User reviews

You review bomber freaks Can NOT be this oblivious man. Expecting ANYTHING to be better or as good as that trilogy by master Jackson? You need help. They are movie HISTORY. Some of the greatest movies, best storytelling and fiction ever. Not even fantasy. Ask the academy. Why would you Think someone could make something as good. Just enjoy the show for what it is. More LOTR. It isnt perfect. But it is actually good TV. If you like the Universe - watch it man. I Love LOTR. Hobbit movies not so much but it is one book turned 3 movies - a bit of a stretch. Love the shadow of morder games to. Bet they arent faithfull to your intrepetation of Tolkien, but this show and those games are. It feels like LOTR. That is good enough for me.

Despite all the negativity online, some of which is deserved, the show is pretty decent. Sure, it's not going to be the absolutely best at everything, fight scenes while entertaining don't always make logical sense, but then again some of the highest rated shows out there that these same people praise are full of the same types of flaws.

I'm not a diehard fan that's read every scrap of material Tolkien ever wrote, so I can't comment on how accurate it is to that one sentence in that one obscured scribbled notation but at the very least it feels somewhat authentic to the legacy.

Overall, if you enjoy fantasy, LOTR and just want something to chill out and watch then this show is definitely worth watching.

Visual Excellence: The visual aspect of the series is outstanding. The realm of Khazad-dûm and the natural beauty of Middle-earth are breathtaking. The dwarven kingdom carved within the mountains feels like a work of art.

Character Development: While characters like Galadriel portray a fierce warrior persona well, their depth sometimes feels lacking. Sauron's presence and cunning are effectively portrayed, establishing him as a compelling antagonist.

Plot and Pacing: The pacing of the first few episodes is somewhat slow. With multiple plotlines running simultaneously, some parts can feel confusing. However, patience pays off as the story becomes engaging.

Overall Experience: Despite its high production value and visual spectacle, the series could benefit from deeper storytelling and character development. Nevertheless, it serves as a beautiful gift for Tolkien fans.

The Rings of power series is adding a new dimension to the works of Tolkien. It appeals to both book readers ( those who aren't sitting on their high horses of perfection) as well as those new to the works of Tolkien. It is fun and engaging. Clever backstories and Beautiful cinematography! It's getting people to talk about fantasy again after the gap left by GOT. The Acting is top notch. The Visuals are amazing. The is Score 10/10. The Dialogue, some real quality moments there although not perfect. The pacing of season 2 was perfection! Precisely what the audience was looking for! I can't wait for season 3.

The first season of TROP for me was a huge disappointment. Pacing was way too slow, a lot of the payoff at the end of the season didn't feel earned, writing was poor, overall really did not like it.

Second season for me, at least, was a huge improvement. The action was there from the get go and overall the pacing seemed much better to me. Clearly- this world will never be the one of Peter Jackson's- but that's okay. I still love getting to see these stories onscreen. Hopefully the third season will introduce Celeborn, as well as some more of the canon elements of the story we all know and love.

A slow horses reunion, first Adar-gone (really liked that actor too), not enough good dialogue for certains, loved Galadriel and Arondir and young Stark was even impressive in the few lines but great here, Disa and Durin so fun to watch and neumenr intrigue can use a bit more help but actors were great just felt underused and the lovely little people and I don't know how I feels about Gandalfs intro to Gandalf...I enjoyed watching it and it looks good and I just like the feel of it and can care less if it's faithful to Tolkien's books or not...my mind can't take anymore crazy stuff and this is violent to an extent but doable...

This is a very difficult one to rate. Were we not that familiar with the Lore surrounding Middle Earth, it would probably be seen with kinder eyes.

Some storylines are close to unbearable (the harfoots, Theo...) and Galadriel could probably be better cast. But the main problem perhaps is the fundamental incoherences regarding the world of Middle Earth.

On the other side, Celebrimbor, Durin, Elendil, Elrond and surprisingly Sauron are big standouts, and their plotlines have taken the series to a higher level, especially in the second part of season 2.

Overall, the good things are becoming surpisingly close to great, but some major incongruences and boring plotlines are very easy to hate.

I remain skeptical, but I am looking forward to seeing more, at least much more than after the first season.

I enjoyed this show. I have read the LOTR and Hobbit books and seen the movies. After seeing the reviews here about how it wasn't as good as those movies, I just re-watched them.

