The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

[DigModiFicaTion]

A place for all things related to Amazon's new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Please remember to use spoiler tags!

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Episode 1 - Spoiler Free

The aesthetic feels familiar, yet new. The music feels like ambient fantasy videogame music. Galadriel is perhaps a bit too dramatic for my taste after episode one, but the actress does convey her inner thoughts well enough. While I'm not enthralled by episode one, I'm also not put off by it or overly worried about the future of the series. 6/10

 

[TM2YC]

Spoiler free thoughts...

I'm generally pleased with the first two, or not unduly worried. Ep1 is a bit of a grind at times to get everything setup without much connected narrative but by Ep2, where all the different strands and characters seem to be on the same page it really gets going. The trip into the "underground city" sequence is the point where I first thought "Wow!" this is LotR grandeur, accompanied by some welcome humour and warm characterisation. I'm so relieved that it feels like the same aesthetic as the PJ films, not that everything is the same but nothing looks out of place in comparison. The cast is overall excellent but I find the Elf ranger dude a bit wooden, then again he's supposed to be a bit grim, so I'll give him some leeway. Sir Lenny Henry is great as always but his accent is a bit wobbly which I found distracting, I assume he's going for Irish, like the rest of his surrounding characters but goes over into his own Brummie accent and West Indian from time to time. Probably if you aren't British, his accent just sounds more or less British-aisles, so you might not notice.

I do have some background concerns in my mind about where the story is going, over what timescale. I hope this first series isn't going to be all setup for the dramatic events of future episodes/series. In other words "The pre-production phase of The Rings of Power" .

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Episode 2 - Spoiler free

I think I'm just not a fan of world building. I love the themes of stories, the analysis of morality and ethics, the themes of benevolence and sacrifice to preserve what and who one holds most dear because I can take that into my world. I suppose I just don't care about getting caught up in a mythical one. Again , the aesthetic is fine, the music is meh, but the story is widely ambiguous and I'm losing interest after 2 hours. This show will need a trimmed Fanedit for sure. Here's hoping it will be available to purchase. 5/10

 

[Darth Kermit]

Overall I really quite enjoyed it so far. I think that the music, while not featuring such instant classic themes like in the LOTR and (less so) Hobbit trilogies, but it fits really well, and I love the vocals a lot. I think the best/most interesting part so far in terms of story is the Elves. I also think the costuming and design is high quality (and such an improvement over the abysmal work in Amazon’s Wheel of Time). The effects certainly use that billion dollar budget well, and the cinematography I quite enjoyed as well. We’ll see where all the threads lead, there are a few things I’m not certain of, but I’ll hold judgement until after the first season.

 

[bionicbob]

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the two episode premiere. Hour two was stronger, richer in character and mystery building, and helped balance out the exposition heavy first episode. Overall, it felt authentically Tolkien and we eagerly look forward to the unfolding of the Second Age of Middle Earth.

 

[TM2YC]

Heavy-spoiler based speculation...

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I've avoided reading any online speculation but here we go...

I'm 100% sure the 1st stranger that lands in the fireball is Olórin/Gandalf/Mithrandir (or whatever he's going to be called in this show) but I assume everybody has twigged that and I'm about 95% sure that the Harfoot girl's father had his foot broken just so Gandalf could heal it with magic in Ep3 or Ep4, thus founding his bond with the Hobbit race.

I'm 75/80% sure the 2nd stranger that picked up Galadriel floating along will turn out to be Sauron. He'll be setup as her best friend ironically, assist with the ring forge, then later be shock! revealed for the season2 cliffhanger? If I'm wrong the next bit is b*llsh*t ... but I caught a quick shot of him separating his raft from the others and letting them die, a quick witted move, or a coldly selfish one? Plus was it my imagination or did the jagged bits of wood of his raft look like the Sauron symbol Galadriel was looking for?

and some minor light-on-spoilers nitpicking...

