The Dark Tower

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Dark Tower

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

Wolves of the Calla was "okay." It suffered a lot from fans for the long gap after 4 and not "advancing" to the Tower much from there. But as Stephen King's Magnificent Seven Samurai Amigos, it was a decent aside, with some weird touches that ended up taking over and being the worst parts of 6/7.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 18:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 14:35

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

Basebf555 posted:

Agreed, he's the one part of the overall ending(I guess if we want to consider the entire final book the ending) that I don't think King stuck the landing on. I actually love a lot of the other stuff that most people don't like, but Mordred really was not a satisfying character in any way.

Yeah, the last book was basically "evil is not as powerful as it seems," which is a big letdown after 20 different books had universe spanning evils that were Lovecraftian powerful. To write that all off as "Stephen King didn't know what he was writing" and then have each climactic evil being (Flagg, Mordred, Crimson King) culminate in 3 different completely anticlimactic ways was dumb. Also, "IT" if you want to count Dandelo as the Dark Tower's idea of what a "real" version of IT would be like as opposed to the Galactus type being envisioned in the original story.

It may have been a point, but it was amazingly unsatisfying. Probably wouldn't be if you JUST read the Dark Tower books, but for people that read them in the time they were written and all the tie-ins that really built up the main story, it really came off as a wet fart.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2017 15:09

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

crime fighting hog posted:

I wonder how good the soundtrack will be. Hopefully it fits the music that played in my head while reading the books in high school.

Junkie XL is doing it, so it can be anywhere from great (Mad Max) to okay but forgettable (Deadpool).

# ¿ Jul 19, 2017 16:30

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

crime fighting hog posted:

What I wanted: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly but with magic and portals.
What I expected: Zardoz
What I'll get: Watchmen levels of disappointment. I was so hyped to see that movie, then I saw it and remembered all the awesome parts in the book that weren't there or were changed and just left disappointed. Was the movie itself bad? I've heard mixed amounts of praise and condemnation.

I truly believe a mini-series would have been the best way to pull this off. I'm going to wait for some reviews. If it's THAT BAD I'll save my money and watch it later.

Watchmen literally has everything in the book but the squid and the changes make sense. You're looking at the wrong version.

edit: the only changes were really adapting the book > comic books to movie > comic book movies. The fidelity is almost TOO much to be pointless if it wasn't commenting on movies as opposed to comics.

Darko fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Aug 3, 2017

# ¿ Aug 3, 2017 06:23

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

I'm about to find out just how bad this movie is.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 00:55

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

This was basically The Talisman with Roland from book 3 in it. What the gently caress.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 04:25

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

At least we got a Roland Flagg showdown instead of a goofy spider. I will say that. Also, lol at psychic powers being straight up called The Shine in this.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 04:28

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

The funniest thing about this cycle of Roland is that he's obsessed with Walter instead of the Tower which apparently made him into a giant creampuff as opposed to anything resembling the first two books.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 13:19

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

Fart City posted:

The book also does a much better job of painting Jack as a victim of the hotel. It preys on his weaknesses and insecurities. In the movie it just seems to be a means of unlocking some latent violent tendencies. Like book Jack is broken down to the point of becoming a murderer, but movie Jack is just let off the leash.

The turning point, in the book, is the beehive - where Jack has finally cleaned himself up, decided to do good for his son/family, and then The Overlook magically puts bees in the beehive to attack his son, which completely alienates him. That kind of stuff makes you really feel sorry for him and puts the onus on the true villain as the hotel. The movie hotel seems to just feed off of what Jack already is and grows with him.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 20:29

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

biracial bear for uncut posted:

I mean, they're remaking The Mist of all things into a miniseries. They could've had thinnies and everything in the Dark Tower movies/mini-series along with it as part of that universe.

Yeah, and The Mist TV show completely misses the point of that, as well, and changes the mist into some kind of thing that judges your soul and kills you or not based on that, or something.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2017 16:12

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

I just randomly ran across someone's summary of Goldman's original script, before it was chopped up, on Reddit. Apparently the script is there as well, but I didn't bother to look for it:

quote:

Read it in its entirety, Kepler said a lot BUT FULL BREAKDOWN BELOW !
It has sort of a similar structure to the finished film but I think many would be astounded by how good this draft is. Could it be done on 60 million? Probably not, we see more of Mid-World, passages would have been CG heavy, we see the Crimson King, etc,etc. I think they could have made that film with 80-90 million.

Seriously, Goldsman is not a hack here, he gets it, we still have that opening in Devar Toi that I'm no fan of, but he explained how they needed to foreground that aspect. The conflict with Jake is established, same deal with the psychiatrist (exposition time), necessary evil, the mom seems much more removed, there's no neighbor.

Immediately, we find ourselves with Roland in Tull, and that whole section is extremely close to the Gunslinger, Allie is here, Roland lays with her, Nort brought back to life by Walter, Walter being Walter with great dialogue sticking close to the page (which is maddening when you see the dialogue Matt is stuck with), he ends up influencing the whole town to turn on Roland, which makes it acceptable for Roland to shoot all of them.

