Stephen King's The Dark Tower

[bune]

[Anders]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

There really has been a lot of great fantasy coming out this past decade.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I think there is a thread for this

[bune]

IT does not search well.

[Anders]

Who here will watch Dark Tower first?

[epilogue]

I will. I will watch it first.

[Anders]

I will. I will watch it first.

Look forward to hearing about that.

[epilogue]

I will. I will watch it first.

Look forward to hearing about that.

I actually have no idea when I'll see this. But I'd love to see at the first possible showing.

[run2death]

No early reviews and lots of new stories about its troubled production.

Hmmmm...

[stip]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

There really has been a lot of great fantasy coming out this past decade.

Have you read R Scott Baaker?

[CopperTom]

Reviews are in. I'm sorry, Joey.

[run2death]

Yeah, that's too bad. I was hoping it'd be good. Love Idris.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[stip]

The leads are getting praised for the performances, at least. If you're already a fan of the series and you like watching the characters your brain will go a long way to fleshing out narrative or world building.

[epilogue]

Reviews are in. I'm sorry, Joey.

I read several last night. They all had the same gripe: Doesn't convey the sense of world building that the books do, but is simultaneously underwhelming as a standalone story...Which is basically how The Gunslinger reads, honestly. So I'm still hopeful that this could be an entertaining film, and could be the start of an awesome franchise if they can expand on the story and get a more visionary director for the next installment.

You read a different version of The Gunslinger than I did.

It seemed pretty obvious to me from the first trailer that the movie wasn't going to be what I wanted the movie to be. I've adjusted my expectations since then. We'll see how I feel about it. But I've been a little bummed/worried since the first trailer.

The cast is great. And it looks like they're really moving forward with the TV series (which is where this thing belongs anyway). One of the folks from Walking Dead and The Shield is being tapped to showrun and Idris will star. I'll take it!

[epilogue]

Reviews are in. I'm sorry, Joey.

I've never trusted reviews before and I won't trust them now. Having said that though, I'm not surprised. Reading up on the production problems and the "too many cooks" issues it had from the beginning. It's a shame they couldn't give this thing Disney/Lucasfilm money (though I totally understand why) and replace Arcel and have more extensive reshoots. But here we are.

Bottom line, I'm still looking forward to it. But my expectations were adjusted a long time ago. Really, the worst part is that it's such a waste of the two leads. Those guys really deserve to play these characters and give them all the gravitas in the universe.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

Reviews are in. I'm sorry, Joey.

I read several last night. They all had the same gripe: Doesn't convey the sense of world building that the books do, but is simultaneously underwhelming as a standalone story...Which is basically how The Gunslinger reads, honestly. So I'm still hopeful that this could be an entertaining film, and could be the start of an awesome franchise if they can expand on the story and get a more visionary director for the next installment.

You read a different version of The Gunslinger than I did.

Technically, I may have: I read the original version, not the updated version. But that aside, did you really find The Gunslinger to feel A) like a humongous world or B) to be particularly riveting as a fantasy western story? Because I didn't get either of those from the book. It certainly wasn't bad; it was just sort of quiet and there.

I also read the original and not the revised/updated version. And yes. And absolutely. Though, the "western" aspect is the least interesting to me and I wouldn't probably categorize it as a "fantasy-western" personally. Those elements are there and obviously super important to King. But I'm much more in line with Elba's reading of Roland as a knight more than a cowboy.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[wease]

Reviews are in. I'm sorry, Joey.

I read several last night. They all had the same gripe: Doesn't convey the sense of world building that the books do, but is simultaneously underwhelming as a standalone story...Which is basically how The Gunslinger reads, honestly. So I'm still hopeful that this could be an entertaining film, and could be the start of an awesome franchise if they can expand on the story and get a more visionary director for the next installment.

You read a different version of The Gunslinger than I did.

Technically, I may have: I read the original version, not the updated version. But that aside, did you really find The Gunslinger to feel A) like a humongous world or B) to be particularly riveting as a fantasy western story? Because I didn't get either of those from the book. It certainly wasn't bad; it was just sort of quiet and there.

I also read the original and not the revised/updated version. And yes. And absolutely. Though, the "western" aspect is the least interesting to me and I wouldn't probably categorize it as a "fantasy-western" personally. Those elements are there and obviously super important to King. But I'm much more in line with Elba's reading of Roland as a knight more than a cowboy.

That's interesting, and perhaps something I'll understand better when I eventually read the rest of the series.

I read Eyes of the Dragon as a prelude to reading it so I totally saw Roland more as a knight.