The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Amazon | September 2, 2022

[dudalb]

The High King of the Elves came off like an idiot.

And his whole having the power to decide who could return to the Undying Lands...in Tolkien;s books, only the Valar...acting for Eru..had that power. And almost all Elves had the right to return..or in the case of the Elves who had never been to the Undying Lands go there for hthe time. Only a very few were forbiden as a punishment, which was Gladrial's situation in the book.

Edited September 2, 2022 by dudalb

[Lucas]

I found the first episode fine and the second middling, but the biggest problem so far is if this didn't have The Lord of the Rings branding and filter over it, it's likely I would not continue beyond this point.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Lucas

[dudalb]

I am a long way from being happy with "The Rings Of Power" but the attacks on it we are seeing from the right for being "woke" are just plain disgusting. 

[Ozymandias]

I'm officially on Team Targaryen.

[jedijake]

1 hour ago, Lucas said:

I found the first episode fine and the second middling, but the biggest problem so far is if this didn't have The Lord of the Rings branding and filter over it, it's likely I would not continue beyond this point.

I think that may be THE underlying sentiment. Not sure the hatred against it is warranted, but the LOTR connection may be the only thing that will keep drawing people in. Otherwise it would go the way of more than half the shows on Netflix and Prime-forgotten quickly.

Edited September 2, 2022 by jedijake

[Elessar]

16 minutes ago, jedijake said:

I think that may be THE underlying sentiment. Not sure the hatred against it is warranted, but the LOTR connection may be the only thing that will keep drawing people in. Otherwise it would go the way of more than half the shows on Netflix and Prime-forgotten quickly.

 

Have you actually seen it? Sorry but from reading your posts, one could get the impression that you have already made up your mind before the show was even out. First questioning the twitter reactions, then predicting a harsh RT score drop which didn't come to pass, declaring there's no hype for the show (how did you measure?) and now you are latching onto the more negative reviews, ignoring the people that actually enjoyed it.

 

Anyway, with only 2 episodes out, it might still convince some of the naysayers or go off the rails. Time will tell...

[SnokesLegs]

Really don’t know what to make of this. It’s gorgeously shot, but feels kind of hollow and unfocused. I’ll keep watching but that really wasn’t the best start.

 

Spoiler

Also that is totally Gandalf, canon breaking or not.

 

[XXR vs XXR]

Having no attachment to the books, I can say I really like it so far. 

[MikeQ]

Okay, some extended thoughts:

The pleasant surprise I had over the first two episodes comes from how much it felt like they've set a pretty good foundation for a cohesive narrative story. Amazon has the rights to The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices - and while the Appendices are quite lengthy and packed full of information, they really do not provide enough narrative material for multiple seasons of television. One of my biggest worries about the show going in has been, at the least, tempered so far. The show runners have (maybe) done the work to craft a narrative that will work and stand on its own right. 

 

Even The Silmarillion - which Amazon does not have the rights to - is not super conducive to creating a larger narrative in television. It reads very much like the Bible does - it's not like The Lord of the Rings at all. It's why it was hard for me to get through The Sil, and why I rarely turn back to it. LOTR is a tale, with a through line, and a story and characters that I'm invested in. The Sil reads like history, and I didn't feel invested in it.

 

So, while I completely respect folks who don't like changes from the lore, it doesn't bother me (or, at least, hasn't so far). What I most value is that this feels like a story in keeping with the spirit of Tolkien and Middle-Earth, with characters that I can invest in and that have compelling arcs/motivations/inner journeys. It does remain to be seen if this is the case, over the long term, but I'm hooked in and ready to keep watching.

 

That said, a weak point for the show so far is that it does feel, at times, that it is missing that narrative piece or visual element that it needs (e.g. in the opening prologue), precisely because they do not have the rights. They've obviously had to carefully work around what they don't have the rights to - hopefully this becomes less of an issue moving forward.
 

Some other thoughts:

• Wasn't sure about the Harfoots going in, but I'm now grateful they are included. They bring such a sense of humanity, joy, and humour to the show. While I am invested in Elrond and Galadriel, elves aren't necessarily the most relatable, given their immortality (and even if the die, they return with new bodies in Valinor).
• The mix of short/long hair on the elves hasn't bothered me. It did bother me going into the show, because I thought if they can't even get these things right, how are they going to get anything right? But I've never really considered long hair to be the defining feature of elves when visualizing them - instead things like their height, agility, grace, etc. 
• The relationship dynamic between Elrond and Durin is wonderful - and garnered genuine out-loud laughs from me. (Also, Khazad-dûm is beautifully represented.)
• I appreciate how the show has set up the central inner conflict for Galadriel. It provides a reason for why she would choose not to return to Valinor now that she is able to (after the ban was lifted on any Noldorin elves that fought against Morgoth), and see her brother again. And it puts her in a position to have a strong character arc.
• Not sure how I feel about the actor playing Celebrimbor... I'll withhold judgment for now.
• I don't think that The Stranger is:

Spoiler

Gandalf. My guess is they will be an evil character. It can't be coincidental that the coals aren't hot, in a similar way that the flame from the torches at the beginning of episode 1 don't give off warmth because the place is so evil.

 

I am very much looking forward to seeing how the season pans out. I'm hopeful that they can land it and we get many satisfying seasons to come. It's nice to be back in Middle-Earth.

 

Peace,

Mike

Edited September 3, 2022 by MikeQ

[Elessar]

I'm also outing myself as a fan of the harfoots and dwarfs, what a delightful bunch and a nice counterbalance to the "stick-up-their-asses" elfs. Humans are a bit bland so far but we haven't even set foot on Numenor yet...

