I got Doctor Sleep out of the library and watched it last night. It's Ewan MacGregor's "reluctant mentor" warm-up before the Kenobi series? It's the sequel to The Shining that I'm not sure we needed? At 150 minutes, it's a little longer than the original film, but there's a lot of material to get through.
This film is a sequel to the Kubrick film, which departed in a number of ways from the novel, and so Doctor Sleep the movie must make some changes to account for the fact that the Overlook Hotel survived while Dick Halloran did not.
The cast is excellent all around, with special kudos to Alex Essoe, Henry Thomas, and Roger Dale Floyd, who play Wendy, Jack and (young) Danny Torrance.
I would have liked some members of the True Knot to feel less like nameless goons. Rose, Andi, and Crow Daddy get distinct personalities; I couldn't even tell you what powers the others had. Rose would only let people into her crew who could contribute, so each member of the True Knot should feel like a more fully fleshed out character. If there isn't time in a 2.5 hour movie to develop them, they should be cut.
I think I was hoping for a more introspective story about Danny and his past; the poster, which shows young Danny facing grown-up Danny facing each other in a hallway of the Overlook Hotel, seems to promise this. Instead, this is really Abra's story of fighting psychic vampires where the titular "Doctor Sleep" plays a supporting role as Abra's mentor. Which is fine. It's just not clear that this needs to be a sequel to The Shining, or could instead have been an independent story.
