After Cate Blanchett as GaladrIel, no one else will do. That’s all. full stop.What I get for watching while tired.
I rewatched Episode 1, then watched Episode2, some adjustments from my earlier post:
Spoilers….Visually impressive
Episode 1:
Episode 2
- High production values.
- Beautiful scenery.
- Solid story in the Middle Earth Universe.
- I like the Hardfeet, Hobbit ancestors, equivalent to Gypsies, and I like Markella Kavenagh as Nori Brney foot, a girl with a adventurous streak.
- I think Morfydd Clark as Galadriel has huge shoes to fill following Cate Blanchett, the most perfect Galadriel. She does not have the same presence. Maybe she can win me over?
- Looking forward to Bronwyn (human) and Arondir‘s (elf) relationship.
- A new Elf project: ?
- Something amiss in the Southern Human Lands.
- An evil broken sword has influence over a human.
- Galadriel jumps ship.
- A burned out village in the Human Lands.
- A fire blazes across the sky carrying intrigue.
- Nori finds a man in a fiery crater.
- Orc sign.
- A desire to build a great Elf forge.
- Elrond seeks council and help from Duran, Elf, who is angry about being ignored.
- Rock breaking contest.
- Galadril breaks a long distance swim record.
- An impressive Elf Mine.
- Galadriel meets Finrod on the high seas.
- Arondir explores a tunnel.
- Orc infestation.
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LOTR: The Ring of Power (2022-)
- Thread starter Huntn
- Start date
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Episode 1 for me was meh, Episode 2 was a little better. Want I have found out so far is that they seem to end the episodes at a weird time to do it. There's really no suspense to the ending of the episodes, it is like was that the end? Hopefully future episodes will do better in that department.
Loved as well, mostly due to the visuals and dialogue. Not that concerned about the lore. Actors seem OK so far. Elves are supposed to be handsome, found them less so in this series.
Just finished watching Episode 2.
In my opinion the show lacks the vision of Peter Jackson.
Will see how it progress in upcoming episodes but atm its very slow paced.
In my opinion the show lacks the vision of Peter Jackson.
Will see how it progress in upcoming episodes but atm its very slow paced.
Like, nothing happened in the first 45 minutes of Fellowship of the Ring, and it’s a classic.
The Elf project. I‘m hoping it is interesting to learn more about how the 20 rings which includes the Master Ring come to be crafted, the key word is interesting. 
Considering the link below, and that at the start of this show Galadriel had been hunting this villain for centuries regardimg a previous war before the Rings.
So the Elves recognize as Sauron as the threat, and the question becomes what subterfuge is used to get Sauron involved in this Elf project, if that is what the project is. The original narrative says that Sauron crafted these rings at Mt.Doom, and gifted them, so there is a distinct possibility that he was an Elf, or he somehow will have corrupted enough elves to make this Ring project happen.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m turning on this series, but this is appearing to be the fight before the fight, the same conflict, many of the same characters and bad guys.
screenrant.com
Sauron helped craft 20 Rings of Power, which he gifted to the various races of Middle-earth not from the kindness of his cold, black heart, but to dominate and control them. Sauron gave nine to men, seven to dwarves, the Elves had three, and the Dark Lord kept for himself (say it with us) one ring to rule them all.
Considering the link below, and that at the start of this show Galadriel had been hunting this villain for centuries regardimg a previous war before the Rings.
So the Elves recognize as Sauron as the threat, and the question becomes what subterfuge is used to get Sauron involved in this Elf project, if that is what the project is. The original narrative says that Sauron crafted these rings at Mt.Doom, and gifted them, so there is a distinct possibility that he was an Elf, or he somehow will have corrupted enough elves to make this Ring project happen.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m turning on this series, but this is appearing to be the fight before the fight, the same conflict, many of the same characters and bad guys.
