The Dark Tower review: Stephen King adaptation is a disappointing dud

Nikolaj Arcel, 95 mins, starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Katheryn Winnick, Claudia Kim, Fran Kranz

From The Shining to The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King's writing has inspired many memorable movies. That's why it is all the more disappointing that The Dark Tower turns out such a dud. All the elements appear to be here.

The film boasts a strong hero in the “Gunslinger” (Idris Elba) and what should be an equally memorable villain in the mercurial, shape shifting Walter O’Dim, aka “the Man in Black” (Matthew McConaughey).

It has monsters, portals into hidden universes, Matrix-like fight scenes and plenteous references to old spaghetti westerns. Its Danish director Nikolaj Arcel was behind the excellent costume pic, A Royal Affair.

Its likeable child lead Jake (Tom Chambers) has plenty of vim about him. The film, though, just doesn't hang together properly. It doesn't have much emotional oomph either. Characters here see their nearest and dearest killed – and then just carry on about their business as if nothing has happened.

Story wise, we’re in a hi-tech version of sword and sorcery territory. There’s a gigantic tower at the centre of the universe protecting everyone “from the darkness.” The Gunslinger (whose gun is made out of the same steel found in King Arthur's Excalibur) is fighting to keep the mighty tower intact. The man in black wants to topple it, using energy that kids like the very "pure" Jake can unleash.

Jake is living in New York (part of “keystone earth”) with his mother and stepfather. He is still traumatised by the death of his father and is prey to nightmares and visions in which he sees characters from other worlds.

In the right role, McConaughey is a superb actor. Here, he is little more than a glorified pantomime villain, smirking gleefully into the camera as he commits each fresh misdeed.

Elba is playing an intergalactic variation on Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name but crossed with an Arthurian knight and with a long coat that could have been borrowed from Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. It’s not a role that allows him to do much more than growl, shoot off his guns at O’Dim and act bewildered when he eats a hot dog for the first time in contemporary New York.

The film is an unwieldy mish-mash of sci-fi, western and a Huck Finn-like kids’ yarn, with some Harry Potter elements thrown in for good measure. It has some very ghoulish moments (aliens having their rubbery faces gashed and pulled off) and some very trite ones.

The ending leaves the way open for sequels but, like the ill fated Philip Pullman adaptation The Golden Compass, this is one potential franchise that looks likely to stall at the starting gate.

The Dark Tower hits UK cinemas 18 August.