While The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, Rings Of Power Delivers Spectacle, It Lacks The Dramatic Power To Hold The Audience’s Attention
The Lord of the Rings 2022: An American fantasy television series known as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is based on the novel The Lord of the Rings and its appendices written by J. R. R. Tolkien.
It is a television series created by the showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for the streaming service Prime Video.
The series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were written.
This film is being produced by Amazon Studios, in collaboration with the Tolkien Estate, the Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema.
After investing hundreds of millions in mounting a series version of “The Lord of the Rings,” Amazon has gotten its money’s worth in terms of production values, but nothing in terms of storytelling, with a handsome prequel that is likely to leave all but the most dedicated Hobbits feeling more bored than enlightened.
The Rings of Power should be a source of considerable curiosity, but in the midst of an onslaught of big-budget streaming content, it seems unlikely that this one will claim the crown.
In fact, some of the flaws of “The Rings of Power” are similar to those of HBO’s lavish “Game of Thrones” prequel, “House of the Dragon,” which, in comparison, has a brighter glow.
On the basis of the opening episodes, it seems as if there is even more of a difference between the characters we got to know in Peter Jackson’s trilogy and their ancestral counterparts.
In addition to the series format — episodes will be released every week after the two-part premiere — Jackson’s notoriously long movies tend to evoke some bad habits with plodding interludes and a second episode that unfolds on several fronts without feeling as if a whole lot is happening, in comparison to Jackson’s notoriously long films.
Those who enjoy the ornate world of J.R.R. Tolkien will feel no doubt tempted to indulge in the centuries-spanning approach that this tale takes, which picks up with a lengthy prologue about the great battle Sauron and his forces fought, and the subsequent disappearance of Sauron.
As some hope for lingering peace, the revenge-minded Elvish warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) remains vigilant, believing that evil does not sleep. It waits for the next opportunity to strike.
As with “The House of the Dragon,” “The Ring of Power” has sought to feature women and people of color more prominently as well as capitalize on the agelessness of the elf characters, among other things, to provide connections despite the gaping time lapse between the television series and the movie.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an Amazon prequel series that stars Morfydd Clark as Galadriel.
In general, the Elves play a greater role than ever before, including the hardened soldier Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova), who also takes on an increasingly important role as the battle lines begin to be drawn.
It must be said, however, that the latitude that is offered by an episodic approach, and the potential for multiple seasons to follow, does not immediately translate into more compelling characters, and just after catching audiences up on the history, the buildup toward the meat of the story takes a while.
A wide variety of characters are introduced over the course of “The Rings of Power” including men, elves, powerful dwarves, as well as a Hobbit subset known as Harfoots (a distinction that, hopefully, won’t be part of the final version of the game).
In some instances, as the series flits from kingdom to kingdom, it can appear as if it is “The Lord of the Maps,” splashing images of the various kingdoms across the screen as it navigates between one location after another.
These locations represent the scope of the production at its most grand, while the mythical beasts presented actually prove a bit more uneven.
Amazon’s loot — sufficient of investment to become an inextricable part of the coverage — so far has all been put to work in the service of fairly uninspired storytelling, utterly lacking in any sense of narrative urgency.
Therefore, the expectations raised by the title can be found to be something of a double-edged sword, especially when so much has been said about the enormous effort this was going to be.
In terms of the epic battle that awaits, “The Rings of Power” may still be able to stand up to it. It’s hard to resist the temptation to say, “Wake me when you get there,” after the first introduction, although the music swells and the camera pans across those sweeping vistas of Middle-earth as the music swells and the camera pans across them.