Anyone watching Lord of the Rings - The Rings of Power ?

[Gorgonzola]

I have watched the first two episode, (all viewable as of today). If you've seen it or intend to, I'm wondering how you feel about it.

At this point I'm viewing The Rings of Power as a some-time Tolkien fan -- mind you, not as a Tolkien scholar or "lore master": I don't claim that much expertise. I have read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion, all multiple times, plus The Unfinished Tales, but my most recent reading was over a decade ago.

Amazon paid US$250 million for rights to produce the TV/streaming version. The included the use of the four Lord of the Rings books, including the extensive Appendices, and The Hobbit. (Same as the rights Peter Jackson had for his LoTR and Hobbit films.) However The Rings of Power series is supposed to reflect events in the Second Age, a momentous epoch in Tolkien's mythology. The Second Age is dealt with in Appendix A of the LoTR, but more extensively in the compilation of Tolkien's earlier work, The Silmarillion, especially as pertains to the main series character, Galadriel. Amazon's contract specifically forbade them from any usage of or reference to Silmarillion or other Tolkien material -- apparently writers had to "work around" anything that could be so construed.

So for hard-core Tolkien fans the series was hopelessly enfeebled by this omission of key material. On the other hand produces were permitted to add events and characters that didn't directly contradict any thing in the Tolkien work were included. As a result, the Rings of Power series is inevitably consigned to being a diminished and trivialized play on the genuine Tolkien mythos however successful it may be dramatic and/or cinematic terms.

Such is my retirement boredom that I will continue to watch but without great expectations, as least from a Tolkien aficionado's POV

 

[fpitas]

I'm shocked that The Silmarillion didn't translate well to the big screen Oh wait...I'm not. Especially if Hollywood hack writers had to get "creative".

Fortunately for Amazon, most viewers haven't read the book(s) and will be entertained.

 

[massimo1974]

It’s not that bad. I’m waiting more episodes to judge.

 

[voodooless]

It’s boring and bland, the acting is mostly bad, the “harfoots” are cringe and use modern language, Galadriel is insufferable. The “grand secret” was obvious from the get-go. And worse of all: the writing What a bunch of incompetent entitled idiots… the only thing Tolkien is the name, otherwise it a total basterdization of the source material. It looks pretty at times though, and the music is quite okay.

Go watch House if the Dragon, it is much better!

 

[Steven Holt]

Yep, watching it, but I don't know what to make of it yet. Production quality is excellent (wish I had an OLED TV), but the storyline is somewhat confusing. We'll give it a few more episodes before passing judgment.

 

[Steven Holt]

Galadriel is insufferable

Agreed, that girl is way too WOKE. And I have heard good things about The House of Dragon!

 

[Turambar]

I'm a die hard Tolkien fan, and I fully agree with voodooless and Steven Holt. To think that they have spent this kind of money to get... that. In comparison, House of the Dragon is a piece of art.

 

[Anonamemouse]

I made it to halfway through the second episode and then turned it off.
I give it a 1 out of 10 for the show, and a 9 out of 10 for the music by Greg Bear.
I bought the album, every episode's music will also be released on Amazon.

 

[Gorgonzola]

It’s boring and bland, the acting is mostly bad, the “harfoots” are cringe and use modern language, Galadriel is insufferable. The “grand secret” was obvious from the get-go. And worse of all: the writing What a bunch of incompetent entitled idiots… the only thing Tolkien is the name, otherwise it a total basterdization of the source material. It looks pretty at times though, and the music is quite okay.

Apparently some reference to hobbits i.e. the Harfoots, was deemed obligatory by the producers in order to anchor LoTR and Hobbit movie viewers -- even though no variety of hobbit is mentioned by Tolkien in context of the Second Age.

Given restrictions vis-à-vis The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, the producers / writers had no option but to insinuate a lot of stupid poop cut from whole cloth. None of the gravitas of The Silmarillion nor its characterization of Galadriel is captured so far at least.

