Lord of the Rings - [Amazon] *Spoilers*

jones

I'm torn on this show to be honest. I loved the first two episodes (particularly the second one) I thought they set up the season perfectly. Visually and musically I thought they nailed it (weird Elf hairstyles not withstanding) but episodes 4 & 5 kind of feel like two versions of the same episode. Gathering of númenóreans to set sail to middle earth. The introduction of the númenóreans seems to have stalled the show somewhat.

I feel like the show needs to have a definitive episode in episode 6 as the last few episodes have been building to what seems to be a big event only to soft reset at the beginning of the next episode.

"Teenage" Galadriel is clearly a bit more emotional/reactive than the one we see in the films but I think they are starting to soften her approach a bit in the last two episodes. I think they are doing a good job with the stranger and keeping him mysterious and powerful. The harfoots don't bother me either I actually like their lighter side of the story. Ps to me Halbrand is clearly not Sauron but will no doubt turn. As for Bronwyn and the elf's romance it's not particularly exciting even though he's had some of the best action set pieces in the show I'm not particularly invested in that storyline yet.

The best character element is Elrond and Durin they actually have a chemistry and bond which isn't present with the likes of Galadriel and Halbrand. More of this please.

All in all I'm still on board but something significant needs to happen in episode 6.

silverharp

the cope is strong with IndieWire ha ha , the Dwarfs are the only likable people in the show. Its hilarious that Amazon are still messing with user reviews.

https://twitter.com/Nerdrotics/status/1573931707169968128

whatever angle to take to look at this, there is always something lazy and short cut about it

https://twitter.com/CouncilofRings/status/1573783664651034626

Flinty997

Spoiler Warning

What's the connection with the elf's and the dwarfs ore they are mining. I seemed to have missed why one effects the other.

I'm not sure I'm following it tbh.

sekiro

I have to say that a big part of watching each new episode is now the curiosity of "what will they screw up this week". Then seeing all the different things that people pick apart.

It's terrible but fascinating.

Like the origin story of Mithril. Why would they waste screentime doing this? It's not even coming from Tolkien either. It's like they just came up with it as a silly idea and then ran with it. It's not quite on the level of "let's show how Han Solo got his name" but it's up there. Is anyone seriously thinking "aaaaaaaah that's so cool, I always wondered how Mithril was created"?

JRant

It seems to me a lot of the problems with this series so far appear to be in the editing. It's like they cut a lot of stuff out and it comes across that way. The writing isn't great but the way the different stories are tied together is all over the place.

corkie

https://screenrant.com/lotr-rings-of-power-mithril-retcon-explained/

It's just an unconfirmed elf legend. Made up just for this series?

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119662044#Comment_119662044

I suppose it kind of makes sense. Rings of Power, to me, seems like Lord of the Rings for people who don't actually like Lord of the Rings. It's an exercise in branding. I remember back in high school some kids were getting Nike and Adidas symbols shaved into their hair. Haha. As if your hair is Nike hair or your barber is a Nike barber. Or they'd come back from holidays with a load of fake Nike gear. People just love brands and love to be associated with well-known brands. One of my in-laws has a Johhny Walker tattoo. What the hell is that all about?

This feels like a kind of TV show version of that, whatever it is. Especially with the media emphasis on the cost of production here. It's like a show you are supposed to watch and feel like some of the billion dollar prestige rubs off on you. Something like that. Hey, there's a new LOTR on TV and it shows Galadriel as a badass warrior and, get this, they show how Mithril was formed. There's a Balrog!

There is almost no Tolkien here. If you are looking for a good depiction of events from the second age then it's already too late. They've fundamentally changed some of the key players and the more it goes on the more I wonder how it will even manage to connect itself to LOTR. Is Galadriel just going to retire?

If Halbrand is really Sauron then what the hell are they thinking!?

Actually, is the whole "who is Sauron" thing not just coming from the fact that there was a Reddit leak about a year ago that has been right about many, many, things and part of that leak was H = S?

Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith have been doing absolutely wonderful Tolkien art for years. Anyone who wanted that kind of content always had it available to them. Suddenly we are all supposed to be amazed by some CGI images of Numenor or some helicopter shots of New Zealand? New Zealand is beautiful, but landscape shots alone cannot make the story good.

I think Indiewire almost tells the truth there. Yes, it's not really meant to be a "water cooler" show. The Rings of Power isn't even meant to be good. It's just there to make money. It's Lord of the Rings for people who have heard of LOTR but not for people who actually want to see lore accurate content or dialogue that feels authentic and accurate to Tolkien's works. It's just a vehicle to make money using the LOTR branding.

