Movie review
August 3, 2017 · 95 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The 2017 film condenses elements from Stephen King's Dark Tower novels into a 95-minute PG-13 action-fantasy where a psychic boy teams with a lone gunslinger to stop an evil sorcerer from destroying the multiversal Dark Tower. The story follows a straightforward mentor-apprentice quest against archetypal evil with no modern social or identity messaging in dialogue, character arcs, or themes. The sole audience-visible element is the casting of Black actor Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, a role described in the source novels as a white man with blue eyes—a change that drew limited fan discussion but receives no narrative emphasis or signaling in the film itself.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Dark Tower.
Woke representation / casting
Clear canon mismatch in casting Black actor Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, explicitly described as white with blue eyes in King's novels; the change was publicly debated pre-release.
Woke political dialogue
No modern activist, political, or identity-based dialogue appears in the script or performances.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative engine is classic fantasy good-versus-evil quest with psychic "shine" powers and tower protection; zero representation arcs, gender messaging, or identity politics.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Conflict remains timeless archetypal fantasy with no reframing into modern critiques of patriarchy, whiteness, capitalism, or Western norms.
Woke character or canon changes
Roland's race and physical description altered from source novels; film resequences and condenses events from multiple books into a standalone story.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Niche fan complaints about the race swap as forced diversity or canon tampering circulated online, but remained limited and did not dominate coverage or generate broad anti-woke campaigns.
Creator track record context
No relevant prior activist or identity-driven work by key creatives; historical-political projects fit their eras without modern framing.
Production