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I'd be hard pressed to tell you which of the multiple Elven cities depicted were which if you showed me an establishing shot again? In the movies, the 3 Elven kingdoms looked wildly different.

A few of the men's haircuts looked a bit too modern/trendy for my taste. I like the "dragged through a hedge backwards" look of the Harfoots hair though.

I hope we see much more of Gil-Galad being the kind of epic tragic hero we hear Bill Nighy's Sam beautifully singing about in this...

...because at the moment he seems more of a boring bureaucrat.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

I think you're onto something @TM2YC . It also would follow the recent trends of fantasy productions.

My favorite part of this series so far is probably when Galadriel's brother tells her about only being able to know the right path after one touches the dark. This would go along with your thoughts on who the man that saves Galadriel on the raft is.

 

[bionicbob]

hhhhmmmm.... good theories @TM2YC.

I think you are right about Stranger #1.

Though my wife and I think Stranger #2 is an ancestor of Aragorn.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

So far my only real complaint is the music. I realize most probably don’t care as much as me but it feels like a big area where they saved in the budget. Otherwise I thought it was quite good. It feels sufficiently like LotR to me and, more importantly, like its own world, given how much competing fantasy there is right now. I’ll say I was more immediately invested in the characters and plot lines of House of Dragons after two episodes than I am here. Here, I’m only really invested in Galadriel. Hopeful though that the other storylines pull me in.

 

[Gaith]

I found the first episode very intriguing; the second one, a bit less so. Tolkien's lore can be beautiful, but it can also be maddeningly self-serious. (When, in book-RotK, Aragorn and Gandalf go hiking in the woods, and find a sapling whose genealogy they discuss with great awe, my eyes rolled so hard that everything looked fuzzy for the rest of that day.) There's no sexiness in Middle-Earth - there's lots of talk of lust, but only for vaguely defined "power" or jewelry. Even the dwarven courtship in ep. 2, despite the warmth of the actors' performances, sounds like an adolescent flirtation. There isn't much in the way of irony or wit, either, or even art or culture beyond the nature-themed decor; everything is earthy, matter-of-fact, and a bit dull. Tolkien famously set out to invent an indigenous mythic folklore for a Britain that lacked one; but what’s British culture without wit?

This all works well enough in the ~10 hours of Jackson's LotR trilogy (I personally appreciate the extended and richer FotR, but find the extended cuts of TTT and RotK too meandering to abide), and these first two episodes certainly move along at a nice clip, with charismatic actors and spectacular sights all around. The question of whether the arch Tolkien-ian tone will sustain interest over a whole series, though: that's the million-gold-coins-in-a-dragon's-lair question, isn't it.

(Also, there’s a repeated motif in Tolkien’s work of humans who ally with cartoonishly dark forces. Sorry, but even in a fantasy world of dragons and massive eagles, humans choosing the side with orcs and poisoned cow udders over that of beautiful, clean elves breaks my suspension of disbelief. I know it’s all a metaphor for Tolkien’s discontent with the Industrial Revolution, but nobody wants to work in a factory; we want all want to be pretty and unemployed elves, while others labor in the mines. Notice how we never seem to see elves farming or cooking. The absurdity of humans fighting for the wrong side was conveniently mostly offscreen in Jackson’s films, but if this series is going to dwell on that motif, we could have a serious problem at hand.)

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Tolkien's lore can be beautiful, but it can also be maddeningly self-serious. (When, in book-RotK, Aragorn and Gandalf go hiking in the woods, and find a sapling whose genealogy they discuss with great awe, my eyes rolled so hard that everything looked fuzzy for the rest of that day.)

I remember drudging through the Fellowship of the Ring being bored out of my gourd and then the Two Towers had some long dialogue about dew and light shinning on grass and I just put the book down and was done with reading Tolkien.

