids its disillusioned guardian in preventing the destruction of the nexus of universes known as the Dark Tower.
1 positive1 negative1 mixed5 neutralfrom 8 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
8 comments on Hacker News
>I can't actually think of any movies that have done this
The Dark Tower was a sore spot for me. The protagonist was a character inspired by Clint Eastwood and was depicted as fair skinned in every piece of cover art and spinoff before Idris Elba was cast in the role. Blackwashing a character fans of the story all imagined as white really underscored how little appreciation the movie makers had for the source material.
It's not mass media who's paying for it, it's investors who are expecting a return on their monetary investment. Or, put another way, the people paying to have these movies and books made today have zero interest in the books and movies themselves, only the money to be made from their sale.
A patron, in comparison, is a single entity who is interested in the book, and who is capable of shelling out the $50,000 (a nice round number representing the salary for a good, but not great, writer and editor for the duration of getting the book produced) to have that book made. I'm not capable of doing that; I am guessing most people are not.
> it bears consideration whether the corporations who make things for profit are as good at creating such works
That's up to each person to decide. Is GRRM's Game of Thrones such a work? The Dark Tower series? Avengers Infinity War and Endgame?
Honestly, I think that yes, in many ways they are on par with or superior to books such as the Illiad and the Odyssey. They are absolutely better than Moby Dick.
Neverwhere => wonderful setting full of fantastic things
The Dark Tower => a massive epic that starts out western and goes multiverse SciFi and links together many of kings works. I felt like i was on a grand quest
Various short story collections from Gaiman & Stephen King => most are like twilight zone episodes (short little mind benders I can digest in one sitting)
Ted Chiang's short stories=> each one of these was amazing...particularly the one that inspired Arrival movie and the one with the guy that gets super intelligence.
The Dresden files => this won't win any awards from literary critics, but is one of my favorite series that just keeps on getting better and more captivating. There are so many complex characters. They don't exist in isolation either, but interact. There are so many main and sub plots. Themes about good & evil, how many things are gray, love, redemption, faith, corruption , perseverance, tactics & strategy...it's all there. It's very unpredictable plot wise. So many books just blow me away.
I am in the opposite camp with regards to The Expanse. I consider the first season a very, very good trailer for the first book.
I also consider the Dark Tower movie a somewhat okeyish trailer for the series. I just finished the second Dark Tower book, and in the books the man in black always speaks like McConaughey.
However, I understand your feel. I can't read Harry Potter, it's just not interesting enough, even after the movies.
Dunkirk Spoilers: I feel like Rotten Tomato doesn't work all the time. I watched Dunkirk, excited from the 93% on RT, and I walked out and felt disappointed. Like I get the cinematography was great, the story structure is amazing, everything a critic should be looking for was all there, but did I enjoy it? No. I thought it was boring. The movie didn't do anything to foster the relation of characters to the audience. I frankly didn't care about any of them, maybe except the Captain that stayed behind to help the French. I personally thought this was Nolan's weakest movie, although the RT score would suggest otherwise: Inception - 86%, Interstellar - 71% both of which I enjoyed way more than Dunkirk.
I think the audience score also on RT is more telling: Inception - 91% Interstellar - 85% Dunkirk - 82%
We could also take movies that people mentioned on this thread: The Dark Tower - RT: 16%, AS: 54% Baby Driver - RT: 93%, AS: 89% Baywatch - RT: 18%, AS: 60%
I also don't trust critics on the basis of people like Armond White, and since many of them do this for a living, a lot of critics can be bought.
I think what I'm trying to say is that Rotten Tomato is actually inaccurate metric for how enjoyable the movie actually is, and consumers are being misguided.
I also think theres an inherent misunderstanding of the RT score. People look at the score and think this is the quality of the movie, when in reality I think of it as a probability that I would like the movie. A score of 50% doesn't mean the movie has a failing grade, it's that when 100 critics viewed it half the critics enjoyed it and the other half didn't, so there's probably a 50% chance that I'll enjoy the movie.
I look at RT if I'm on the cusp of seeing something, but sometimes I have found it inaccurate. Both my wife and I loved Dark Tower (I read the first 2 books and she had never heard of it) despite a dismal RT score[0]. If you want to see an action / sci-fi / Matrix-esque movie with some well timed jokes, I recommend it.
[0] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_tower_2017/
I am reading the Dark Tower series. I have been meaning to read it for a long time, and with the upcoming movie I figured I should read it before someone spoils it for me :)
Stephen King
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
Wanted to read the first one before the movie came out, now I am hooked...