Edited September 3, 2022 by Elessar

[jedijake]

12 hours ago, Elessar said:

 

Have you actually seen it? Sorry but from reading your posts, one could get the impression that you have already made up your mind before the show was even out. First questioning the twitter reactions, then predicting a harsh RT score drop which didn't come to pass, declaring there's no hype for the show (how did you measure?) and now you are latching onto the more negative reviews, ignoring the people that actually enjoyed it.

 

Anyway, with only 2 episodes out, it might still convince some of the naysayers or go off the rails. Time will tell...

You're mixing up my personal opinion (not stated yet) with the patterns of reactions we/I've seen and heard and read. I'm simply going by what I perceive to be others' reactions.

[Elessar]

46 minutes ago, jedijake said:

You're mixing up my personal opinion (not stated yet) with the patterns of reactions we/I've seen and heard and read. I'm simply going by what I perceive to be others' reactions.

 

Not really mixing it up. I asked whether you have watched it because it seemed you haven't. I guess what i was trying to say is i was perceiving some selective reading from your part, putting more stock on the negative voices. To be fair, it is always difficult to get a sense of what the general consensus really is among common folk, doubly so when aggregate user review sites get review bombed by the angry mob.

[Liiviig 1998]

1 hour ago, Elessar said:

I'm also outing myself as a fan of the harfoots and dwarfs, what a delightful bunch and a nice counterbalance to the "stick-up-their-asses" elfs. Humans are a bit bland so far but we haven't even set foot on Numenor yet...

The elves were the major gripes I had with this two episodes.The whole plot with valinor got a little contrived and I had to suspend disbelief,the writing around that portion of the episode got really wonky.

Also didn't like their attitude regarding the issue of sauron .

 

Elves are not Tolkien like and it kind of bothered me a bit but I can understand they are still youthful and kind of arrogant .

 

Dwarves are the best here and feel more like Tolkien.The whole scene with elrond and durin was great and had ample development and I felt like I was watching LOTR  again.

 

Hartfoots are really likable. Nori plot feels a little derivative but didn't bother me much.

 

Galadriel like I said felt a little stiff and she feels a little to human at times and less elf.She is ok but some improvement is needed.

 

Costume design is ok.

 

Had some teleportation and weird editing choices.

 

LOTR was very good at differentiating the races in terms of culture ,speech and physical looks and here the show is kind of meh tbh, the elves are the biggest casuality here.

 

Soundtrack is awesome but on second viewing there are times it got han Zimmer syndrome and music swells at points which doesn't need too.

 

As for numenor don't know how much it not having rights to the silamarillion will affect portions of that story. The intro felt kind of underwhelming and vague to due to this whole rights things.

 

Having the full rights would have made this show so much better especially the elves who have a very good lore.

 

This is definitely going to affect the show heavily at points .

 

 

 

 

 

[Liiviig 1998]

10 minutes ago, Elessar said:

 

Not really mixing it up. I asked whether you have watched it because it seemed you haven't. I guess what i was trying to say is i was perceiving some selective reading from your part, putting more stock on the negative voices. To be fair, it is always difficult to get a sense of what the general consensus really is among common folk, doubly so when aggregate user review sites get review bombed by the angry mob.

Consensus I'm seeing is like 7-7.5ish . Beautiful visuals but plot is kind of slow esp episode 1.

 

Even the average YouTubers major complaint is the pacing.

 

General consensus I'm getting seems in line with critics are saying.

[Valonqar]

It should post some record-breaking viewing numbers if we go by the number of people who cast their votes:

 

51K on IMDB in little over 24 hours (in comparison, HotD has 76K in less than 2 weeks)

 

11,275 on RT  (from what I remember, other premieres were lucky to get over 1000 in the first 24 hrs) 

 

over 1K on Metacritic which is unheard of for Meta Critic site. In comparison She-Hulk and HotD have under 200 and under 300 votes respectively. 

 

Granted, many of them likely watched bootleg but the activity has to point at some massive launch, regardless of whether interest is sustained over the upcoming weeks. 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Valonqar

[Lucas]

5 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

It should post some record-breaking viewing numbers if we go by the number of people who cast their votes:

 

51K on IMDB in little over 24 hours (in comparison, HotD has 76K in less than 2 weeks)

 

11,275 on RT  (from what I remember, other premieres were lucky to get over 1000 in the first 24 hrs) 

 

over 1K on Metacritic which is unheard of for Meta Critic site. In comparison She-Hulk and HotD have under 200 and under 300 votes respectively. 

 

Granted, many of them likely watched bootleg but the activity has to point at some massive launch, regardless of whether interest is sustained over the upcoming weeks. 

 

 

You are severely missing out on the level of review bombing going on that is inflating the amount of votes cast. There's a reason Captain Marvel has double the amount of audience votes cast than Endgame on Rottentomatoes.

[Valonqar]

We'll see how it translates into viewership numbers but they should still be pretty high. Subtract whatever % you deem fake from 53K on IMDB and 11K on RT and give me numbers. Guaranteed they'll be still higher than comparable recent shows in the same 24-48 hour period.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Valonqar

[Ozymandias]

lmao delete all those the 1s and 10s on imdb in a few weeks and you'll probably get a somewhat accurate take on public opinion

[Inceptionzq]

1 hour ago, Valonqar said:

51K on IMDB in little over 24 hours (in comparison, HotD has 76K in less than 2 weeks)

It might be better to compare the actual episode count rather than the overall series count. I think there’s more review bombing on the overall series rating. In about 60 hours, HoTD episode 1 was at 30K ratings. RoP is at 17K in almost 40 hours.

[Porthos]

FWIW, the IMDB rating is seeing a slow, but steady, recovery of sorts.

 

Bottomed out at 6.1/10 and has now risen back up to 6.5/10.