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 am a big fan of LOTR (both the book and the movies) and I must confess that I was eagerly waiting for the web-series. The trailer looked great and just watching it made me breathless with anticipation.

But when the two episodes released and I watched them, I was in for a massive disappointment. The CGI is good enough; but the story is pretty boring. The dialogues are cringe-worthy. The characters are very poorly-developed. There is not a single character that you actually get attracted towards or want to see more of.

Its a very mediocre effort; especially considering the fact that it is hyped as the most expensive series made for television. With so much at stake, the least that the makers of this series could have done is to have hired the best script-writers and others in the industry.

The story so far is not at all exciting. Normally, if you are watching a well made series, you are eager for the newer episodes to be released. But there is no such eagerness that I feel after watching the first 2 episodes. Yeah I might watch the newer episodes; if I have time; but I don't really find myself waiting for them.

In fact, even while watching the first two episodes, I found myself checking to see how much more time is remaining (which happens only when the movie/series is a drag).

There's lot of criticism of the actors, but could anyone do better with this script?

The problem we're seeing more or less everywhere is weakly-written female characters. A good character needs an arc - in the case of Galadriel, they're obviously going for the hero's journey, but if you have her start out infallible and invulnerable, there's no development possible and so nothing to invest in for the audience.

Contrast her with Eowyn, who had to overcome her insecurities and social role to become a warrior, and she ended up scoring a critical success against the enemy.

We don't love characters for their strengths, we love them for their flaws, and how they overcome them. The modern way female characters are being written is robbing the audience of strong and relatable characters.

Also, you have to lift up underrepresented groups, not tear down others. The troll scene showed 10 male elves easily swept away and then defeated by Galadriel without raising a sweat - that was an unintentionally funny scene and a missed opportunity. What if she'd given commands and gotten her unit organized and used sound tactics to defeat the troll. Which scene was more compelling, this one, or in FotR where a group of the world's most formidable warriors back up by a wizard barely survived?

Why dwell on this? Because Galadriel is the main character of this saga and she's awful - to the point I want to cheer for Sauron. I don't understand how anyone could have thought this was a good idea for a main character.

I'm not sure this is fixable - when you add this to the total demystification of the elves, who are supposed to be powerful immortal beings - and remember, Galadriel is supposed to be thousands of years old, not an impulsive 20-something. Because they're just treated like any other person. She doesn't have to glow like she did in LotR, but all I'm getting is a very unappealing self-absorbed person who I just don't care about.

The writing is head-scratching - was she going to swim all the way across the ocean, catching fish and rainwater along the way? Why not just finish the voyage and take a boat back? It's just so stupid - how did that make it past an editor, or anyone at all reading it?

A lot of the CGI is spectacular, but a lot of it is not. Khazad-Dum didn't look right because everyone was oriented toward the viewer, which didn't make sense - whereas Numenor didn't have this problem.

The costumes are awful, looking like cheap synthetic velvet with gold leaf pasted to them. How is this possible with a budget like that?

I'm really disappointed - this really hand enormous potential - the right story was chosen, but this project really needed people passionate about Tolkein involved. I just don't feel the love.