Why are so many film critics getting sad about ‘The Dark Tower’?
By Jeremy Dick
Critics are nearly universally panning the new Stephen King inspired flick The Dark Tower, and I’m trying to understand why.
Yesterday, I saw The Dark Tower in theaters. I had gotten wind that some of the early reviews were bad, though I intentionally stayed away. I didn’t want to risk any spoilers, or having any kind of outside opinion influencing how I felt going in. The result: I totally loved the movie.
Related Story: The Dark Tower movie is incredibly badass and so is Idris Elba
After I saw the film, I was more than happy to post a glowing review of it. And, no, Sony didn’t pay me a dime. I bought my ticket like everyone else in the theater, and didn’t regret it at all. I came into the movie completely bias-free and felt it was one of the best films I’ve seen so far this year.
Imagine my dismay when I saw the abysmal rating the film currently holds on Rotten Tomatoes: a dreadful 18%. That’s lower than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Hell, that’s lower than Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. I knew not every critic would be praising this film… but why in the hell is it getting trashed this much?
via FilmRise
Let’s get to the bottom of this mystery.
After skimming through some of these negative reviews from various top critics, I couldn’t find any valid complaints. Perhaps there are others out there which can explain this vitriol a little better. But it’s not putting me into a good head space to read bad review after bad review, so I can only do so much research here.
Basically, it seems to be the typical subjective stuff that I can’t really argue. “The writing was bad” or “the acting his hokey”. I completely disagree with both of those sentiments to the fullest extent. But at the end of the day, these are technically just opinions, so I can’t really say either one of us is right or wrong.
Still, what makes these negative opinions outnumber the positive ones to such a horrifying degree? Robert Stack and I are still working on figuring this part of the mystery out specifically. So if you manage to figure it out, let us know in the comments below or tweet me @slimymeteor.
It’s also worth noting that there is a portion of Stephen King fans that just cannot accept whenever film adaptations differ in any way from the source material. Far before the movie came out, many fans were writing it off just because Idris Elba is black. And because of the other differences between the film and the books, many were simply wanting the movie to fail, never willing to give it any kind of fair chance.
Next: Interview: Stephen Franck of Dark Planet Comics
Ultimately, The Dark Tower is just the newest example of why you can never trust film critics. If you do so in this case, you’re going to miss out on an awesome film.
The Dark Tower is now playing in theaters everywhere.