The characters (Roland, Flagg, Jake, etc.), the world and mythology of the series, and the story (an expanded version) will all have to be more coherent and understandable for a film or television series to work. Well, the solution seems to have been to just scrap all that and release a shockingly short 95-minute movie that just kind of glosses over everything to the point that has any meaning or purpose.' So, it seems in order to do a well-received, acclaimed adaptation of The Dark Tower, much more fleshing out will have to be done. Mike Ryan of Uproxx said it best: 'I’ve been told that The Dark Tower books are jam-packed with dense plot, wonderful characters, and a sprawling mythology - which is what made the movie so hard to make for all these years. Going directly from the first two points, the biggest criticism against the Dark Tower film is that the story felt rushed, characters were not fleshed out, and that it felt like a generic action movie rather than one of the better fantasy series of our time. And it seems that they were heading in that direction, as a TV series adaptation of Dark Tower was set to be made, but was unfortunately canceled. In order for Hollywood to get the series right, a film would have to have a longer runtime at least two hours or longer.

For a movie that took over ten years to develop and make, a run time like that was a disappointment. Critics stated that the best moments of the film were when Roland and Jake were bonding (and Elba's performance as well), but because of the run time, they could not be explored more. Characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been the plot was immensely rushed, and important themes and messages were merely glossed over in order to get the film over with. Considering the series contains eight books and over three thousand pages, having the first film be that short was a huge detriment.

One of the biggest gripes shared by most (if not all) critics, and Stephen King himself, was that the run time of The Dark Tower was way too short, coming in at a measly ninety-five minutes (roughly an hour and a half).

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