Page 6 of Lord of the Rings coming to Amazon

I thought he looked like he was the other elf's son.


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Episode four.
I may have to put House of the Dragon on hold.
They're too close and I'm enjoying this a lot more.

Snaps

So five episodes in and so far it's... alright, I guess. I like the world building and overall production value (although some parts still look surprisingly cheap, such as the CG set extensions at the Elf tower).

I particularly like the fact that they shot extensively on real locations and didn't just cheap-out by using the new video-wall tech that many other big budget productions are using. Middle Earth looks real and not a glorified Unreal tech demo like the Mandaboring. I am rather concerned about the production moving primarily to the UK for the second season, though.

The Harfoot storyline is probably the one that interests me the most, despite the questionable Irish accents and the presence of Lenny Henry. Really enjoying Nori and the stranger, although if he turns out to be Gandalf I will be... whelmed.

I've also gotten used to young Ned Stark as Elrond. Not sure I can handle any more wistful scenes of bonding with Durin, though. How many times are they going to fall out and then be reminded of their friendship? It was done better with Gimli and Legolas, too.

Speaking of the Dwarves, the marketing for this show was p***-poor on that front. Remember that promotional photo of the Dwaven princess Disa looking all p***ed off, like every angry black woman stereotype rolled into one? Turns out she's actually one of the warmest and most likeable characters on the show. Hopefully they give her something to do at some point.

Galadriel is absolutely insufferable and a total Karen, always walking in and demanding to see the manager. Hilariously arrogant with none of the skill to match. We are told that she's great but all she does is stumble from one plot point to the next. A far cry from the grace and elegance of Cate Blanchett's performance.

Halbrand is a boring recycled Aragorn, just another human destined to reclaim his lost kingdom zzzzz...

Nazanin Boniadi is completely wasted in this. Bronwyn is such a woefully underwritten character and that whole storyline is pretty stupid as well:

"Hey guys we gotta abandon the town and go to the Elf tower."
"k, should we bring any supplies?"
"Nah..."

Arondir looks so gormless and is a total charisma vacuum. I know he's an Elf but jesus...

I'll finish on a positive. The music is pretty great! Howard Shore's main title theme fits in well with the musical legacy of the films and Bear McCreary's score has already established a number of great new themes as well. If only Galadriel was as likeable as her theme!

This item was edited on Thursday, 29th September 2022, 11:25

I'm really enjoying the pace of this, I love the movies (extended editions especially) and this feels very similar in tone, but just taking it's time to work things out.


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Didn't disappoint.

Likely to be at least Spring 2024 until we see season 2 though.
They went back to work early this month.
So that will presumably be the seven rings for the Dwarf Lords
followed by season three being the nine rings for mortal men and I'm guessing a fourth season for the one ring to bind them.

Guess I'd better stay healthy to get to the end. 😏🙂

Snaps

The final episode was a bit of an improvement over the rest of the season, partly because it didn't have any of that godawful village plot. Hopefully they dispense with those characters completely next season.

SPOILER:
I read about the "Halbrand is Sauron" rumours a few weeks ago and at the time it didn't make a lick of sense to me, but the way the reveal was handled in the show was at least somewhat plausible.

Not really liking how they turned Galadriel into such a buffoon. She's literally searching for Sauron in the beginning but somehow manages to not only fail to realise who he is, but actively enables his rise to power, ushering in a new reign of darkness in the process.

What a dumbass lol

On the plus side...

SPOILER:
Lenny Henry died.
The ring forging scene was pretty cool.
Female Samwise won't be tagging along with Nori any more.
The end song was cool, although not a patch on 'Gollum's Song' from The Two Towers, which it was clearly aping.

One thing I was a little bit confused about...

SPOILER:
Galadriel (and everyone else in the village) survived that cataclysmic 1000°c pyroclastic flow without being instantly vapourised. The only notable death was that weakling friend of Isildur's, and even he just looked like he'd been hit by some falling timber.

Overall, it was okay. Woefully miscast and some pretty poor writing in places, but engaging enough to check out season 2.

I really enjoyed this series, disagree about the miscasting, and I liked the proudfoots storyline.

SPOILER:
Oh, so it's Gandalf. I actually kind of wanted it to be Tom, but I'm okay with Gandalf, even by way of a totally believable it's Sauron along the way.

Happy for Sauron to deceive Galadriel, he's a tricky little tike after all.

I don't know why, but I figured all the rings of power were forged all together at the same time. But then I could never get through many pages of The Silmarillion.

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