'The Dark Tower' Trailer Promises a Sci-Fi Martial Arts Wild West Movie
Matthew Loffhagen Monday, 10 July 2017 - 6:55PM
Columbia Pictures
Looking at the latest trailer for The Dark Tower, the swashbuckling, dimension-hopping cowboy movie adapted from the Stephen King book series of the same name, it's hard to get over just how well cast this movie is.
Sure, Idris Elba's Wild West accent isn't perfect, but then, that's not really what you're paying attention to. The draw here is just how awesomely cool Elba looks as the Gunslinger, loading his gun on the fly and firing out bullets while jumping through the air in a way that makes Serenity, the current standard for sci-fi Westerns, stand up and pay attention.
As if Elba weren't enough, Matthew McConaughey is showing off his range by providing such an impressive, eerie Man in Black that you almost forget that he's ever played any character that hasn't been an unstoppable evil force of nature - it doesn't help that he comes off that way regardless. These two work together so well that, watching this (or any other) trailer for the movie, it's hard not to get excited. See the new international trailer below:
Of course, there are many things that are notably absent from the marketing campaign for The Dark Tower. We've seen suspiciously little of the Earthly side of the story - the protagonist of the movie is the young pre-teen Jake, who acts as our viewpoint in an alternate dimension. Naturally, Sony is pushing their big name stars in the trailers, but one can't help but wonder if perhaps the more pedestrian side of the movie is lackluster by comparison.
The same can be said for any genuine horror themes. Stephen King's reputation precedes him, but it does look an awful like Sony's tried to bend the source material to fit a more comic book superhero aesthetic, dropping the scary stuff to make room for more straight action set pieces.
If so, then Sony is justified in keeping the spotlight on the movie's strengths - after all, let's face it, this movie's going to be completely swallowed up by the bigger blockbusters of the year. 2017 is a fantastic time for cinema with so many heavy hitters already in theaters, or about to release, that a movie based on a less recognizable property doesn't really stand a chance.
After several delays, it seems that Sony has given up on finding the perfect time for this film, and are releasing it quickly without much fanfare to simply get it out of the way as they focus on a slew of more traditional superhero movies.
via GIPHY
This is a shame, as everything we have seen of The Dark Tower thus far suggests that it's going to be a lot of fun. Unless, of course, this is a classic Stephen King horror story that's being marketed as an action Western to get audiences into theaters. That certainly would explain a lot of the movie's shady, quiet marketing approach.
The Dark Tower hits theaters August 4, 2017.