re: Amazon - Rings of Power

It is filmed beautifully but much like reading Tolkien's books (not implying they're bad just a tough read), it is pretty hard to watch.

If you only tolerated the Hobbit, but you loved the books, rest assured that this show is not for you.

The only similarities between this show and the books are character and location names.

The story does not coincide with the books. The actors probably did the best they could with what they were given. Just know that the writing makes the show unwatchable. Nothing makes any sense, and the characters contradict themselves literally from one scene to the next.

About the only positive takeaway from having watched the entire season was that it looked nice.

I had low expectations and powered through it. Nothing about it was memorable.

They failed horribly at capturing the scope of Middle Earth/Numenor. The whole story feels like it takes place in Mississippi or some shite. Just seems like a really small world.

Morrfryd or however you spell it is a babe

I got 2-3 episodes into it. Wasn’t compelled further.

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The visuals are great and as a Tolkien fan enjoyed places on the big screen that I have imagined from the readings.

I will leave my opinion out in regards of Amazon's efforts to translate Tolkien story to the big screen but the writing was atrocious and character development, lacking for the most part, was rushed.

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That's my take on it too.

Visually, it was done very well. Khazad Dum looked great, as did Numenor. Not as impressed with Lindon and Eregion. The musical score was worthy of a Tolkien epic.

Galadriel and Elendil also looked good, they were cast well. Same for Durin. Of the three, only Durin was given much to work with. I can't fault the actress for Galadriel, as she had to follow their script and direction... and she did portray a bitch well. Apparently that was the intention, as there was a moment late in the season that she changed tone, and she did the wise elf princess pretty well in that.

This would have been an ok fantasy series, if it weren't calling itself what it did. Sadly, it was not a Tolkien tale, it lacked much of the grandeur, and almost all of the morality he wove into his tales.

The biggest flaws, in my mind, was the lack of emphasis on the title (the Rings of Power). They should have been the cornerstone of the tale, instead of an afterthought. Instead, they made up a bunch of stuff that didn't ring true to canon, and that's hard to ignore.

Haha

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Is it over or will there be more?

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Well, we know there will be season 2, as that's already filming.

From what I remember, they had to guarantee 4 or 5
seasons, in order to acquire the rights to the property. I'm not sure what the consequences would be if they don't, but they paid $250 million for the rights alone. My guess is they would plow along several more seasons, at least to where production costs would equal the penalty owed the Tolkien Estate.

Not sure they can fix things, though. They made such a mess of some key parts, that it's pretty tough to get back on course. People ranted about Galadriel, but you could correct that, and pass it off as "just a phase she went through"; but the real problem is the part with Celebrimbor, Sauron and the Rings. They changed what was several centuries of deception and collaboration, to a chance afternoon remark. At this point, there's no way to create the 7 and the 9, which eliminates the Nazgul, which eliminates the entire arc of the movies we've seen. Thorin wanted one of the 7, which is why he went to the Lonely Mountain in the Hobbit. And the 9 are integral to the entire tale of LOTR.

Not a LOTR reader, but i did like the movies. I tolerated the hobbit movies.

Rings of Power was boring and i honestly didn't care about a single character. Galadriel's smirks and the over abundence of slow motion walking and wind blowing through her hair became nauseating. The hobbit type people was almost a fast forward part to me. Just bland and boring.

Sauron was the biggest disappointment of the whole thing. They could have layered in some depth here. He was about as deep as a kiddie pool.

I managed to finish it, but it was very meh. Hope they do better next season.

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and the central actress could not have gotten the role more wrong

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I wasn't a fan of the show. I made it all the way through but I wasn't excited for it each week and really just wanted to see if they somehow pulled off a good ending.

I will give them credit for really good cinematography and a very good take on orcs. That's about all the compliments that come to mind right off the bat.

I will say though, the Galadriel actress got too much hate. Her acting wasn't bad, the writing made a bad character. That's not her fault, she played the role she was given.

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They failed horribly at capturing the scope of Middle Earth/Numenor. The whole story feels like it takes place in Mississippi

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Do they black farming/nomadic hobbits not have clean drinking water? Does Mordor look like downtown Jackson?