Although whether he can be called a generation of masters is quite controversial in the minds of many readers; but it is undeniable that Stephen King has produced many outstanding good stories. Even if you are not familiar with his novels, many movies based on his works are undisputed classics. The famous Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, The Shining; as well as the Green Mile, Carrie the Witch, Scary Bird, 1408, Dreamcatcher, etc., all performed well. For a long time, for me, Stephen King's name written at the beginning of the film was a guarantee of film quality.
If it is the most special one in Stephen King's long list of works, I will come up with the Seven Parts of the Dark Tower. Not only because this is a series of works, but also because its composition is extremely complicated and full of expressions of the author's own consciousness. Compared with traditional epic works, such as the familiar Lord of the Rings series, the disc-shaped world, and the legend of the galaxy heroes, this work is full of disorder and randomness. The author seems to have no intention of carefully arranging every plot, but just set a solid main line, and then let the protagonist take the story forward freely. What happens, who you see, and what kind of terroir you experience, seem to be random. The author indulges his own emotions, imagination and thoughts in the text, and the readers who follow him on the wasteland, it is like a hasty journey to glimpse the author's heart. Other epic novels, and even his own other novels, follow the rigorous logic as much as possible to arrange the plot, and even some dogmatic ones do not waste any pen and ink in promoting the unrelated side details of the story.
In my opinion, the composition of the Dark Tower series is unexpectedly similar to adventure comics or a kind of game called roguelike. Randomly encountered events and enemies, random consequences, and loops. However, this spontaneous plot development has also been criticized by some readers, who think it is abnormally obscure in the first reading. I have always thought privately that this book is actually what Stephen King has always wanted to write. Perhaps the novel business he has managed for many years is to complete it, because if he had come up with this kind of story before he became famous, he would surely be sneered and shot on his face by the editor. However, this is not a book review, it's a long way off. In any case, it is obvious that it is difficult for this work to be adapted into a decent film. And Hollywood screenwriters obviously think so too. They have adapted countless Stephen King's novels in the past few decades, but they have never dared to take advantage of this shiny golden sign.
Although the destruction of the original work is not uncommon in the history of Hollywood movies, considering that most of Stephen King’s signatures have good credit records, I still chose to go to the theater to watch the "Dark Tower". However, after watching this movie, I firmly believe that their previous decision was correct. Adapted the Dark Tower series, using a famous line from World of Warcraft: You are not prepared. I carefully recalled whether Roland's skin color was described in the novel. Okay, maybe not, but I think it's just that I automatically brought in the image of a white cowboy in my heart. But this is not the point. The point is that this work has nothing to do with the plot of the original work. This not only reminds me of a film and television work adapted from the domestic novel "Ghost Blowing Lantern" a few years ago. I personally think that this local adventure novel is of high quality: the plot is compact, the characters are vividly portrayed, and the text is exquisitely controlled, which can bring readers a better reading experience. The author of this novel, and Liang Jian, the author of Scarlet Romance, Du Liang, I think they are all novelists of the same kind as Stephen King-first of all, for the purpose of telling a good story. However, among the film and television works adapted from the above works, the "Ghost Blowing Lantern: Nine Demon Tower" really brought the audience, especially those who had read the original, a feeling of eating shit. It is extremely regrettable to see a high-quality novel being remade into shit, or an excellent manga turned into shit, which means that another excellent IP has been ruined. They could have been put in the hands of the right people, and with appropriate efforts, they would become outstanding works with a history, instead of being reduced to another abominable cultural rubbish under the operation of capital. However, the reality is sad, and there are countless examples of this kind of ruining the original work. I originally thought that in the domestic film and television industry environment, the possibility of this kind of thing happening is relatively high; therefore, the psychological expectation of the previous adaptation of the ghost blowing lantern is lower, and the tolerance is stronger. However, in the already very mature American commercial film environment, it is really incredible that similar things happen on this kind of copyright that can be compared to the Lord of the Rings.
For the original work party, because it has already had an established understanding of the original work, it is an inevitable prejudice to be more harsh on the adapted works. However, even as an independent film, the performance of "Dark Tower" is far from excellent. The worldview of the story is explained only in the opening two sentences. There are various forms of villain camps in the play, and there is no clear explanation for their purpose and actions. As mentioned earlier, it is difficult to grasp the atmosphere that Stephen King injects into this work. Obviously, this adaptation failed to capture the breath, but instead piled up its clumsiness into a fusion of action, fantasy, horror, science fiction and children. In my humble opinion, usually when describing an epic work, it is best to start with details, simple events, and life rather than obsess over the world view. This can help the audience to gradually integrate into the story from a familiar perspective. Many great and classic works, such as the Lord of the Rings series and the Star Wars series, are like this. What this work just lacks is this detailed description of the universe of the work, but it seems to throw an 800-page seventh edition of Biochemical Principles on your face and let you understand it in two hours. Generally speaking, this situation is more likely to happen to those who are stupid enough to squeeze seven books into 90-minute works.
In terms of scene performance, this film can only be said to be so-so. The action scenes of the final climax are not particularly impressive and the performance is mediocre; the plot arrangement is roughly reasonable, but it is also slightly simple and clichéd, and there is nothing outstanding about it. Although the black gunman's pistols are very slippery, there are movies such as Torn Doomsday, The Matrix, and John Wick that are leading the way, and it is not particularly novel. If you are a Stephen King fan to recharge your faith, or original readers to watch the film, please don't expect too much. If you have never been in contact with this book, then it is likely to be another less interesting popcorn that you have read and forgotten.
Finally, it is said that this movie will also make a sequel and launch a trilogy. With all due respect, I really don't know, and don't want to know what they will or can do. Seeking truth from facts, this movie must not be said to be bad. However, what is more terrifying than bad is its thorough mediocrity. Those who engage in art shouldn't be left behind forever, but rather be stinking for thousands of years, better than no one knows. I don't know what Stephen King would feel after seeing this dark tower, at least I feel that he will not be too happy about it.
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