Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power - Review Discussion

NOTE: ALL REVIEWS ONLY COVER THE FIRST 2 EPISODES

LINK ]Metacritic Currently sits ~72
Metacritic breakdown:
POSITIVE:26
MIXED:8
NEGATIVE:0


LINK ] RottenTomatoes: Currently Sitting at 84%, with an 8.1 average rating, but expect a shift as more reviews come in
Rotten Tomatoes Avg rating: 8.4/10
136 Ratings:
115 rated Fresh
21 rated Rotten


*As of 10:25am 9/1/22*

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Score - 100

The Daily Beast
Nick Schager Aug 31, 2022

It’s fantasy writ exhilaratingly large, although at the start, what’s so impressive about showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s streaming effort (September 2) is its balance between the glorious and the vile, the romantic and the brutal, the euphoric and the despairing, and the grand and the intimate. ... It feels fresh and alive—and poised, consequently, to be the one that rules them all. Read full review

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Score: 86

Paste Magazine
Lacy Baugher Aug 31, 2022

It’s true, the pace of The Rings of Power’s first two episodes is slow and deliberate, and the show has to work to balance its screentime amongst many seemingly disconnected plotlines. But it’s clear that the show feels confident enough in the story it’s telling to allow its audience the necessary time to get to know its characters and their various goals and passions, before launching into the potentially world-ending stakes in their future. Read full review

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Score: 80

Rolling Stone
Alan Sepinwall Aug 31, 2022

The good news is that the first two episodes of The Rings of Power are packed with eye-popping visuals, several vividly-drawn characters, and a sense of awe that was such a crucial component of the first three Jackson films.

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Score:80

Vanity Fair,
Esther Zuckerman

The Rings of Power, which was developed by showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne and based largely on Tolkien's appendices, is dense with exposition, but also manages to nail down the mystical poetry of this specific universe. It’s not clear yet whether the show can maintain this spark beyond its first two hours, or whether it will get bogged down by its own expansiveness. But, for now, it seems like The Rings of Power has pulled off the near-impossible.

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Score 80

The Guardian
Rebecca Nicholson

The pace, too, is a little all-or-nothing. It either races through astonishing action scenes, or lingers on a single conversation or meaningful look. But these are quibbles and, in the end, the spectacle wins. This is enormously enjoyable TV, a cinematic feast.

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Score: 75

USA Today
Kelly Lawler

The somewhat flawed series can't yet touch those impeccable ["Lord of the Rings"] films, but it scratches the surface. And if nothing else, the gorgeously rendered "Rings" is the most transportive current series on TV.

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Score 75
The Playlist
Brian Tallerico

It’s the most expensive show on TV and it looks like the most expensive show on TV. Is all the spectacle in service of a story that will charm viewers the way characters like Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn did for generations? The problem is that it’s way too soon to tell as these first two episodes are all about introductions and world-building. ... There’s a reason for hope in that department thanks to sharp casting.

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Score 75

Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Roeper

One of the most expansive, lush and well-photographed projects you’ll ever see — a gorgeous, sprawling and magical albeit somewhat overstuffed epic filled with fascinating characters populating a world that feels like a colorful waking dream. ... Talented and good-looking actors (and many more) deliver strong and earnest performances, even when the dialogue is, let’s face it, a little corny and reminiscent of a children’s storybook.

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Score 70

Decider, Meghan O'Keefe

The first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are visually gorgeous, densely lived-in, and awe-inspiring at times. ... There is a big problem, though. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power might have a strong start, but its plot is laden with so many moving parts and far-flung heroes, it’s easy to see the story cratering. ... Without watching beyond the two episodes provided for review, we can only be cautiously optimistic — and skeptical of what’s next.

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Score 55

CNN
Brian Lowry

Amazon's formidable loot -- enough of an investment to become an inextricable part of the coverage -- has been brought to bear in the service of relatively uninspired storytelling, deficient in narrative urgency.

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Score: 50

Time, Judy Berman

Instead of reinventing Tolkien’s lore, they reinscribe it in a story that reverently and expensively draws on ones viewers will have heard many times before. The end result could be timeless or tired. But in its earliest episodes, Rings of Power tantalizes without challenging.

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Score: 50

Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd

“The Rings of Power” is neither a disaster nor a triumph, merely television of a visibly expensive, fitfully inspired sort. It looks good, has a few charismatic performances that sell the characters and is all in all watchable, if something less than compelling — predictable even in the suspenseful parts, occasionally exciting and sometimes sort of boring.

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Score: 42

Entertainment Weekly, Darren Franich

Viewers hungry for Middle-Earth Anything could be satisfied, and I guess you could argue Rings of Power is no worse than all the other expensively empty genre adventures (Altered Carbon, anyone?) that have proliferated through the streaming era. But this series is a special catastrophe of ruined potential, sacrificing a glorious universe's limitless possibilities at the altar of tried-and-true blockbuster desperation.

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Score 40

Washington Post
Inkoo Kang

The characters — including Elves Galadriel and Elrond, played by Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving in the films — are phyllo-dough thin, and the plots not much more substantial. ... The performances are serviceable but unremarkable, while the dialogue is particularly corny and inartful, with too many intoned monologues about the search for “the light” or the ever-vague nature of evil.

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For comparative reference, House of The Dragon Earned a 68 Metacritic Based on Reviews Up To Episode 6.

I'll note once again, critics only had access to the first two episodes, so these are more like impressions from the first 30 minutes of a 3 hour movie than anything we can truly determine final conclusions on.

That said, impressions seem to be overall much more positive with only a few truly outlier negative impressions. No one seems to think the first two episodes reach the heights of the OT, which tbh I can't imagine many thought it would.

Overall, for me, someone that was skeptical this would be more than below average, it's enough to get me to stick with it for a while to see how it shapes out.