It is clearly not as good as the LOTR movies which weren't as good as the books. It has been a long time since I read the Hobbit and perhaps I should read it again. The Hobbit movies were very long and stretched things out longer than I remembered. It was the interactions with Gollum in the Hobbit that left an impression on me. But the movies focused on the fighting. I didn't like the Hobbit movies as much as the LOTR movies for that reason. Still as solid 8.

I think this series is in the realm of the Hobbit movies.

A couple of points on canon: if you say it isn't per canon then please say what aspect specifically and whether it conflicts with the books, the movies or both. I have yet to read a single review that specifies that. Considering LOTR movies were also not within canon means that a general statement is just not helpful.

LOTR movies had the advantage of an actual story to follow and it had a hard time doing so in 3 movies; things were cut. In this case, the writers have to build a story. And being a TV show they have the time to do so. So unlike the LOTR movies, we are given back stories. Lots of back stories. In LOTR you weren't and if you hadn't read the books you wouldn't know the significance of events and characters.

Some people are upset Galadriel isn't this ethereal towering creature like the actress in the movies. This TV show takes place thousand(s?) of years before the Hobbit. Why would she be the same? Why can't you imagine that she could be different? And by the way as soon as a reviewer describes and actress as wooden or stony they have lost all of my interest and respect for their opinion. Because some people think every woman and actress should be smiling and flirting to men and male viewers; that it is their job to make men feel good. No, if it doesn't fit the character why would they be cooing and flirty in expression?

The Hobbit introduced some love interests that weren't in the books. I don't care for those. I don't think romance is needed or wanted. It also changes who they put in these shows as they tend to pick young pretty men and women. The books are not about young pretty people. And in that way this TV series suffers the same as Hobbit by their inclusion.

I don't mind the long back stories. I am enjoying the Gandalf and hobbits one. I like the dwarf one. The people on the island are less interesting but whatever. I mean this whole series had to depend on appendices so it makes sense that it would take the time with the back stories.

Some people have commented that the dialogue isn't as good as the books/movies. Well guess what? Tolkien isn't writing for this show. Did you expect that level of literary achievement? Read the books again!

On a final note, I distrust a whole whack of reviews that are complaining here. I do so based on one observation: some people want all action all the time. I suspect that is why the Hobbit was lengthened to three movies. (some of those Hobbit scenes were right out of action movies/Indiana Jones and it cheapened it.) The same thing happened with Walking Dead: if it wasn't gore and fighting it was considered boring. Dialogue, plot, character development not welcomed in other word.

So I suspect some of the low reviews are people who expected to see armies clashing like in the movies.

These are new stories. I love LOTR and am enjoying these early pre-stories. I enjoy the different takes on Star Trek as the series changes over TV, movies, re-boots etc. Some I like better but the idea that this is unwatchable to a LOTR fan does not make sense to me.

7-8.

Unnecessary , long and nonsense dialogs ... Several storylines that most of them are Boring . Sometimes I think this series is made by a drunk man or a person without any knowledge of art or cinema . You don't need to compare this to anything elese , this is terrible by itself . You feel that they imagine you as brainless ones who only care about graphics and beautiful scenes . Who cares about depth of dialogs , who cares about charismatic characters , just film 10 minutes of each storyline and make an episode and let it go , this is how they think . Waited till now and expected something else from season 1 , but now I'm completely disappointed ...

I thought the first season was okay but really had its flaws. Not least the dialogue and the acting were sometimes under performing, it also sometimes felt like people were a bit stupid and fell a bit too easily into Souron's traps. But unusually, I think that basically everything got better for the second season.

If the first was a strong 6, this is a weak 9, so if you mix the two together, we get a stable 8.

There will always be Tolkien fans who will saw the series because it is not 100% true to the books and the universe. But for me it's close enough and you have to remember that this is interpretation of writing which is not always so easy to translate into moving image.

I was tempted to give this 10/10 to offset all the people moaning, but actually I'd say it's a 7.5.

For me I don't particularly mind when liberties are taken with a text - when you change medium, it's inevitable. Maybe I'm not a purist, but I had a lot of fun watching this and always looked forward to a new episode. I'm probably a fairly casual Tolkien fan but I have read Silmarillion etc in the past.

