Critic Reviews for The Dark Tower on Moviebuff.com

Too many genres spoil the interdimensional broth in this adaptation starring Idris Elba

Jonathan Romney, The Guardian

It’s rare a film so convoluted manages to be so determinedly boring. Lucky for you it vanishes from the mind as soon as it ends.

Charles Bramesco, The Guardian

“The Dark Tower” feels less like a movie, and more like a mandate being executed

John Serba, MLive.com

Stephen King's epic series of sci-fi novels is given less than stellar treatment

Rick Romancito, The Taos News

Though the film is a fantasy, what essentially works for it is the father-son bond between Jake and Roland

Renuka Vyavahare, The Times of India

Stephen King's eight-novel multiverse has been turned into a slice of lean-and-mean metaphysical action pulp

Owen Gleiberman, Variety

As far as missed-opportunities go, this is a tragedy.

Chris Bumbray, JoBlo.com

Adapted from Stephen King’s series of novels, this is neither an effective adaptation nor a sequel

Deborah Cornelious, The Hindu

Good performances, great scenes and an exciting score by composer Junkie XL keep this Tower at the level of a supreme guilty pleasure

Barry Wurst, Maui Time

Idris does it right, but all eyes are on McConaughey

Delnaz Divecha, BookMyShow

A franchise with major potential could still evolve from the DNA present in The Dark Tower; Elba does perfectly embody Roland

Drew Wheeler, flagpole

If you close your eyes, you can almost see that more ideal movie, its fuller form, robust, gripping, and, yes, shining in your mind.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

If they shrug their shoulders at this Dark Tower, a better one might come along before you can say "reboot."

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

The Dark Tower may polarize fans of the books but for casual moviegoers, it's a serviceable summer flick

Brandon Doyen, Wabi TV

The Dark Tower doesn’t fall because of a child’s mind, it falls because it’s too embarrassed to stand.

Matt Goldberg, Collider

This is not a terrible movie, but it does feel terribly confused about its audience

Tasha Robinson, The Verge

Stephen King’s Magnum Opus Crashes and Burns on the Big Screen

Josh Spiegel, Slash Film

The film doesn’t have the visual gimmickry of the LOTR series or the grandness of a Western

Devesh Sharma, Filmfare

The film moves at a very swift pace, making sure that a lull can never work its way in

Grant Jonsson, The Young Folks

'Dark Tower' is a mess, but it's not a failure

Jacob Oller, The Hollywood Reporter

There’s nothing great about this Stephen King adaptation

Shalini Langer, Indian Express

For a story where the literal fate of the universe is at stake, it’s disappointingly easy to not really care about anything that’s happening on screen.

Marty Sliva, IGN

The Dark Tower only works when Idris Elba's on the screen

Rob Slack, Guelph Today

While The Dark Tower may leave a little more to be desired, it's a pretty strong start to a promising series.

Mike Reyes, Cinema Blend

The hackneyed good-versus-evil film never really hits its stride

Rashid Irani, Hindustan Times

Stephen King’s fantasy saga is reincarnated as a dud in The Dark Tower

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club

Watching The Dark Tower fills you with a range of feelings from boredom to disappointment and surprise that such dense source material has been cobbled together with such a lack of care

Helen Murdoch, Flickering Myth

“The Dark Tower” plays it so safe and takes so few risks that its greatest sin is in being the one thing those formative books never were for so many people: forgettable

Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert

The spirit is there and you can’t deny the action is as well

Pete Hammond, Deadline

The film doesn’t have the visual gimmickry of the LOTR series or the grandness of a Western

Devesh Sharma, Filmfare

Elba gives an earnest performance as always, and it’s fun to watch McConaughey chew the scenery

Bob Garver, The Waunakee Tribune

“The Dark Tower” is startlingly low on both energy or any larger sense of magic or a wider world beyond whatever Jake is able to experience.

Kate Erbland, Indiewire

It’s not bad. It’s not good. It’s all terribly, terribly rote.

Joshua Starnes, ComingSoon.net