Has anyone been into a comicbook store recently? Instead of selling comic books it seems like most of their business is selling little figurines that somewhat resemble characters from comicbooks. There seems to be more demand for a bobblehead figure of Iron-Man than there is for a new comic story about Iron-Man. Similar thing here in my opinion.

New Star Wars is for people who don't like Star Wars but know about the brand. New Star Trek is the same. Now we're doing this stuff to Tolkien too. It's kind of sad. Why don't they just make their own new stuff?

When Galadriel boards the ship and they have that slow motion thing going on it's like the creators have in their mind that moment when Gandalf leads the Fellowship over the crest of a hill and there's slow motion and the music swells. It's like they somehow know that this worked in LOTR but they don't really understand why it worked? It's like copying someone else's homework without showing your working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PreffqwJQlc

https://youtu.be/yZhUlOrRwI4?t=46

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119662621#Comment_119662621

I agree with you completely. But I do like Solo as a movie regardless of the name bit.

I can see why I'm having trouble following rings of power based on people's comments here.

Discodog

I have only ever watched the first LOTR movie & I have no idea or desire to know what the "Lore" is. I am treating is a fantasy romp & I like the Harfoots as they provide some needed humour & light relief.

johnny_ultimate

I think McCreary's score is really coming into its own as it has more opportunities to hit dramatic crescendos - it's not merely derivative of Shore's work, but is developing its own flavour and texture. Similarly, from a production design and cinematography standpoint this week's episode was a highlight so far. I particularly liked how they used different distinctive light sources in a variety of nighttime scenes - the stylish lanterns of the elven dining space; the candlelit negotiations in the Númenor palace; the torches of the cowardly humans in the Southlands; the burning of the ship. Given the CG can be fairly inconsistent - in this episode too, of course - it feels like that kind of more practical design gives scenes a lot of life while taking advantage of the fact this is a television show rather than a film. It feels like an episode visually built with HDR displays in mind, and it works great - especially since shows like GoT were notably muddy in many of their nighttime sequences.

Enjoyed the Harfoot stuff a lot this week, and the Elrond / Durin interactions are always the right balance of serious and amusing (even if some of the mithril lore is a bit all over the place at the moment). Even the Southland stuff feels like it now has nicely escalating stakes. It's perhaps the Númenor politicking that is leaving me most cold at the moment - I'm just not really invested in that particular drama or any of the characters, although I did enjoy the playfulness of Galadriel's sparring scene with the young soldiers. The 'great wave' flash-forwards last week did a better job of setting the stakes there. But hey at least things are moving on there and hopefully heading towards some sort of convergence with the Middle Earth drama.

I've no issue at all with the show editing together different storylines taking place over different spans of time - this is alas the nature of multi-perspective stories told over a span of weeks, months or years. The original Lord of the Rings films have a similar structure (after Fellowship, the split timelines only really converge at the very end, despite seeming to exist simultaneously), and Game of Thrones and indeed House of the Dragon deal with the same thing. It's not ideal by any stretch, and one of the difficulties in translating written epic stories (where it's easier to emphasise the passage of time) to cinematic editing. TBH I think things like the map cutaways in the Harfoot sequences at least underline that that is all taking place over a longer period of time than, say, the day or two shown in the elvish plot this week.

A lot of the complaints persist - mixed-bag of performances, ropey dialogue, uneven pacing. On the last note, I think this is a show that'd benefit from tighter editing or indeed shorter episodes, as each episode has only crept closer to the feature-length over the course of the season so far. I get they're dealing with multiple perspectives, but 60+ minutes every week is a lot of television. I get you can't just split episodes up willy-nilly when they're written and structured in a particular way from an early stage, but yeah maybe this would have benefited from being written as a ten-episode run covering the same ground than an eight-episode one. But I'm curious to see where the next episodes lead now that things are moving towards climaxes, and if the obvious growing pains of season one are addressed there's definite room for improvement next season.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119662955#Comment_119662955

There's absolutely nothing in the show that requires scenes or characters of "light relief". It's been devoid of any kind of tension at all, largely because it's been so dull. We're 5 episodes into this and, practically, nothing has happened.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119663131#Comment_119663131

Very long winded alright.

a_squirrelman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119655300#Comment_119655300

Don't know what the feck that rant was or what you're implying. 😂 I have standards and I pay full attention but carry on. Do try to be less condescending.

nix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119663405#Comment_119663405

Ah sorry dood, it wasnt a jab at you enjoying it, power to you!

