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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

JohnC

By JohnC,
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Alan Stock

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I was pretty sceptical about giving this a go, given all the mixed feedback here and elsewhere. But sitting on Amazon Prime and with nothing else tickling my fancy, I thought I should at least go and look at the lavish LOTR world once more. And I'm glad I did. I ended up spending all evening watching the 6 episodes and mostly really enjoyed it.

 

It's just great being back in Middle Earth. It looks gorgeous and the landscapes and costume designs are just as cool as the films. The score is suitably LOTR and sets the right energy for the scenes. As for the story, people were saying its really boring, its really slow, nothing happens. So I was suprised to find it very watchable, hopping from location to location following different plot threads. A nice sprinkling of action, character beats, epic adventures and mystery. The pacing does drag a bit in some locations but overall I was fine with it.

 

It was awesome to get back into the nasty bits of the world as well, the monsters and the fighting. Despite the high flaluting of elves and polticing I'm most happy when villages are burning and orcs are rampaging. The action has been top notch, with visceral fights and some great choreography that would seem really stupid if it weren't OP fantasy races doing it. The characters are mostly likeable, or if not, at least interesting to watch and see what antics they get up to next. 

 

It's not all top notch though. Some of the characters do grate a bit and some are very shallow, but I'm mostly not here for character building, just epic adventures, so I can overlook that. Where things do start to trigger me a bit is the cheesiness/cringeness and faux communal spirit in the show. Now the LOTR films are famously cheesy at times and the show embraces that, but like the films its a bit overdone at times. There are fan servicey slow motion shots of characters in glinting armour and smiling at each other as the score swells. But what gets my goat is multiple crowd scenes where some 'inspirational' speech has the crowd cheering every word no matter how stupid the context or boring the content of the speech is - whilst of course the score begs your heart to embrace this stirring moment. It comes off as so fake. The worst is a scene where the crowd literally does a 180 on their opinion and the naysayers are hugging and laughing with their opponents of just a few minutes earlier. LOTR used similar tactics to get the heart going, but the difference there was usually you cared about the characters and the reactions seemed believable.

 

Another nitpick I have is some incredibly predictable directing. There are a bunch of supposedly scary sequences where every cliche in the directors book is used. Blurry shapes running in front of the camera. Peeking through eye holes awaiting jump scares. Characters supposedly safe but framed where anyone who has seen any media knows something is coming from behind them. Shots where just the cliched horror framing gives away exactly what is coming next and then expects you to be surprised when it happens. 

 

I'm going to go into some episode 6 spoilers for another example:

Spoiler

In the scene after they win the battle at the village and are all celebrating, its so painfully obvious that something bad is going to happen just from the way its shot, and all the emphasis on celebration. Not to mention they already pulled the exact same stunt only minutes earlier during the night attack!

 

As for the show generally:

Spoiler

I've enjoyed the mystery of the big man with the hobbits. I've (surprisingly) really liked the Elrond plotline and his bromance with Durin. Seeing the inside of a functioning dwarf city is ace. I was really happy to see orcs making a return, and the whole orc incursion line has been great. The elf warrior bloke may be completely boring as a character, but he's cool as fuck and those combat scenes were epic - I love that scene where he literally plucks an arrow out of midair and fires it back. 

 

Galadriels adventures are where things drag. She starts out quite interesting but her character gets quite annoying as it goes on with her obsession. Her sidekick has no real depth aside from the cliched hidden king who kicks arse (seems somewhat familiar...). But I can live with those things, its a means to an end to get Galadriel and her new buddy to where they are going. Its the boring island politicing and characters you really don't care about that clog up the machine. The whole saga on the island lasts way too long and has too many side characters with nothing to them. The crowd scenes were terrible and Galadriel convincing the queen was... not convincing. The location was also home to way more cheese. I was so happy when they finally shipped out from there and got into the good stuff - fighting orcs, baby!

 

As my Tolkien lore and geography is fairly rudimentary, it was a cool surprise to see what is presumably Mount Doom being created. I had assumed the Southlands probably would become Mordor but Middle Earth is a big place so I wasn't certain until now. I really like all the Sauron stuff, it's fun guessing where he is or who he might be. I like all the backstory about Morgoth and how the men worked for him. The world feels a bit more real and with more depth with added detail like this, something the LOTR movies didn't really have time to get into.

 

So its been a welcome return to Middle Earth. I can see why some people don't like this, but most of those complaints I either disagree with, or they don't overshadow the rest of the show for me. I just like being in this world with its great visuals and set designs, a colourful array of characters and creatures, a sense of mystery and some good old fighting monsters, all accompanied by a wonderful score. It does have some issues but its got more things to enjoy. It's a thumbs up from me.