It intercuts between this, Devar Toi, where there's Pimli AND Finli, and they're both in masks or in their natural forms, no crappy human Pimli, Jake's NY and Roland.

Roland falls at some point during the shooting, similar to the book. He walks off, reaches a beach AND LOBSTROCITY ATTACK ! they actually come out of some thinny, they attack him, one snaps off two of his fingers, and he's poisoned.
Jake pulls a gun on the low-men, his step father and mom when the low-men show, he gets out, goes to Dutch Hill, the guardian is much closer to the book, lasts longer, and there is no portal ! it's similar to The Drawing, where the door is part of the guardian and he manages to go through.

Jake actually gets to Mid-World much later than in the film, PATIENCE ! when he gets there, he shows up in the stone circle, he sees a mutie deer, there's a gas station, many more relics of the past, the world feels more realized, but hey, writing on the page is one thing when you don't have the budget in mind.

He finds Roland by spying on him, Roland surprises him from behind, NO MENTION of Walter, Jake drew the MIB but he doesnt really know what he looks like and there's no moment where Roland thinks Jake is like an agent of Walter's or something. They walk together, Roland has more dialogue, but yeah, it IS Roland (not that he isnt in the film, but even moreso). There's the theme park scene, except they sleep in separate places, Roland is his usual self, pretends not to care. Jake hears the thinny, his dad,except it's all much more elaborate in terms of scenery. Where the film, for budget reason, has him finding his dad in a forest ; here, he walks on the tarmac, to what was an old airport.
Roland actually places bullets in his ears !!!! to go and get him, Jake sees through the thinny, and sees New York City, his dad telling him similar things (except his dad here died ten years earlier, poisoned after 9/11), Roland starts blasting, NYC disappears and creatures appear through the membrane, he keeps shooting and it disappears, there's no creature like in the film.

They get to the Manni village, it's different, the structures are dome-like, the wise woman telepath is here an old lady, Roland talks of how he abandoned the Dark Tower, a futile quest to focus on something more achievable: vengeance. BUT despite saying that, Jake catches him looking up at the sky a few times, hoping to see the clouds following the path of the beam.

That part feels heavily inspired by The Wolves Of The Calla, Roland dances the Commala ! and because of his fever, his dance partner is replaced by Susan ! Jake & the wise woman both see her, Roland pretends nothing has happened. There is no shootout, no low-men, instead, one of the beams breaks and we see the effects: vegetation, life dying, a part of the village as well, people frozen in place, turning to "glassy ash". Roland collapses, they try to cure him, Jake suggests to take him to NYC through the portal.

By the way, the portals are only shown once if I'm correct, better than just showing Walter going wherever he wants. By that time, Roland STILL doesn't care about Jake, or he pretends not to. They go to NYC, Walter visited Jake's mom & step father prior (no cooking scene). Similar fish out of the water feel here, similar dialogue, but closer to The Drawing. No emergency room, Jake just gets him medicine, he pops it, feels better.
They go to the apartment, Roland has a bad feeling, Jake understands, and he sees what happened with the touch, like instant replay, he starts crying uncontrollably, Roland does his hypnosis thing with the bullet ! to calm him down, puts him to bed.

They look for places selling ammo, BUT Roland leaves Jake behind, he does that by hypnotizing him a second time. Roland goes to buy anmo (and the scene is so close to the hilarious bit in The Drawing where Roland does the same). Jake follows him thanks to the touch/shining.

Walter confronts Roland in the store, like in the movie, but low-men and vampires show up to take Jake, here, it sticks close to the film, except of course THE ENDING. Roland goes to take Jake who's strapped on but Jake sends him a command: "There are other worlds than these", "Roland, don't". There is no confrontation with Walter. Roland understands and shoots Jake through the portal, it says the blood on the boy's chest resembles a rose !

Jake dies, Roland bows in front of what is know a wall, in respect, I think he says "Hile, Gunslinger". Roland comes back to the Manni village, him and the wise woman talk about Jake, his quest, we clearly see the path of a beam in the sky, people in the village are hopeful about him possibly saving this world.

He goes back to walking in the desert, then there is this cool moment where we zoom out, and see a globe with Roland on it, another where Walter is staked to a cross ! etc etc, and we zoom out further to show the Crimson King, he's described as both spidery I think & human, he howls with rage. We end with Roland. drawing cards (he did so before in the script), suddenly, he draws "THE BOY", he sorta smiles, surprised, and says something like "so it is". Boom, the end.
I'm stunned, this would have been an excellent film. Also, Lud is namedropped, so is Cuthbert, there's no flashback or anything. OH and we get the classic door standing in the middle of nowhere when Roland comes out of the Dixie Pig and goes to the Manni village.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2017 20:04

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 14:35

Darko: Dec 23, 2004

Junkenstein posted:

Is it confirmed real? It doesn't sound real.

Yeah, it's real. It just got extremely truncated and studio interfered with for the final version.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2017 16:00

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Dark Tower