Caught an advanced screening of this earlier tonight (it opens tomorrow night officially) and while it wasn't particularly good, i thought it was OK enough in that it was watchable (the pacing of the film is all right enough) and that Idris Elba was good as The Gunslinger and while he's very, very dry and laconic which he's of course supposed to be, he give what I thought was an effective performance on the whole. (and honestly even the actor who played the kid who is in fact the narrative focal point of the movie is fine enough, he's not terrible) (McCounaghey is effectively evil with his constant deadpan, but its not really much of a role for him, he's kind of just there but he's OK in the part.)
There are to be sure a lot of flaws in the film. Just a lot of things in the film could have been better on the whole...BUT it should be said that while a lot of people will probably hate this film or try and make it out to be one of the worst of the year, it was not nearly that bad, its not Battlefield Earth level quality here. It just wasn't all that good either. Quality wise on the whole i would say the film is like right in that middle ground area there where you can shrug your shoulders and say it was all right i guess and then you go right ahead and pick it apart with your friend afterwards (which is more or less what I did)
But again I thought it was watchable enough despite its drawbacks as a whole but if you really need to know, the effects fall more than a little on the chintzy side (my friend said the effects budget seemed like it was rather limited) and that the grand epic fight scene that the film should have been building up to falls a good ways short of being epic. (same friend said that this actually falls in line with the ending of the first novel saying as how that first novel's ending was also pretty anti climactic) But end fight scene aside, i can imagine this film airing on a regular basis on basic cable either on Syfy or TNT and people watching it again and again in that way will probably be right in line with the quality level of the film. Bottom line--its all right enough for a night out with friends, but its also really not worth the effort of going out too as well if going out requires much of an effort. Its not all that great, but it wasn't terrible either...it was average...quite average.
I say this as someone who never read the books, however if you have read the books, I really, really hope you don't go in with sky high expectations. Since I haven't read the books can i state here that i thought the film played like a greatest hits collection of Stephen King's past works? You got a little bit of The Shining here, you got a little bit of The Stand there, mix and stir and serve! again i'm not saying it was bad, but the books had to be better than that right? I got a friend who is obsessed with the books and is dreading seeing this, so I'm kind of nervous what his reaction will end up being although I think I can predict it'll be on the negative side. But even with that i hope he'll at least think that Idris Elba was decent enough...at least i'll try and argue that.
There are to be sure a lot of flaws in the film. Just a lot of things in the film could have been better on the whole...BUT it should be said that while a lot of people will probably hate this film or try and make it out to be one of the worst of the year, it was not nearly that bad, its not Battlefield Earth level quality here. It just wasn't all that good either. Quality wise on the whole i would say the film is like right in that middle ground area there where you can shrug your shoulders and say it was all right i guess and then you go right ahead and pick it apart with your friend afterwards (which is more or less what I did)
But again I thought it was watchable enough despite its drawbacks as a whole but if you really need to know, the effects fall more than a little on the chintzy side (my friend said the effects budget seemed like it was rather limited) and that the grand epic fight scene that the film should have been building up to falls a good ways short of being epic. (same friend said that this actually falls in line with the ending of the first novel saying as how that first novel's ending was also pretty anti climactic) But end fight scene aside, i can imagine this film airing on a regular basis on basic cable either on Syfy or TNT and people watching it again and again in that way will probably be right in line with the quality level of the film. Bottom line--its all right enough for a night out with friends, but its also really not worth the effort of going out too as well if going out requires much of an effort. Its not all that great, but it wasn't terrible either...it was average...quite average.
I say this as someone who never read the books, however if you have read the books, I really, really hope you don't go in with sky high expectations. Since I haven't read the books can i state here that i thought the film played like a greatest hits collection of Stephen King's past works? You got a little bit of The Shining here, you got a little bit of The Stand there, mix and stir and serve! again i'm not saying it was bad, but the books had to be better than that right? I got a friend who is obsessed with the books and is dreading seeing this, so I'm kind of nervous what his reaction will end up being although I think I can predict it'll be on the negative side. But even with that i hope he'll at least think that Idris Elba was decent enough...at least i'll try and argue that.