The Dark Tower review

TB:

The film spends a good half-hour or so just setting up Jake, which wouldn’t be a problem if that wasn’t over a quarter of the movie. By the time he meets Roland (Idris Elba), we’re well into Act Two, and Roland is relegated to a background role. He’s the gunslinger who appeared in Jake’s most recent visions, the one person who might be able to stop the Man In Black, and there’s one quick flashback (which I’ll address below) that is meant to establish a fairly complicated backstory, but other than that, there’s really nothing about Roland that would suggest he is a character worth following through this story. He’s a cipher. He’s a guy who shoots well in the film, and nothing more. This is Jake’s journey, after all.