Maybe I’m getting old but this movie seems too dark and too violent to be a 12A. But, alas, apart from the violence and the action this movie was incredibly boring.

The Dark Tower was adapted from a Stephen King novel. It follows the story of a tower that exists in the middle of many worlds including Earth. A man known as the Man in Black wants to destroy this tower and destroy the worlds that surround it. Every time he uses psychic children’s’ powers to attack the tower this causes earthquakes on Earth. Jake, a young lad who lives in New York has been having dreams of this Man in Black and another man known as the Gun Slinger. He manages to travel to their world through a portal and meets the Gun Slinger who is trying to stop the Man in Black. He is the last Gun Slinger of his kind as the Man in Black used his powers to kill the rest of his family and friends. Pretty dark stuff. As you can imagine, the Gun Slinger uses guns to fight so there is a lot of shooting and a lot of dark moments including a character literally getting shot in the forehead and we as the audience can see the hole it left. Horrific.

My issue with this movie is it seems too mature for a 12A audience. As long as kids are accompanied by adults they could see this movie at any age! That seems wrong to me. There’s a moment where the Gun Slinger slices off a snake’s head and then shoots it dead. People who are really aliens but wear humans as suits can be seen moving their face around to make it fit. But the worst is the Man in Black who can cause people to do as he says through his magical powers, the worst is when he burns a woman’s face with his hands to cause scars like the Joker and he tells more than one person to stop breathing and they suffocate to death.

I’m trying to not give too much away but it was quite a hard watch. The main issue was that if the action wasn’t as mesmerising as it was the story was very bland and boring. There was a lot of slow moments, conversations that didn’t really amount to anything and the whole thing was quite underwhelming. There was no adventure to this movie. Just a bunch of we’re here, now we’re here, now here’s a comedy bit, and now the end. Oh great, thanks.

I wouldn’t recommend this movie because of story. Yes the CGI is stunning and really well done and the acting is ok but the overall story lets it down. It’s very Maze Runner, Hunger Games-esque with a lot more dark moments but it falls flat a lot. I wouldn’t watch it again in a hurry.

What do you think of The Dark Tower?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding