Stephen King's best work, gets a watered down adaption. That feels like the director and screenwriter, both never even read the books. Roland (Idris Elba) in the books is obsessed with getting to the Tower. Here he only cares about revenge on the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) who killed his father.
While Jake's (Tom Taylor) backstory is a bit tampered with too. I am pretty sure in the book, he got to Roland's world by being shoved in front of a car by a mad man. I am sure Jake being obsessed with drawing Roland and his world is from like the 2nd or 3rd book.
The books were quite violent and graphic. With a Western like feel to them. There's not much screenwriter Akiva Goldsman got right. The plot is a incoherent mess that doesn't feel like any of the books. While none of the books are close to PG-13.
The best things about this movie is the Idris Elba and Tom Taylor chemistry. As well as the humor of when Roland tries hotdogs or Soda for the first time.
McConaughey tries hard to play a cold hearted bastard and succeeds on some levels. Maybe because his character does some evil things. Otherwise I think they needed someone like Willem Dafoe who could play evil in his sleep.
All in all, Sony and Akiva Goldsman are where this adaption went wrong. As well as being too short. King's prized possession shouldn't be in the hands of the studio that brought us the Ghostbusters reboot and the Emoji movie.
While Goldsman hasn't adapted one book well. The screenwriter of Batman & Robin shouldn't be allowed near anything Stephen King. Especially The Dark Tower. Adapting the Dark Tower, proved he shouldn't have been near it. What a mess with so much potential to be more.