TV: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Amazon Prime Series

[NyQuil]

It's pretty hard to translate the books to the movies.

I think they did a great job with LoTR.

Sure they had to collapse the number of characters down and make some changes, but I don't think my life was ruined because Erkenbrand, Glorfindel, Elrond's sons and Prince Imrahil were missing.

I didn't miss the Barrow Downs or Tom Bombadil and adding the Scouring of the Shire would have lengthened the already considerably long ending.

I was more annoyed by the Hobbit content-wise because they had just as much screentime and still found ways to cut out content from the source material which is a much smaller novel.

(The dwarves arriving two by two at Beorn's house? Beorn retrieving Thorin's body? Thorin's funeral?)

At least include everything in the book if you're going to make 3 movies and add the White Council stuff, Legolas and a new female elf character plus romance. The CGI was also much less subtle and overwhelming for a lot of the action sequences.

As for this additional content, I don't really care how much they draw from the Silmarillion, Lost Tales etc. provided that it's entertaining, well-acted and well-paced. Over-reliance on cheesy CGI will also not go over too well.

I think you'll have a much better time with this upcoming series if you just treat the books and the films as distinct properties, because I think it will be even harder to translate the source material.

 

[Hivemind]

This (albeit quite long) video does a pretty great job breaking down what we know so far, and expressing pretty even-handed fears and optimisms about it. I don't agree with everything he says (he's more optimistic about Galadriel is than I am, for instance) but he lays out a reasonable take.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So we ready for this?

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

When is it releasing again?

 

[RangerDoggo]

The Washington Post gave Rings of Power (or at least the first two episodes given to critics) a bad review.

If someone who works for Bezos's pet news source is calling it bad, that's not a good sign.

 

[Allens Five Hole]

My expectations are very low. I'm thinking it is going to look aesthetically brilliant with a barren storyline (that's how I've viewed the trailers so far). I will give the first season a watch, though.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

My expectations are very low. I'm thinking it is going to look aesthetically brilliant with a barren storyline (that's how I've viewed the trailers so far). I will give the first season a watch, though.

Just based on the source material, the story will likely be a slow burn, but it is a good story. It won't be like Breaking Bad leaving you with suspense at the end of every episode. Hopefully it's good.

 

[Hammettf2b]

Liked the 1st episode. So far so good

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's definitely visually very stunning in many ways, but two episodes and I am not sure much of anything has happened?

Not a lot of likable characters either. Hobbits are kind of annoying. Galadrial is not enjoyable. I've yet to be given a reason to like the other elf besides his kickass wood armor, and the human he is in love with isn't interesting either.

Elrond is kind of likable and so are the dwarves so there is that.

Spoiler

I really hope meteor man doesn't end up being a wizard

 

[Power Man]

I was hoping the wizard wouldn’t be Gandalf - as much as I love the character.

But all signs point to Gandalf :

- the symbol he draws is the same he left on Bilbo’s door

- talking to those fireflies like he would talk to moths

- When he got angry his surroundings got sark and distorted

Heu what if it’s Saruman lol

But I was hoping to see the blue wizards tbh

 

[Knave]

Spoiler: Not really too spoiler-y but whatever

First episode was good but there were moments that were a bit iffy for me. It started strong if a little bit hammy at times with Galadriel's older brother using the stone and the toy boat as a metaphor. After they got through Galadriel(?) narrating the world it was a bit jarring how they switched from Galadriel's journey to the not-called-hobbits to Elrond. I guess the first episode made me question, was the ice-cave scene with Galadriel and her unit necessary? It seemed out of place within the episode. It serves a purpose to show she has an obsession and it's wearing thin on her men, her peers and her superiors but IDK, felt a bit out of place juxtaposed against the much calmer scenes of the rest of the episode aside from the early world-building narration and the scenes that accompanied that.

I enjoyed the first episode, overall, don't get me wrong. By episode 2 I feel things have started to settle in. There's a clearer picture of where each rough character grouping and narrative is headed or at least their intentions. Galadriel seems like she will be off on her journey, Elrond will be on his with the dwarves and the not-called-hobbits have a wizard they are trying to figure out. The last grouping of the male-elf and woman was the least interesting to me personally but maybe that will change as time goes on.

I don't think there was a bad casting choice. Elrond, the dwarves kind of stood out and that was probably my high point for the first 2 episodes for me. Elrond and Durin on the elevator and then having dinner with Disa. Definitely my favorite part so far.

I think the show did a good job of building intrigue for Galadriel, her journey and ended episode 2 strong. I wanted more. If the writers were trying to depict Galadriel as an obsessive and somewhat unlikeable character they've done a good job. I hope that was the idea and over the course of the show she'll gain perspective, wisdom and become more likeable.

The visuals were pretty great and I'm a sucker for that kind of worldbuilding. The overhead shots of the elven and dwarven cities were beautiful in my eyes. I know some like to mock the CGI and I guess in some cases things look a little too perfect but there has been progress from the initial trailers and it is much better than some of the disingenuous comparisons you read online.

I'm not sure on the plans with this show but I am a little concerned this might not bring in a huge audience and therefore might not be renewed. I hope they continue to build momentum and we can get a couple of seasons.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Didn't think it was that great after 2 eps, but to be fair I really went in not knowing anything about LOTR, which I'm sure matters. I'll give it a few more eps still.

