Sony Pictures gave advanced screenings for "The Dark Tower." However, the science fiction western did not receive good feedback despite its star power and movie promotion.

"The Dark Tower" has a 17 percent rating on RottenTomatoes, which is a website that aggregates review scores from various entertainment outlets. Critics largely panned the film for its thin plot and its deviation from the novel by acclaimed author Stephen King.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of the AV Club wrote, "It would be a waste of everyone's time to go on about how this 95-minute movie deviates from the source. Let's just say it turns 'The Dark Tower' into something generic, and leave it at that."

The story is about the so-called "Dark Tower" in another world that holds the entire universe together. However, the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) intends to destroy the tower and plunge the worlds into chaos. The only man who can stop him is the Gunslinger (Idris Elba) and the two are drawn into a battle of good and evil.

With an interesting narrative by King, movie writers, apparently, could not translate that into film as reviewers felt that it did not stay true to the story.

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone expressed, "So much is so wrong about this stunted film version of Stephen King's marvelously dense and dazzling series of eight novels, that all I can say is this unholy mess shouldn't happen to a King, much less a paying customer."

"The Dark Tower" is a series of books that incorporate different genres mainly science fiction, fantasy, horror and Western. King released the first book called "The Little Sisters of Eluria" in 1998 and the last one, titled "The Wind Through the Keyhole," was published in 2012.

The film was directed by Nikolaj Arcel whose other credits include "A Royal Affair" and "A Conspiracy of Faith."

"The Dark Tower" opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 4.