(This review may contain spoilers).
I haven’t read the book this movie was based on, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie or from understanding what was going on.
The movie drew me in very easily from the start, with Jake’s dreams and how they affected his life. I couldn’t help but feel a lot of empathy for his mother, who seemed to be doing her best by him; but I really disliked his stepfather.
While Walter was a very scary villain, he didn’t seem to have a lot of depth to him. I didn’t know why he wanted the tower to fall, or why he was working with/seemed to be in control of the creatures with no real faces.
While Jake was very resourceful and I really liked seeing his interactions with Roland, there were a couple of times I felt my suspension of disbelief threatened, especially during the time Jake was running and jumping over buildings.
I did think that Walter’s ability was pretty scary, but there were a lot of unanswered questions about him. It was good to see how the dark tower being attacked affected the other worlds, but I would have liked to see more of those. There was the implication that there were a lot of different worlds, but I only got to see bits and pieces of two of them.
I would have liked to be able to learn more about the world and the tower through Jake, but there were a lot of questions left unanswered by the end of the movie. There were some good moments of humour and I really did like seeing Jake and Roland working together, even despite Roland’s hangups.
By the end of the movie, I was thoroughly absorbed in the plot and while I wouldn’t buy this movie as soon as it comes out on DVD, I wouldn’t mind watching it again.
Ink of Blood 