34
Metascore
46 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanIt’s a highly competent and watchable paranoid metaphysical video game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, includes some luridly entertaining visual effects, and — it has to be said — summons an emotional impact of close to zero. Which in a film like this one isn’t necessarily a disadvantage.
- 50IGNIGNThe Dark Tower is a thoroughly average take on some truly incredible source material. While the fantastic leads do the best with what they’re given, it’s ultimately not enough to compensate for a lack of time spent building characters and their motivations in the script.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThough satisfying enough to please many casual moviegoers drawn in by King's name and stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, it will likely disappoint many serious fans and leave other newbies underwhelmed.
- 42ConsequenceJustin GerberConsequenceJustin GerberBringing the action of future Dark Tower novels forward isn’t a sin. The sin is not having nearly enough space for it. The film is breathless in all the worst ways as a result.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichEntertainment WeeklyDarren FranichBad dialogue, lame plot, fine. The bigger issue: How could a film with Elba and McConaughey have so little swagger?
- It’s rare that a film so convoluted also manages to be so determinedly boring.
- 33IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandKing’s Dark Tower universe is rich with cultural reference points and is always totally unpredictable, but in cutting it down to consolidate its highlights, The Dark Tower can’t even shoot the most necessary bullets straight.
- 30ScreenCrushMatt SingerScreenCrushMatt SingerEven when the movie around him is total garbage nonsense, it is fun to watch Idris Elba; the way he walks, the way he stares at people with eyes blazing with intensity. He is an ideal action hero. He looks like the coolest man who ever lived in his fantasy Western garb, and he moves with a rare combination of grace and force, like the greatest possible combination of Gene Kelly and Chow Yun-Fat. He makes an amazing Gunslinger. Sadly, he’s trapped in a not-very-good Gunslinger movie.
- 25The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe Dark Tower is a tepid non-starter from minute one.
- 20TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanWith fantasy material like this, we need to be made to believe in the inventions and the conceits, and we cannot do that if they are shot and staged in such a truncated and perfunctory way.