Despite trying to give the iconic book series, and other King works a little nod and a wink, this version of The Dark Tower seemed doomed from the get-go. How can you compress a multi-series journey into a film that runs less than half an hour?

It doesn’t have a chance to delve into the mythology of the world and doesn’t even work as a greatest hits of the books. So much has been changed that the film bears nothing more than a passing glance to it’s source material, no matter how many fun nods they throw in.

And that’s unfortunate because the worlds King created with the series are so layered and so interwoven with so much of his other work that it needed a lot more than what is delivered here.

Jake Chambers’ (Tom Taylor) whole backstory is changed, which affects his character, and the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) doesn’t quite have it down.

The only thing I really liked about it was the casting of Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, the gunslinger. But I even have problems here. His costume is fantastic, but doesn’t look lived in. In fact, that’s the way the whole thing feels, it hasn’t been lived in, and it certainly doesn’t have the depth of the source material.

I am holding out hope for Mike Flanagan’s pass at the series, he’s done great work on King projects before, and if a production company will show a little faith, it could be nothing short of amazing.

Fans want it, and they’ll drag others to it, if it’s done right. But this version, sadly was not.

It races too quickly to it’s climax, which makes all the things Roland was working for too easy to achieve. Over the course of the books there are losses and sacrifices, and this story just kind of jumps all over the place with its little nods and tries to give us an ending with an emotional impact that complete ignores the cyclical nature of the story and its themes.

I wanted to like parts of it, but I couldn’t even do that. It rushes though so much, and never gives enough of the story, which spanned eight books altogether (not to mention all the tie-ins – all things serve the beam).

It’s a mess, it’s disappointing, and wasted the casting of Elba completely.

It’s been said before, and I am not bringing anything new to this argument. This was a letdown all over. And I fear for those who saw the film, without reading the book and will be cautious if/when Flanagan unveils his take on the epic story.