But more of your comment about posters being OTT, i find them pretty grounded given the state of the show, its mostly just discussion, which is what this place is for :)

And it was hardly a rant :P

ixoy

Well I'm enjoying it, probably helped by the fact that I am not familiar with the back lore to 'Lord of the Rings', having last attempted some stuff like 'The Unfinished Tales' about 30 years ago and not likely to revisit it any time soon (my TBR pile being too big). Sure there's issues, like what johnny_ultimate has pointed out, and it's far from perfect but it looks like it could be all coming towards something now. What I do think is the characters chemistry is often lacking with the clear exception of Elrond and Durin, which are by far the most interesting pairing in the show.

Sure, I can understand some being frustrated at its spurning of the source material (there's a reason I won't watch 'The Wheel of Time' because I am familiar with it), but enjoying it certainly doesn't mean you've a a lack of attention span or any critical faculties! You can accept the flaws and, even if the sauce isn't perfect, enjoy the meat of it.

fritzelly

Thought I would be looking forward to each new episode of this show, but it's become background noise while doing something else

So very little happens in each episode and it's more about just having lots of talky talky

Flinty997

I've read all the books but speed read a lot of the more involved history or lore as I'm not that interested in it. All this history is overkill for most of these stories. How much have they changed it?

Wheel of Time they butchered in all sorts of inexplicable and horrible ways.

corkie

@Flinty997 How much have they changed it?

Perhaps the biggest problem for the series is something that is likely to be the root cause of a number of its adaptive choices: Tolkien never wrote a book focusing on the events of the Second Age, and the production does not have the rights to the book in which he did write the most about it.

https://collider.com/rings-of-power-book-reader-analysis-criticism/

So the script writers are crafting/making it up.

liamtech

Glad im not the only one, who wonders where Galadriels hubby is!

Tony EH

@johnny_ultimate

On the last note, I think this is a show that'd benefit from tighter editing or indeed shorter episodes, as each episode has only crept closer to the feature-length over the course of the season so far. I get they're dealing with multiple perspectives, but 60+ minutes every week is a lot of television.

It wouldn't be if something happened during those 60 minutes. But this show has been sooooo non-eventful it feels like an age every time you sit down to an episode. It genuinely has to be one of the dullest programs that I've seen in a very long time.

silverharp

"Rings of Power Has a FATAL Galadriel Problem" by a channel called Disparu, basically shows that Galadriel is evil and manipulative but more importantly the writers dont think she is because they themselves have no moral compass.

https://youtu.be/BjYVtU1oLOc

Busi_Girl08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119664794#Comment_119664794

Is she also not meant to have at least one child by this stage too?

Nody

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119665887#Comment_119665887

Yes; around 300 years into the second age Celebrían was born, father being her missing hubby Celeborn and the daughter goes on to then marry Elrond in the third age and gives birth to Arwen and twin brothers. But for what ever reason they appear to have ignored anything and everything with that part of the story (as I can't see how they can retcon it back in during second or later seasons).

Brief_Lives

Having not read the Silmarillion, or anything beyond Hobbit & Lord of the rings, this kind of historical inaccuracy in a fictional character doesn't bother me as I don't even realise it...

It is just the show is so flat and boring... and Galadriels character is abyssmal..

corkie

The Red Book ¦ Why did Sauron hoard mithril? | Tolkien Questions & Answers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxJJOZIENg8

Comments on the video, are also worth reading.

Agent Coulson

Good article in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/28/irish-people-have-faced-centuries-of-discrimination-why-are-lord-of-the-rings-accents-so-offensively-bad?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

TomSweeney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119640152#Comment_119640152

The 1st 2 Hobbit films were quite decent actually, it's the 3rd one that is a complete f*cking disaster!!

corkie

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Ud%C3%BBn_%28episode%29

https://variety.com/2022/tv/recaps/rings-of-power-udun-battle-episode-6-1235389168/

Watching it now, maybe edit this post later.

Coincidental!!

sekiro

At this point they have gone too far for me to actually think of this as an adaptation of Tolkien. It's not.

Where we are at now is basically watching a rip-off of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. So many pieces here are just straight up copying Jackson's work.

So Mount Doom's origin story is that some no name guy stuck a sword/key into a rock and this caused a flood and that caused Mount Doom to erupt again. Is this really the best they could come up with? Why not at least make it that some character with a bit of motivation and purpose deliberately brought Mount Doom to life? They've had a previous 6 episodes to build up to it!

jones

I have got to say episode 6 is a cracker.

If they continue this momentum for the last two episodes it'll be a very strong ending to the first season. I'd previously said I felt episodes 4 and 5 felt a bit samey but episode 6 is a top notch pay off IMO.