 

[Gieferg]

When I re-read LOTR just after watching FOTR for the first time, I've decided it's not for me anymore (even if I love Jackson's movies). Still, I can't find a reason to watch this new show.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

(Also, there’s a repeated motif in Tolkien’s work of humans who ally with cartoonishly dark forces. Sorry, but even in a fantasy world of dragons and massive eagles, humans choosing the side with orcs and poisoned cow udders over that of beautiful, clean elves breaks my suspension of disbelief.

2016 America called and begs to differ.

 

[TM2YC]

2016 America called and begs to differ.

Less of the politics please and I'm sure none of us could possibly guess who you mean anyway but it's a very valid general point. As this sketch points out...

...it's not exactly beyond real world humans to join a side that is obviously and proudly clothed in the icons of evil. Plus, satanic dark evil vs saintly light good is kind of fantasy's bag (and "true neutral" in the middle).

 

[DonKamillo]

Just a random thought. I get that elves perceive time differently but imagining Elrond and Celebrimbor casually walking from Eregion all the way to Khazad-dûm in their fine robes without breaking a sweat was kinda hilarious.

I'm getting GoT Season 7/8 vibes from this show with all the teleporting going on...

 

[TM2YC]

Just a random thought. I get that elves perceive time differently but imagining Elrond and Celebrimbor casually walking from Eregion all the way to Khazad-dûm in their fine robes without breaking a sweat was kinda hilarious.

Yes it was weird. Even a shot of them getting off some horses would've helped. IIRC they just stroll out from behnd a lump of rock.

I'm getting GoT Season 7/8 vibes from this show with all the teleporting going on...

God I hope you're wrong with that comparison. Unlike with GoT, they've surely already got an overall plan of where everybody needs to be because unlike with GoT, they know where it all ends because it's a prequel. Hopefully the "teleporting" in these early episodes is due to them trying to cram in intros to too many characters and places but it'll settle down. Probably a bit of re-ordering of events in the edit would improve matters.

By the way, I'm halfway through an umpteenth re-listen to the 1981 BBC LotR radio drama and I was reminded that these two:

Are son and mother-in-law (Celebrían being her daughter and his wife). Those damned immortal Elves.

 

[TM2YC]

After Ep3 I'm going to upgrade my earlier 75/80% prediction to 100% .

I liked Ep3 a lot and for the first time was really craving another episode when the credits rolled. It works much better when it stays focused on one story/place/characters for a good chunk of time. The guy playing

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Elendil

is so good, looking forward to more from him. Nori and Poppy are fast becoming as likeable as Frodo and Sam. I'm beginning to get exited about the prospect of finally having all the dry, convoluted Tolkien backstory stuff (that I got too bored to understand), told to me in a dramatic, engaging way that I can easily digest. The establishing shots of

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Numenor

were epic, beautiful and just how I'd imagined. The elf warrior plot line still isn't grabbing me, I'm just not warming to his character, or portrayal.

Timespan wise, I wonder if they plan to go 'The Crown' route and recast the non-immortal characters with older actors to do a time jump, or two, or telescope all the big events into a few years span. I hope it's the latter.

 

[Gaith]

Okay, Moe_Syzlak, lemme clarify: the only way I can see a Dark Force getting humans to favor its orc-filled side against the elves is if it convinced the human that it was the elves, actually, who are in league with the orcs. As in, the elves either made the orcs themselves, or they secretly support the orcs, because the orcs take humans' resources, leaving the elves to enjoy their own riches in peace. (Make your own real-world political analogies from this as you see fit.) And, indeed ep. 2 did feature a hint of cultural human resentment against elves. But I don't think unexplained hints are going to be enough to make humans siding with Sauron credible, and I highly doubt the series will really challenge elvish magnificence to a complex enough degree to make that whole dynamic dramatically compelling.

... I guess perhaps I should just be watching House of the Dragon instead? But, I gather that's not quite as family-friendly viewing.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

This show really likes using slowmo. Episode 3 was pretty boring for me. This episode more than the other two felt like a tv show.