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Festoon

Festoon

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Bear McCreary is really nailing this. He's always been top-notch though.

 

Quick mention for his title theme for DaVinci's Demons which he wrote to also work played so the theme sounds the same in reverse (second vid), inspired by DaVinci doing it with writing.

 

 

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Ep7. Enjoyed it, but have several rather more issues.

 

Spoiler

In no particular order:

 

Halbrand is dying and need urgent medical attention. But anyway, get on this horse and right hard.

 

Elendil, let this horse go. *cut to horse at full fucking gallop with zero in-between.

 

So Galadriel talked the Queen of a major kingdom to come the aid of the Southlands, to which they send a decent enough chunk of their military they needed to get more troops, and no one thought to raise the point they only encountered one village?

 

And that reveal of the word Mordor? They thought they'd splash out and get the full version of PowerPoint so they could use a font fade?

 

That out of the way - good stuff. 

 

During and elrond and the Harfoots continue to be a joy to watch. I love every moment they're on screen. And it turns out I have a serious thing for dwarf women.

 

Also, I reckon I see where this Mithril thing is going....

 

Spoiler

...with the access to Mithril gone the way is open for an elf looking fellow whose good with a hammer to say "Watcha, Cel. Looks like we're all gonners, eh? But what if I could make some rings that would sort that out toot sweet, eh? Lovely jubbly". (Annatar is Delboy in my head, shut up).

 

 

 

 

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Thor

Thor

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Good episode, apart from the very end, but only because it has to spell it out for the thick-as-fuck crowd (read: Americans). 

Spoiler

No one with even a single brain cell needed to have Mordor spelled out for them. You'd have to be a proper fucking idiot to not realise that.

 

Everything else was great, I thought, and tugged on the heartstrings. Big dude is definitely Gandalf for me now.

 

That horse is gonna bring back Isildur, obviously. 

 

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Pete

Pete

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Yes I think Thor is right, in the edit they must have felt they had to literally spell it out. I did a lol.

 

Spoiler

I'm more annoyed about all those people being fine after a pyroclastic flow. That's a cloud of ash, dust and rocks, the density of earth with a temperature in the hundreds of degrees. Instant death, and before you say "it's a fantasy" I don't care, Tolkien would never have had that.

 

Overall I think this show is fine, at times it's quite good but so many small things are annoying me. Did the whole Numenor army die and become one boat? Did they just ride into one tiny village and call it a day? The geography seems wrong, the camp location makes no sense to me as there aren't snowy mountains or Fjords near the coast that close to Mordor (having said that I'm pretty sure one of the location shots outside Moria was exactly the same as one in LOTR). Elrond is still great though I feel him and Durin should have had to come through some struggle together for their closeness to seem more believable. Halbrand is shit, you can't just call yourself king because you have a necklace and a pretty face, he's not earned that at all. He turns up and the whole village is destroyed, why are they so happy?

 

Harfoot stuff was good, though I am constantly distracted by the props and the shit in their hair. Hobbits are supposed to like bathing and being clean.

I'm sure I wouldn't notice these things if the show had some of the weight, dread and tension of the films, maybe an unfair comparison though.

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Ste_S

Ste_S

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5 minutes ago, Stigweard said:

So Disa...

  Reveal hidden contents

Shes the catalysed for when the Dwarves "delved too greedily and too deep" then? Getting into Durins head.

 

 

Spoiler

I thought her dramatic shift to Lady Macbeth was a bit weird, tonally out of character to how she'd been portrayed previously.

 

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Alan Stock

Alan Stock

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3 hours ago, Stigweard said:

So Disa...

  Hide contents

Shes the catalysed for when the Dwarves "delved too greedily and too deep" then? Getting into Durins head.

 

 

General episode spoilers/thoughts:

Spoiler

When Elrond first comes to the door at the start of the series I was like, oh, its a bit Moria-ish, but it looks quite different so I just thought it's another dwarven city. Then when they kicked Elrond out this episode I was like, hmmm, the entrance really does have some similarities, like the waterfall and the general feel of the place. And then when Disa started going on about digging the penny started to drop, and then of course the reveal confirmed it. I take it most Tolkien lore lovers already knew this, I'm not good with place and character names outside the main ones so I didn't recall any of the names from LOTR. Is the city called Moria and did they mention that in this series already? And is Durin the dead king that's talked about when Gandalf is extolling the wonders of the mines of Moria to the fellowship? Anyway for me it was a double edged reveal, in that its cool to see the origin, but its also pretty lame to conveniently shoehorn in a backstory for somewhere cool and mysterious that doesn't really need one. The thing that annoys me a lot with the incessent fixation on prequels these days is that we already know so many fates and the bigger picture in advance, and now Rings of Power has just added another plot thread where we know how it ends.