 

[irontortoise]

I've queued up the first episode twice and can't bring myself to press play. I couldn't make it past the first Hobbit movie, it differed so much. I realize that's a ME problem but I just can't do it.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Agreed, that girl is way too WOKE

How's she exactly?
Galadriel has always been one the most powerful character in all LOTR lore. Before "woke" wasn't even a thing.
Maybe just seeing a powerful female character would be "way too WOKE" to your liking anyway...

Anyway, while being certainly far from perfect (no, elves aren't just regular humans with longer ears...), the show could be not that bad after all. I expected worse. Far worse.

 

[voodooless]

Apparently some referenc3e of hobbits i.e. the Harfoots was deem obligatory by the producers in order to anchor LoTR and Hobbit movie viewers

Just as Gandalf is is the thing, but he does not speak, nor is he given an officiel name.

 

[Jimbob54]

One episode in. Agree with the slow comments. But I think the first ep of anything so broad in scope will be.

Feels /looks very plastic though which is disappointing.

I shall watch at least the first half the series before deciding but enthralled I am not.

 

[voodooless]

Maybe just seeing a powerful female character would "way too WOKE" to your liking anyway...

What a stereotypical response what about all those so called powerful female characters that actually had a great following of fans? How do you explain those?

No, Galadriel is just literally insufferable: the whole plot of these two episodes revolves around this fact! Nobody wanted here around, she’s not a team player, and they were glad to have send here off. And obviously she is perfect from the start. There is no character development, no real story, no real stakes. She has just one dimensional.

None of this really makes it too Woke though, it just means that the writers have never read a decent book and don’t know how to write an actual human character (or an elven one for that matter).

 

[Grotti]

Seems like people have forgotten about the fact, that Tolkien is about literature in the first place: GET THE BOOKS AND USE YOUR OWN PHANTASY!

In general I strongly recommend to read a book/novel before watching the movie or a series: your own imagination without pictures is a powerful tool, many people should use more often.

This does not mean, that Amazon did a bad job: I was not able to see anything of The rings of power. But it will be not for me.....

 

[badboygolf16v]

I started watching with the intention of hating it. I wanted to see how awful it would be. Much to my surprise I have enjoyed the first two episodes. The pronunciation of elvish that has been carried over from the films still annoys me, no way does it sound right to me.

 

[Turambar]

Galadriel is an Elf princess, born in Valinor. Daughter of Finarfin and grandaughter of High King Finwë of the Noldor. One of the leaders of the rebellion of the Noldor and their invasion of Middle Earth. She married Celeborn, and during the Second Age she ruled with him several fiefdoms of the Elves, the last one being Lothlórien, as we all know. The daughter of Galadriel is Celebrían, that married Elrond.

The Galadriel that appears in the series is an unfortunate invention of the writers of the show. And totally unnecessary, from my point of view. The biography of the real character is much more interesting and engaging.

 

[dartinbout]

So far, it's at least watchable for the production values as opposed to "Wheeze of Time". I read Tolkien 40 years ago so my memory is pretty dim of the particulars but I'm up to date with the series. If something comes along that is less murky, with the endless amount of twee names, place names, mythos and magical aspirations I will probably abandon it. Dragons is bit better but Matt Smith is just not that frightening. He reminds me of a dyspeptic librarian.

 

[VintageFlanker]

What a stereotypical response

"She is way too WOKE" wasn't a stereotypical comment at all, that's for sure...

None of this really makes it too Woke though, it just means that the writers have never read a decent book and don’t know how to write an actual human character (or an elven one for that matter).

Didn't say anything otherwise.

 

[staticV3]

It's a soulless CGI fest in my opinion.

Whereas in the OT, CGI was used seldom and smart, this time around they seemingly saw it as a challenge to do as much as possible in full CGI.
As a result the show looks more like an upscale render trailer for the next Final Fantasy or WoW addon than a believable world to inmmerse yourself in.
(It's the contrast between the characters played by real people and the painfully fake environments they live in that takes me out of it. Do the show in full CG Arcane style and now we're talking. Or tone it down and put some effort into practical effects)

Whereas in the OT, dialogues had wit and depth to them, here they're bland and go on forever. Very little is said in lots of words.

Whereas in the OT, characters characters were multi-layered, here you learn everything there's to know about them right in their introduction.

Rant over, sorry.