Getting to see characters i'd previously only read about was cool. Seeing origin stories play out was wonderful. I think if you're the type of person that can hold all the books and movies in your mind, and cross compare, you will likely find something to be disappointed about.

Personally I loved the trilogy but was nonplussed by The Hobbit, this for me sits between those, occasionally reaching the heights of LOTR but never sinking into the lows of The Hobbit.

Loved it and can't wait for S3!

I just don't get the hate this series has been getting.

It's a solid fantasy series and, as far as I know, no one ever promised this to be a word-for-word interpretation of Tolkien books?

As far as I can understand by reading reviews - if you read the books - you will hate it. If you never read the books, like myself - you will not really notice anything worth hating.

Also, I see the acting/character of Galadriel getting a lot of hate, and I have often found female lead characters to be unconvincing, but not this time. The character is strong, acting is strong and very convincing in my opinion.

If you accept this as it is, without comparing it to anything else, you are going to have a lot of fun watching this.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was just mediocre in my opinion. The story had too many tropes and it came off as being sanctimonious. Everything about it was like every other generic hero fantasy story you have ever seen, and with kitsch, over-the-top special effects. Did an AI make this movie to appeal to the masses? It has some meaningless undertones that there is something special, but without validation. It is beyond me why this kind of story keeps getting rehashed. A speculative rabble rousing about the return of a powerful magic thing has been done and redone many, many times in various forms of entertainment for decades with little to no variations. The CGI looks "good" but is too fantastical for any kind of relevance. No matter how flashy it may be, the fact that it comes back around to being boring is a sign that there is something fundamentally lacking.

I was among the many who were disappointed by season 1...the feel just felt so off, and the story deviations were a little out there. However, I think the series course-corrected significantly in Season 2, and by the finale I was starting to feel like I felt watching the original trilogy. I attribute this to more action and less time with the half-foots. I also like that Tom Bambadil finally made an appearance. Also, I thought some of the story additions, like Adar and Galadriel being a warrior princess, actually worked well. I hope the show keeps going on this trajectory despite the mixed reviews since the Second Age is a really interesting and crucial set up to LOTR.

You could probably describe Season One of this as 'setting the scene' and Season Two as 'starting the story'.

Amazon have obviously thrown the bank at this and you can tell with the production values and the special effects.

Goodness knows where the story could go now, there's thousands of years of story to take us to The Hobbit.

Will it stand out there as a masterful TV series is yet to be seen but a strong start has been made. Season Three will be a test to develop things.

Good solid acting and writing add to the special effects. Neither gets in the way of the other. If I had to level one criticism it would be that there are so many story arcs going on at once in this huge LoR universe that you might not see some characters for an episode (or they are only given lip service) and it can be difficult to keep up with all events.

This is a really solid series, so I don't really understand its somewhat low IMDB score.

This show is well acted with great production value, and the story is set up with plenty of mystery for fans to theory craft, especially if you're familiar with the lore from the source material. It doesn't follow the lore to the letter, but it does a great job at taking liberties to fill in the gaps while presenting plenty of references and tie-ins to the source material.

Production and tone match the LOTR trilogy well, and I'm digging the younger Galadriel as a character.

I went in thinking it'd pretty average given the IMDB score, but the series so far has exceeded all my expectations.

THE RINGS OF POWER (2022 - ) was certainly a very well made series. The production value is visible everywhere. Costumes, settings, designs, acting, music, all of it was really spectacular, and made for an epic fantasy series. While most viewers, and lifelong fans of Tolkien's work especially, like myself, are aware going it to that this particular rendition would not be very faithful to canon of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the related writing of J. R. R. Tolkien. So I will not discuss that issue here.

There are frankly manly liberties taken and although that is sad to me, being a devoted fan of all of Tolkien's works, I tried to view this series as a loosely inspired fantasy series, or some kind of theatre adaptation / fanart cosplay version if you will. In this regard, the series offers some definite intriguing perspectives and possibilities and made for an interesting visual experience. And aesthetically it delivers a punch. Just beautiful cinematography and set designs.

"Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-Earth."

Having preset my standards exceptionally low, upon watching this I found myself pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed Morfydd Clark as Galadriel especially. She visibly fit the part and acted very much like what you would expect from the most powerful elf of Middle Earth, although perhaps a bit too rash at times. I also really like Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV. He was an excellent choice. With the exception of Elrond, I enjoyed most of the cast really.