LOTR: All 20 Rings Of Power Explained (Creation, Owners & What Happened)
LOTR's Rings Of Power are crucial.
screenrant.com
Sauron helped craft 20 Rings of Power, which he gifted to the various races of Middle-earth not from the kindness of his cold, black heart, but to dominate and control them. Sauron gave nine to men, seven to dwarves, the Elves had three, and the Dark Lord kept for himself (say it with us) one ring to rule them all.
It was still quicker than the book, since it took 200 pages to get out of the Shire.
I don’t begrudge foundations being established in Episode 1. Whether or not this show is remembered as something special will depend on how good the story turns out to be.
Ref Peter Jackson, his LOTR is a masterpiece. His The Hobbit, was a calculated $$ grab with a distinct lack of vision other than dollar signs.
The original text also says that Sauron did not have a hand in the making of the three Elven Rings of Power, I believe its in the LotR where it comes to light that Galadriel and Gandalf were bearers of two of the Elven Rings.
I disagree about The Hobbit, I thought it was made with a lot of sensitivity to the source material. It was more an adventure than an epic, keeps up a higher pace and has more humor. Martin Freeman as a younger Bilbo was a brilliant piece of casting. The largest criticism I have of it is that it bogs down a bit in the large battle scenes in the third part.
The Elf project. I‘m hoping it is interesting to learn more about how the 20 rings which includes the Master Ring come to be crafted, the key word is interesting.
Considering the link below, and that at the start of this show Galadriel had been hunting this villain for centuries regardimg a previous war before the Rings.
So the Elves recognize as Sauron as the threat, and the question becomes what subterfuge is used to get Sauron involved in this Elf project, if that is what the project is. The original narrative says that Sauron crafted these rings at Mt.Doom, and gifted them, so there is a distinct possibility that he was an Elf, or he somehow will have corrupted enough elves to make this Ring project happen.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m turning on this series, but this is appearing to be the fight before the fight, the same conflict, many of the same characters and bad guys.
LOTR: All 20 Rings Of Power Explained (Creation, Owners & What Happened)
LOTR's Rings Of Power are crucial.
Sauron helped craft 20 Rings of Power, which he gifted to the various races of Middle-earth not from the kindness of his cold, black heart, but to dominate and control them. Sauron gave nine to men, seven to dwarves, the Elves had three, and the Dark Lord kept for himself (say it with us) one ring to rule them all.
Sauron is a Maia. Sort of lesser Gods or Demi-Gods. Same as Gandalf. Coming from Arda not Middle Earth. I don't know if Arda would be considered Heaven or some realm of the Gods.
He learned his smithing skills from Aulë when he was still Mairon. Before defecting to Melkor.
Sauron used to be able to disguise himself and take on a fair form. He disguised himself as Annatar and made them believe he was an emissary of the Valar. Teaching them to make the rings. This is before he lost his ability to change forms.
I managed to watch it yesterday and so far it's good... but nowhere near as epic as expected. Some scenes look great, other look dull, staged... just small. What's particularly lacking for me is audio and music. The mix is not as immersive as it could be. That was done a lot better in the LotR movies. It's almost like this was intentionally mixed as a TV series for a living room and not a cinema. That ship is sailed now, but maybe they'll up their game for season 2. As far as the overall story goes, time will tell.
Ok, granted my opinion, and I have made excuses for other movies that deviated from source material, anyhow…
My issue with the 9+ hours of the onscreen Hobbit, from a 200+ page book is that the original story was fundamentally changed from the intent and tone of the source material. A very entertaining story directed at children, in no shape or form was it LOTR.
Yet it was LotRisized, expanded tremendously, it was sensationalized with events such as manic dish washing, an over the top down the river chase where there was none and events were inserted into the story to create story chapter climaxes where there were originally none because none were needed, like Bilbo fighting an Orc, that did not happen, being rescued by the Eagles was deemed not exciting enough for the movie ending. 🤔
It is the case that it wasn’t possible to stick as closely to the source material with The Hobbit, agreed. But the book was in many cases quite sparse in what it said. For example the stone giants fighting in the Misty Mountains got a very perfunctory mention in the book, and in the film it was a significant action sequence. But you couldn’t have filmed that in the way its in the book, it would have been 5 seconds of rather unremarkable footage.
