The Dark Tower Reviews: 9 Early Reactions You Need To See
5. Fantasy Elements Fail To Pull Viewers In
"With fantasy material like this, we need to be made to believe in the inventions and the conceits, and we cannot do that if they are shot and staged in such a truncated and perfunctory way.” - The Wrap
Nikolaj Arcel's efforts to translate and condense Stephen King's long-running series of densely mythologized novels amount to being a western without the majesty of the west, a fantasy without anything even coming close to being fantastic." - The Guardian
The next Lord of the Rings this ain't.
A frequent criticism flagged up by the early reviews is Dark Tower's abject failure to draw viewers into its world, partly because the entire story feels rushed.
Some critics claim that Dark Tower spends to much time grounded in the real world, while others insinuate that Mid-World, its unique cultures and creatures aren't nearly fleshed out enough.
So we can conclude that, for a combination of reasons, the film's fantasy elements fall somewhere on the wrong side of epic.