Overall, this series certainly dazzled and I would watch further seasons if they make any more. A compelling Tolkien INSPIRED show. I would highly recommend you read all the intricately crafted works of J. R. R. Tolkien, a true master in fantasy storytelling telling first.

Struggled through first season; moments were good, some characters worked (Richard Aramayo take a bow) but too many wooden actors (or perhaps bad script) let it down.

There's still some hammy performances in Season 2, but it is waaaaay better. Some truly epic episodes (7 and 8), great drama, developing characters. Took patience to sit through Season 1; but the second has been excellent entertainment. Less halflings helped (sorry guys) and better dwarf scenes this time around.

Sam Hazeldine as Adar does really well and Saurons genuine evil is portrayed with menace by Charlie Vickers this time around.

Getting better all the time.

In an era where good tv shows have gone the way of the dinosaurs, Rings of power carry on after the lord of the rings trilogy with amazing CGI and diverse array of characters of every "race" and exceptional acting from Galadriel to Sauron. Never failing to deliver edge of the seat suspense and anticipation for the the next episode. I thoroughly enjoy every week albeit some parts of the plot seem to drag on but I'm guessing for the sake of longevity Hopefully it gets better and better from here on out. Every season has gotten better and better and even though I don't know some of these actors everyone has delivered very very well. Make up on point and cinematography as well. Again MONEY WELL SPENT.

First I'm going to start off by saying that literally no one else is making an original story based on the beginning of the story, Peter Jackson is too busy working on his Gollum trilogy which is going to be the next epic all the hardcore edgelords can gossip about. This is a tv show. There is supposed to be inconsistencies. I remember Peter Jackson getting criticized for his work, somehow turning a tiny book into a 10h video masterpiece? Haters gonna hate.

Very high production budget (akin to Game of Thrones), good actors, diverse cast (despite everyone hating that other races of actors exist in our universe), good story, nice twists, all in all everything you need to piece together a good tale. I actually look forward to watching it every week because everything else on tv absolutely sucks balls.

I love a good non-canon story, just like The Witcher, and all of the adaptations. Some people just can't enjoy something for what it is? For anyone who isn't a hardcore edgelord of the books, give it a watch, you decide, it's free on Amazon. It's a pretty good show for how much hate it gets, I thought it was going to be terrible despite the hardcore review bombing?

Season 1 can be a bit dry, but Season 2 is where they piece it together. I love LOTR, just enjoy it for what it is. It's literally the back story, thousands of years before The Fellowship of the Ring. History fades with time. Close enough.

ROP does a lot of things right. It's definitely not perfect, however, when viewed with the perspective it's a five season story, I feel the show is on pace. The first season has some dry moments and unlikable characters. In any story, this is necessary to show build the world and create a starting point for character development. The second season does a good job at building on top of what it created in the first season which naturally leads to a more exciting progression of the story. Season two delivered and, in my opinion, is better than the first season. The characters are starting to hit their stride and the viewer has been able to start the journey of growth with them. As someone who didn't like the High King in the first season, he's now slowly becoming a favorite of mine. I love this kind of character development. It's the same kind of character development Jaime had in Game of Thrones before they butchered it at the end. As a viewer, I want to grow with my characters and that often means they are majorly flawed in the beginning. From the perspective of storytelling I feel that ROP has done a great job so far.

The adaptation from the book source material to the TV show, as a Tolkien fan, I'm a little less enthused. In a perfect world I would love to see a show be able to perfectly capture everything Tolkien wrote, however, realistically that's not possible. Adaptations are required and as a fan you hope they do a good job. I'm on the fence with ROP. Objectively I understand that the age they've decided to adapt has its challenges. It's not easy condensing thousands of years of history into five seasons of a show, while maintaining a watchable show. I like watching the story unfold in the eyes of the characters on screen and sometimes that means the writers need to take some creative liberties to portray significant events. That being said, some of their creative liberties, in my opinion, stray just a little too far from the source material. I'm hoping as the seasons progress they will stay truer to the source material but I also won't be one of those fans that gets upset over every change. It's a TV show adaptation, changes will be made, I expect that.

Overall, I've really enjoyed the show so far and I am optimistic for the future seasons.