Instead, in order to make it a workable adventure film, with action beats in the script as well as more quiet periods, that sequence was expanded. As a film it works, and works well. But I can see your point of view that Peter Jackson and his co-writers dramatised certain parts of the material in order to fill out the story. They also added in material from other stories which happened concurrently around Gandalf’s adventures in Dol Guldur.
But I feel they stayed true to the spirit of the story of The Hobbit. It’s one of my favourite films.
Watched the first 2 episodes yesterday. Overall, I liked them. However, Galadriel seems to psychotic in her pursuit of Sauron.
Watched the first two episodes. Not bad, I did enjoy them.
From my understanding is there is a lot of filler here as they don't have the rights to certain books or items with the LOTR mythos. So there are items that are out of different books/writings that are put in or merged together.
I am in...
If we are talking about "The Hobbit", may I direct you to this version...
I like Peter Jackson's version, but it was not true to the source material... lots of fluff and stuff that was put in that didn't need to be put in. I still liked it, but I liked it for what it was... a movie based off a book in name only!
From my understanding is there is a lot of filler here as they don't have the rights to certain books or items with the LOTR mythos. So there are items that are out of different books/writings that are put in or merged together.
I am in...
If we are talking about "The Hobbit", may I direct you to this version...
I like Peter Jackson's version, but it was not true to the source material... lots of fluff and stuff that was put in that didn't need to be put in. I still liked it, but I liked it for what it was... a movie based off a book in name only!
My oldest son said something similar to your comments above. He didn't like it al all because it a made-up story that is disconnected from The Lord Of The Rings. He said that he could not see a progression from the Lord Of The Rings into this story, so he decided to not watch it past episode 1. Well, he said something like this: "Dad, this new show is trash to me," which is something I can understand since he grew-up watching every Lord Of The Rings movie. He has all the original book-sets, and DVD's too.
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The thing is, there is a lot of material in The Silmarillion which is not directly connected to The Lord of the Rings. But it fleshes out the history of Middle Earth and its Ages, which can still add something to the lore. So I think those who have only watched the films and haven’t read the books may find The Rings of Power somewhat surprising.
So I have a question, what is the status of Numenor in the new series? Does the series start with Numenor at the height of its power in the Second Age, which is quite a while before the forging of the Rings of Power, or is it later, with the kingdom of Men already near to Mordor?
So I have a question, what is the status of Numenor in the new series? Does the series start with Numenor at the height of its power in the Second Age, which is quite a while before the forging of the Rings of Power, or is it later, with the kingdom of Men already near to Mordor?
Well, to be fair I think it's perfectly possible to have read all the books and every Tolkien letter etc and still find the series really very surprising...
Numenor - I won't say too much of the plot in ep 2 but with all the open water swimming that's been going on I wouldn't be surprised if we end up there in the next episode...
Numenor - I won't say too much of the plot in ep 2 but with all the open water swimming that's been going on I wouldn't be surprised if we end up there in the next episode...
So, I’m 4 episodes in and it feels boring now. 🤷♂️
There isn’t all too much going on and while it certainly has good scenes, it feels too long and like it’s not going anywhere.
Instead of focusing on the interesting parts (starfall stranger, Theo and the sword/blade and the burned evil elf Adar), we’re getting a lot of time fillers and when that’s not enough a few slow motion scenes. The audio still doesn’t live up to the LotR movies. It’s halftime now and I wonder where this is heading in the remaining 4 episodes. I’d assume we get one large battle spread across approx half of two episodes which leaves 3 episodes to wrap up the story and make sense of it before the season ends.
There isn’t all too much going on and while it certainly has good scenes, it feels too long and like it’s not going anywhere.
