The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

As a Lord of the Rings fan, I was eagerly awaiting the origin stories of Middle-earth. Of course, I have high expectations after Lord of the Rings, which is close to perfection in terms of time and fiction. Because they have a considerable budget and opportunities, that's why I gave my points by watching the first episode right away. Although it is the beginning part, I can say that I liked the first part very much. The character of Galadriel could have been more strong, but she is still successful. We will warm up to the characters better over time.

Characters: 8 Story: 10 Decor and venue: 10 Costume: 10 Music: 10.

A pleasant surprise, the cinematography is impeccable, the characters quite well done, the plot looks like a link between the stories of the First Age, the Silmarillion and the stories of the Lord of the Rings of the Third Age, the rhythm of narration is pleasant albeit a bit slow. If the outcome of the series will be to narrate how Sauron forged the Rings of Power, it will definitely be something to watch. Until this moment, I think that in general terms, at least the first chapter delivers. I think enough to be cautiously optimistic about what the next 7 episodes might turn out to be. I must add, again that I am pleasantly surprised.

We all know liberties were taken with this series so my review is not based on faithfulness to the source material.

A lot of the marketing for this show led people to fear it would be woke. I didn't see anything like that. I wasn't rolling my eyes or cringing at any virtue signalling.

The pace is a little rough in parts but since it's the beginning of the series I almost expect a little dawdling. There's a lot going on, things to be set up and introduced etc...

The characters and the story is engaging though, the cinematography was well done, and the score seemed to fit... so I'm honestly excited to see where this series goes.

Definitely give this a shot and decide for yourself.

I wanted so badly to love this series. As a diehard LOTR fan since its original release, I always love any opportunity to return to Middle Earth.

And then this series happened. And I'm more than happy to NOT visit Middle Earth.

I realized by about the end of the second episode that from scene to scene, I don't care one iota about any of the characters or their outcomes. And I also forget pretty quickly who they even are. They're all bland, unlikeable, empty.

I'd rank this right up there with Wheel of Time as a thoroughly missed opportunity. Under-written with an unbelievably bloated budget.

I really wanted to like this. After having read almost everything Tolkien wrote in my childhood and the promotional materials and the music, I was ready to dive back into Middle Earth. But on first watch, something seemed off.

Visually, the series has the same brightness of the Hobbit. It's pretty, but doesn't feel real. Even the things that are old feel new. Costume design is okay, nothing special but not terribly egregious.

The script and acting however, falls really flat. It's stiff, lifeless, and unimaginative in places and many conversations feel incredibly unnatural, both in text and delivery. It's frequently hard to watch.

But my biggest gripe is with the in-world consistency. The glory of Middle Earth is in the world building which Tolkien meticulously designed and revised. I accept that any adaptation has to take a certain amount of creative license; the LOTR movies certainly did. The difference between the two is that the LOTR movies approached the story from the same angle as the book and made minimal adaptations in order to tell the story effectively. They also were reasonably faithful to the ethos of the world. This however, does none of this, instead having the arrogance to claim better knowledge of Tolkien's creations better than the author himself. This is a show centred on Galadriel. A Galadriel that bears precious little resemblance to the one in the source material save her name. Creative license lets you create new events, delete events, merge events, or modify events slightly to tell the story better. The problem with the way it has been done is that the original plot points will no longer fit.

The thing is, as a stand-alone series, if Tolkien had never existed or the LOTR movies never made, this would actually be a half decent serial deserving 3-4 seasons to see the story through. But, in light of its origins, it really is a let down. For some reason, the only part with any life is the Harfoots.