A Closer Look at The Dark Tower Trailer (2017)

“They were close to the end of the beginning…”

After months of waiting, several premiere date pushbacks, and cries from fans for a trailer—it’s finally here! The film adaptation of Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, has an official trailer:

Check out our Dark Tower reread!

It’s a pretty eventful first trailer, so let’s break it down.  

[Possible spoilers ahead]

What I liked: 

  • There appears to be much more Midworld than in previous promotions. I was afraid it might be Roland and Jake in NYC only. 
  • The visuals of Roland reloading and shooting appear to capture the lightning-quickness and precision that makes Roland a gunslinger.

  • It appears we get at least a glimpse at Stephen Deschain, and the fact that he’s played by Dennis Haysbert makes me hopeful he might be a recurring character and that we’ll get more Dark Tower. Though he’s not listed as Stephen Deschain on IMDb, the trailer strongly suggests that is his role. 
  • There were a few Easter egg-type moments even in the trailer that suggests a possible Stephen King-connected universe!

A picture of the Overlook Hotel, as featured in The Shining, on the desk of the psychiatrist Jake sees:

A decaying Pennywise sign and decrepit balloons, referencing It:

What I didn’t like: 

  • The trailer opens with Jake already seeing visions of Roland and the Dark Tower. However, that seems problematic to me. The only reasons he was seeing visions is because he had died but Roland had entered the mind of The Pusher and saved Jake’s life, thus creating an alternate path that split both their minds. Just dreaming of the events seems to miss a lot of the anxiety and excitement of his tale. 
  • Also, does that mean they’re skipping Roland letting Jake die in his pursuit of the man in black? It’s possible he lets him die at another time, but if so, that’s a colossal fail as that scene shows the gunslinger's nature and stays with him throughout the entire series.
  • There’s no Eddie, Susannah, or Oy. Granted, they may be added later in the series (if it continues), but it seems like they’re already getting to the beams and the Tower’s vulnerability, which jumps way ahead of The Drawing of the Three and even The Waste Lands. How can you have a ka-tet without the others? 
  • The trailer kind of makes it look like an over-produced, Hollywood action film (maybe even a YA feel too). 

I’m still holding out hope for the movie and series, but I’m a little worried it’s going to flop. But, as they say, “If ka will say so, let it be so…”
 

What did you think of the trailer? 

Comments

  1. Alan Williams

    Well I liked it. There are elements of several books there, and I suspect that’s to make it more appealing to a general audience rather than those who have read the books. It’s difficult to tell from such a short trailer how many of the books it will cover, but I’m also hopeful that it’s the first of a series, rather than trying to cram everything in from all of the books.

    I enjoyed the nods to other King works too, but I wouldn’t judge too much about the destruction of The Tower, as the trailer seems to dwell quite a bit on visions and seeing the future, so I wonder if the clip of The Tower falling is actually something that is seen in a vision rather than actually happening in this movie?

Comments are closed.