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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 5 auguSt 2017
Review: In ‘The Dark Tower,’

franchise visions fall flat

By JAKE COYLE air of a mitigated disas- two arrive to retrieve him,
AP Film Writer ter. Its scope and running Jake observes a feature in
Ah, August. It’s that time of time have seemingly been their faces from his dreams:
year when you can head to reined in to keep “The Dark the stitches of false skin.
your local multiplex to see Tower” from completely He flees and improvises his
Matthew McConaughey toppling. What’s left is way to a building from his
as an interplanetary David an elaborate and grand visions that turns out to be
Copperfield who’s trying scheme told briskly but a portal to Mid-World. “This
to use his “magics” to de- emptily — like if someone is good,” he says. “It’s all
This image released by Sony Pictures shows Idris Elba, left, and
Matthew McConaughey in the Columbia Pictures film, The Dark stroy a looming tower that tried to explain the HBO se- real.” He tosses in a shoe as
Tower.” protects the universe from ries “Westworld” in 30 sec- a test and soon thereafter
Associated Press ready-to-invade hordes onds or less. plummets in.
of demons that linger just “Westworld” surely took There he quickly runs into
outside the universe. So, I some of its inspiration from Roland, the stone-faced,
guess, pretty far out there “The Dark Tower,” a soupy duster-wearing gunslinger
in space. mix of sci-fi, horror, West- with a six-shooter in a land
To be fair, this August ern and Arthurian legend. with minimal guns or bul-
boasts some of the more The elaborate concoction lets. The name comes from
intriguing films of the sum- of genres — it’s King to the King’s inspiration, the Rob-
mer, like Steven Soder- max — would likely hum- ert Browning poem “Child
bergh’s triumphant return ble most any filmmaker. Rolande to the Dark Tower
(“Logan Lucky”) and Kath- We have, as a civilization, Came,” and King’s Roland
ryn Bigelow’s furious race-ri- found a way to marry Taco has a grim quest of his own:
ots docudrama (“Detroit”). Bells with Pizza Huts, but to avenge the Man in Black
“The Dark Tower,’ though, the combo of wizards and for murdering his father.
is the more traditional cowboys remains a vexing Jake, we learn, will play a
late-summer offering: a one. pivotal role in the battle
long-in-development, not- After a brief hint of what’s that will decide the fate of
ready-for-prime-time studio to come, the movie opens both worlds — Mid-World
dump. in modern New York City and, as Roland calls it, Key-
A litany of directors, includ- with a young teenager: stone Earth. His “shine,” we
ing J.J. Abrams and Ron Jake Chambers (newcom- are often told, is strong and
Howard, has tried to crack er Tom Taylor). His dreams pure.
Stephen King’s magnum are plagued by visions of Elba is, as usual, a pow-
opus, a series of seven an alternate world, Mid- erful force on the screen
novels he wrote over more World, where he sees a who deserves better. Mc-
than two decades. But af- gunslinger named Roland Conaughey’s character,
ter much shuffling, “The Deschain (Idris Elba) bat- though, is more outlandish.
Dark Tower” has finally ar- tling the Man in Black (Mc- Thanks to his team of hench-
rived via director Nikolaj Conaughey), who’s hell- men, the Man in Black zips
Arcel, who penned the bent, for reasons unknown, between worlds like no one
2009 Swedish adaptation on ending the universe. else. His dark powers are
of “The Girl With the Drag- Jake furiously sketches his such that he can catch
on Tattoo” and helmed the visions, prompting his sensi- bullets between his fingers
18th century Danish period tive but uncertain mother and, to nearly all but Ro-
drama “A Royal Affair.” (Abby Lee, the best and land, give flip commands
The special effects-heavy most natural thing in this like “Stop breathing” and
fantasy is a leap in produc- mess) and comic-book- the victim will promptly keel
tion size that outstrips Arcel. cruel stepfather to agree over. If only he could stride
The film, at a lean 95 min- to send him to a psychiatric past the movie, itself, and
utes, has the unmistakable retreat upstate. But when order “Better.”q
Latest ‘Game of Thrones’

episode leaked online

NEW YORK (AP) — The up- is investigating how it hap- hack.
coming episode of HBO’s pened. Episode 4 of the show’s
“Game of Thrones” has The news comes just days seventh season is due to air
been leaked online but the after HBO said hackers had Sunday.
network says it’s not the re- broken into its systems and Star India, a subsidiary of
sult of a recent hack. stolen “proprietary infor- 21st Century Fox, reaches
Media company Star India mation.” HBO, however, more than 700 million view-
acknowledged Friday that said that Friday’s leaked ers a month across India
it was the source of the “Game of Thrones” epi- and more than 100 other
leaked episode and said it sode was not a part of that countries.q