Idris Elba is the new Clint Eastwood, based on his role in The Dark Tower. He’s been outstanding in everything I’ve seen him in, but here he has the lead as The Last Gunslinger.  Of course, Matthew McConaughey is good as The Man in Black, being surprisingly low key in his evil. 

Tom Taylor does a fine job as the boy haunted by visions of a mysterious dark tower. He is rescued by Idris Elba who explains that the Man in Black is searching for him.  Here the plot gets complicated.  The Dark Tower must be protected or civilization will end.

The movie received surprisingly negative reviews, apparently from those who read and loved the books.  There are eight books in The Dark Tower series.  How can you possibly condense that into a 95 minute movie?  You can’t. The Lord of the Rings was “only” three books and required three movies.  So if you love The Dark Tower books, you probably should expect to hate the movie.

I have not read the books. Therefore, I enjoyed The Dark Tower as a fast-moving action movie with a good vs evil plot and lots of nice effects.  Idris Elba owns every scene he’s in.

I saw the movie a few weeks ago and I’ve already forgotten it. It’s not a great movie but it’s not as bad as the reviews say. It’s actually a fun time.  So I’m giving it a very cautious recommendation if you go not expecting much.

And it’s a chance to see if I’m right that Idris Elba is the new Clint Eastwood.

Reviewed by Marian Powell