 

Anyway this episode was pretty boring overall, a few good character moments but it dragged on and was pretty depressing. Having said all of the above it still is cool to see the birth of Mordor though, and I'm looking forward to whats next with the orc/elf/Numeria conflict. The evil cadre pursuing the giant burning all the halflings village in one breath was pretty cool as well. 

 

Also 2 bonus cringe points for the crowd speeches this episode: halflings 'we'll do it together' by whats-her-face's dad, and 'strength to the king' by the Southlanders. The orc one was ok because they're orcs, their king is cool, and they only chanted a few times.

 

Like the posters above I also laughed out loud at the text spelling out of Mordor for dummies :lol:. It spoiled what would have been a nice little ending with the word hanging in the air. Talk about lack of faith in the audience. When the mines eventually go down it'll say on the screen at the end of the episode '*insert city name*' and then replace it with 'The Mines of Moria. Remember, where the Balrog lives in Lord of the Rings!'

 

I like the Gandalf theory, I'd never thought of that. Of course I picture him as a giant, but when I thought about it, he's only a giant to the hobbits and is probably normal sized. Hope its not though because that would be yet another story we know the ending to. But the more I think about it the more likely it seems, especially as I recall in the lore the wizards are like some kind of higher being. This is probably him being sent to help Middle Earth in the first place.

 

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footle

footle

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Agree entirely Ste - that was just weird.

 

@Alan Stock legendarium spoilers, but nothing you’ve not guessed

 

Spoiler

If you’ve paid close attention (ha) to the films or books, particularly the Fellowship of the Ring, then Khazad-dûm (the city) eventually falling well into the Third Age to become Moria is a known story.

It shouldn’t be either of these two Durins though. We’re looking at Durin III and Durin IV here, rather than Durin VI who’s killed later on, and they have specific roles to play in the wars against Sauron in the Second Age. This is the absolute height of Khazad-dum (even if we’ve only seen it in that first shot as Elrond came in). And the balrog should really just stay where it is for another three thousand years.

 

I suppose the question is whether the tv show can really avoid shortening the story in such an obvious way - but a balrog running through their city would make it very difficult for the dwarves to do any of the things they actually need to do as part of the various alliances of elves and men.

 

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footle

footle

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5 minutes ago, Hanzo the Razor said:

It was Balin's tomb (Played by Ken Stott in The Hobbit films) they found in FOTR. "Here lies Balin. Son of Fundin. Lord of Moria."


Yes, but the dead king who is extolled is Durin - probably Durin I, the deathless and founder - or perhaps Durin VI, who Gandalf might have chronologically have met.

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Alan Stock

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Yeah, I think Durin's actor does a really good job, considering we can't see most of his face due to his massive beard and nose. He's definitely the best dwarf we've seen on screen in the whole Tolkien saga. I also appreciate that despite my dislike of the fan servicey speeches elsewhere, they are confident enough to let expressions do the talking in places, especially in Durin/Elrond scenes.

 

Also I have to give mention to Durin's wife's amazing eyes. It's surely contact lenses but they are so striking.

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Sarlaccfood

Sarlaccfood

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On 07/10/2022 at 08:35, Pete said:
Spoiler

I'm more annoyed about all those people being fine after a pyroclastic flow. That's a cloud of ash, dust and rocks, the density of earth with a temperature in the hundreds of degrees. Instant death,

 


They did show loads of people dead though?

 

And Hobbits likening bathing and being clean…. these aren’t actually hobbits are they? Their ancestors like Gandalf mentions Sméagol was too. 

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scottcr

scottcr

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21 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:


They did show loads of people dead though?

 

And Hobbits likening bathing and being clean…. these aren’t actually hobbits are they? Their ancestors like Gandalf mentions Sméagol was too. 


they’re harfoots… early hobbit ancestors. They’re clearly bigger and obviously nomadic

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8 hours ago, Sarlaccfood said:


They did show loads of people dead though?

 

And Hobbits likening bathing and being clean…. these aren’t actually hobbits are they? Their ancestors like Gandalf mentions Sméagol was too. 

 

Couple of thousand years between the two.

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Girth Certificate

Girth Certificate

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The ‘Mordor’ caption was so crap. Maybe if in every single episode prior they’d done it for the southlands it would have worked but I doubt it. Uruk Elfguy is a good actor so I doubt they didn’t get a good take of him staring off into the distance and whispering Morrrrdorrrr. 
 

And ‘omg he’s dead oh lol no he’s not’ plot lines are complete garbage in a prequel show with 20inch thick plot armour around the main characters. Just get on with it.

 

also Dwarfwife is Sauron

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