Instead of focusing on the interesting parts (starfall stranger, Theo and the sword/blade and the burned evil elf Adar), we’re getting a lot of time fillers and when that’s not enough a few slow motion scenes. The audio still doesn’t live up to the LotR movies. It’s halftime now and I wonder where this is heading in the remaining 4 episodes. I’d assume we get one large battle spread across approx half of two episodes which leaves 3 episodes to wrap up the story and make sense of it before the season ends.
I am going to continue watching and need to make that point first. My take, so far, is that I have to disconnect from the LOTR books and movies to get a bit more enjoyment out of this series. Making something akin to LOTR episodic proves to be a real challenge and for many, not much of a success so far.
For me, there are a few issues as related to dialogue being a bit stiff and simplistic which strips it of nuance. The elves sans the ears could be any population of humans with their own cultural affectations - not so elf like. It seems however the darker characters so far have gotten a better deal as they are strangely flushed in well enough for a group that normally are presented as far more 2D than the main characters.
As for some disdain about the cast and their ethnic background, I don't give it much thought as this is television for me. I have seen it in Xena, Hercules, The Seeker, Merlin, and other shows and as long as the acting is good, not a challenge. However I only hope (truly) the show continues on its course and doesn't end up with 4th season S.T Discovery which to be kind, became for many rather suspect on writers motivations and agendas.
Let's kick back and see how this one moves along and perhaps the writing and characters will begin to find their cadence.
For me, there are a few issues as related to dialogue being a bit stiff and simplistic which strips it of nuance. The elves sans the ears could be any population of humans with their own cultural affectations - not so elf like. It seems however the darker characters so far have gotten a better deal as they are strangely flushed in well enough for a group that normally are presented as far more 2D than the main characters.
As for some disdain about the cast and their ethnic background, I don't give it much thought as this is television for me. I have seen it in Xena, Hercules, The Seeker, Merlin, and other shows and as long as the acting is good, not a challenge. However I only hope (truly) the show continues on its course and doesn't end up with 4th season S.T Discovery which to be kind, became for many rather suspect on writers motivations and agendas.
Let's kick back and see how this one moves along and perhaps the writing and characters will begin to find their cadence.
I just completed episode 3 and having gotten acclimated with these new characters, and other than it‘s the same bad Sauron who seems to cause all of the trouble in Tolkien’s Universe, I am now vested in the 4 main story lines, Galadriel who jumped ship intent on finding the boogey lord, the Southland humans who realize it’s time to flee the signs of Orc infestation, The Elves that have something big in the works seeking help from the dwarves, and the Hardfeet deciding they should also relocate with a mysterious human who landed in their backyard via a fireball that’s not hot, who communes with fireflies, does not speak but reminds me of Gandalf.
Seems like what Amazon wanted was a Game of Thrones type of blockbuster and to make extra sure that it would be talked about for years to come they got the license for the biggest fantasy-IP there is.
So far it feels like not the best of marriages and yet another proof that you can't simply buy your way to success.
I've seen four episodes and it does not hold my attention enough to warrant actually focusing on it. I've downgraded it to background entertainment, running on the second monitor while I work. Sorry not sorry, Jeff. My money is on this not receiving 5 full seasons. Unless they somehow turn it around I'm pretty sure it'll all be cut down and produced much cheaper for the later (probably shorter) seasons.
Numenor's looking really nice though. If only that setting was used for more than storylines reminiscient of a random YA show. Numenor 90210, anyone?
So far it feels like not the best of marriages and yet another proof that you can't simply buy your way to success.
I've seen four episodes and it does not hold my attention enough to warrant actually focusing on it. I've downgraded it to background entertainment, running on the second monitor while I work. Sorry not sorry, Jeff.
My money is on this not receiving 5 full seasons. Unless they somehow turn it around I'm pretty sure it'll all be cut down and produced much cheaper for the later (probably shorter) seasons.Numenor's looking really nice though. If only that setting was used for more than storylines reminiscient of a random YA show. Numenor 90210, anyone?