I’ve never read any of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, but my understanding is that this film serves as an introduction to what could become a series of alternate-world history-adventures.  Whether or not it ever begets any progeny, this film is rather stylish and sufficiently entertaining to watch on its own.

Nikolaj Arcel’s film follows young Jake (Tom Taylor) as he is transported from earthquake-riddled New York City to another world where gunslinger Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) is constantly hunting for Walter O’Dim (Matthew McConaughey), the Man in Black trying to destroy the Tower that holds both worlds from descending into chaos.  Got that?  Stephen King is a superior writer, so the books probably have merit, but this concept seems so arbitrary and, well, silly, that I have no interest in reading about it.

The big surprise is that the short 95-minute film is actually entertaining.  Despite being arbitrary and silly and other things, the movie is entertaining.  McConaughey hams it up while Elba looks like he’s on a permanent diet of oatmeal: grim-faced and always depressed.  The gunfights and marauding scenes are stylish, with some shots actually spectacular.  It doesn’t really amount to anything, but it is kind of fun to watch.

I strongly suspect that readers who love the books will hate the movie; it is probably an over-simplified, outrageous condensation of millions of words into an hour-and-a-half montage of vacuous action and posing.  I have no desire for a film series to continue, as I cared very little if Jake managed to save our world or if the Man in Black ended it (and then what would he have to do with himself?).  But the film itself is diverting and amusing, and much tastier than a steady diet of oatmeal.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  27 August 2017.