 

[trostol]

it looks great

some cringe moments

not sure i liked the jumping around all that much...

 

[Bounces R Way]

One billion dollars sure doesn't go as far as it used to.

 

[Phil McKraken]

IAs for this additional content, I don't really care how much they draw from the Silmarillion, Lost Tales etc. provided that it's entertaining, well-acted and well-paced. Over-reliance on cheesy CGI will also not go over too well.

They don't even have the rights to that though. They can only use the appendix stuff from LotR, which is fragmentary at best. There's no cohesive, fleshed out story to draw from in the appendices, like there would've been with the Fall of Gondolin or the Children of Hurin for example. That probably means tons of made up / tweaked characters and storylines that no one will care about.

Why would you want to make more content about the rings anyway? Pretty much all the relevant stuff has already been covered in the movies. If they were truly interested in Tolkien they would've done something else, but they went with 'The Rings of Power' because this is a cash grab that needs name recognition.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Didn't think it was that great after 2 eps, but to be fair I really went in not knowing anything about LOTR, which I'm sure matters. I'll give it a few more eps still.

Youre missing out. The trilogy is f***ing awesome.

 

[Blender]

Production values look very good, loved the scenery and such.

First two episodes had some ups and downs. The scenes with the Elves were filled with exposition, Galadriel didn't come off as very likeable, but the Elrond/Druin scenes and the Nori scenes were decent.

 

[Jack Straw]

I was obsessed with the LoTR trilogy growing up. Read them all a million times. I liked the movies. I've never really understood people getting bent out of shape over movie adaptations of books. Even if I've read the source material I go into every movie just hoping it's a good movie. I don't care if they are faithful to the books or not. If I want something that's faithful to the books I'll just.... read the books again.

This series doesn't excite me at all but you can also add me to the list of people above who tried dozens of times to read The Silmarillion and just couldn't do it. I've actually had it on my bedside table for like the past six months as I keep telling myself I'm going to just power through it but I get through maybe the first 30 pages and just can't do it anymore. It just seems so dry to me.

The Silmarillion is worth the effort. In some ways I like it more than LOTR.

 

[Power Man]

Elrond is retty spot on tbh, his diplomacy and charm are on point

I prefer to watch content in their original Language (so English most of the times) but I 1st watched the LOTR Trilogy in French - the French dubbing was perfect

I also watched both episodes of the ROP and Elrond in French sounds similar to Elrond in LOTR/The Hobbit movies

 

[Hale The Villain]

Visually stunning but a pretty lame story and characters thus far.

 

[Raekwon]

Good start. Its great to be back in Middle Earth

 

[ScottishCanuck]

I liked some of it and I hated parts of it. The dialogue was cringey at times and the Elves come across as being annoyingly pompous. The scene on the boat where they burst into song as the light gets closer was hilarious.

I’m willing to give it a chance. Visually it was great but it might take some time to get going. It has a lot to live up to.

Also the score is a big negative. The soundtrack to the original was fantastic and this felt pretty generic and unmemorable.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

They don't even have the rights to that though. They can only use the appendix stuff from LotR, which is fragmentary at best. There's no cohesive, fleshed out story to draw from in the appendices, like there would've been with the Fall of Gondolin or the Children of Hurin for example. That probably means tons of made up / tweaked characters and storylines that no one will care about.

Why would you want to make more content about the rings anyway? Pretty much all the relevant stuff has already been covered in the movies. If they were truly interested in Tolkien they would've done something else, but they went with 'The Rings of Power' because this is a cash grab that needs name recognition.

They seem to have stuff beyond the Appendix, but I'm not sure how far that goes. They reference Finrod being killed by Sauron which is not stated in The Lord of the Rings, but is in the Silmarillion.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Elrond started to grow on me in Episode 2 but apart from him and the King (Is it Gil Galad?) The rest of them (including Galadriel) are short and look like children and gave off enormous YA series vibes. They're just nothing like any of the elves from the original or even The Hobbit trilogy.

I found it a bit silly that the Elves all of a sudden deliberately just decide to bury their heads in the sand for seemingly no legitimate reason, despite Galadriel's discoveries and misgivings. Is the whole looking for Sauron will keep him the idea of him alive self-fulfilling prophecy type thing straight out of The Silmarillion? Seems very stupid and contradictory to me because either he still exists or he doesn't regardless of whether you look for him or not, and he's Sauron so surely he's going to do some evil at some point whatever you do. It just seems to me the elves are smarter than that and can't be just doing a Cornelius Fudge denying that Voldemort hasn't come back because if you pretend it's not true then it isn't. Or is there some The Simpsons "whenever you notice something like that; a wizard did it" type shit going on?

I am very meh on the other storylines, it's an interesting concept that we get to see the POV of men who support the side of darkness but other than that I am finding it hard to care about them, the individual character development is very poor. In the Harfoot sub-plot I quite like Nori who is the only developed character but as for the rest of them, why should I care? I can't even remember any of the other names.

The establishing shots look spectacular but at certain times I was expecting some iconic LotR style soundtrack music to kick in but it leaves you completely hanging in that regard. Overall I just feel like something set in Tolkein's universe that they've spent this much money on should absolutely blow me away, and well it just doesn't. It's even worse than The Hobbit.

 

[Ben Grimm]

MSN

I realize that not everything on the net is true, but The Hollywood Reporter is pretty well known so this may be true.