Review- The Rings of Power

Three rings for the elven kings, seven for the dwarf lords...

It seems like ancient history when I remember that Amazon first acquired the television rights to the Tolkien universe back in November of 2017. After the gremlin-filled Hobbit trilogy arrived on the big screen, I truly never thought we would ever get to see any more of Tolkien's universe in the form of media. I mean, all most of us have ever known about Tolkien's Middle-Earth is the Lord of the Rings and its prequel, The Hobbit, right?

The purchase made by Amazon came and went, with me assuming it was merely a deal made so Amazon could sell or distribute whatever with the six movies. I was in fact surprised to hear that Amazon intended to produce a tv series within the Tolkien world, and even more so when I learned of its price tag, a five-season commitment worth at least 1 billion dollars (Wikipedia), which would make it the most expensive tv show ever made. In 2021, I recall seeing the first ever camera shot for the new show, dubbed The Rings of Power. But I didn't think too much about it, after all, production would still take a long time. But before I knew it, summer of 2022 was here, and first episode of The Rings of Power was premiering on Prime Video, almost five years after Amazon had first gained the ability to produce the show.

At first, I didn't know what to think of this confident stride into uncharted Tolkien territory. I had my reservations and my hopes, but I didn't want to think too hard about it by digging deep into trailers and previews and God-forsaken internet opinions before even watching the first episode. So I stayed well on the sideline, avoiding outside opinions as much as I possible could until I dove straight into The Rings of Power headfirst.

The Rings of Power treated this move kindly, returning the favor with its own headfirst dive into the Tolkien world, as if you've never left it. Relatively fast-paced scenes and lore dumps all occurred within the first hour or so of the first episode, each part oozing with confidence that you'll be convinced its "true to Tolkien" and buy into it, no question about it. I for one was hooked not long after the opening, with all the scenes and sequences that flashed by reminding me of the opening of The Lord of the Rings; you know, the narrated backstory of Sauron, Isildur and the One Ring. The Rings of Power thrusts you right into the thick of it, explaining the fall of Morgoth (Sauron's master), his attack on Valinor and Middle-Earth, the subsequent defeat of Morgoth and his armies, at a very high and deadly cost. As soon as The Rings of Power is done explaining the context, it doesn't jump to a slow-paced, peaceful present day like The Fellowship of the Ring, no, it keeps the whirlwind going. Morgoth is defeated, but his sly and cunning wizardly lieutenant, a necromancer by the name of Sauron, lives on, and the elf Galadriel is on a dramatic, wild hunt to find him at all costs, even if it means travelling to the barren, uncharted places of Middle-Earth where you question if anything can survive. Exhausting herself and her company, Galadriel finally is convinced to return home, their mission to confirm Sauron no longer exists branded a success by the elven king, though Galadriel is still convinced evil Sauron survived the darkness and death of the frozen realm which they sought him in. The pace suddenly winded down, not elegantly, but like a hurricane that made its landfall. It's not messily constructed at all, rather, it was quite impressive. Characters like the elven king forced the pace to slow down "We have won! It is over," while Galadriel wanted to keep the frenzy going "No! He's still out there. I can feel it."

Wow. That... was cool. And as for the plethora of criticisms received by the "majority" online, I really didn't see anything wrong with what they pointed out as being wrong. Most of it was entirely vague "it's not Tolkien" and "the writing is bad" while failing to, well, defend their argument. The first episode passed the test with flying colors, firing on all cylinders, and the show itself knows it too. I constantly felt the tug I know the showrunners had there on purpose. "This is Lord of the Rings, this is Tolkien's world, and you know it." Of course, it's not just like the movies, not even close in a lot of ways. The Rings of Power wasn't ever going to be able to match Peter Jackson's once-in-a-generation trilogy. It felt to me however, after I finished the first episode, that Amazon knew this and tried to account for it accordingly, focusing on attempting its best to capture the essence and spirit of Tolkien and not so much be a replicant of The Lord of the Rings. More on that in a little bit.

Note: From here on, this review will be as spoiler free as possible, until a section later on that specifically talks about significant reveals and twists. Be ready for the warning.

Things seem to normalize from episode two and on, however. The rush of the first episode didn't necessarily carry over, and the show began to move at a more steady and slower pace that's more familiar to the format of Tolkien's writings, if you care about that. You begin to see the plot revealed and set in motion, and you're introduced to a lot of new characters.

The plot itself is interesting. While the central plot surrounds you-know-what, screentime is split between tons of different sets of characters, all of them in different locations, each with their own problems to solve. Once again, it does remind me of the movies. Given that each episode is a minimum of a whopping one hour and ten minutes, eight episodes total stack to almost ten hours. So, you better find something interesting to fill all that time with, and The Rings of Power does it reasonably well, going back and forth between all kinds of different sub-plots within a centric one. If you're fearing that this focus on sub-plots drags the whole point of the show down, I can understand those fears, not many modern tv series pull it off without having to stuff three-fourths of it with "filler". Opinions wildly vary on how useful and slow paced the sub-plots of The Rings of Power are, but they are in fact rather well-written. Amazon again seemed to understand what they were up against and made effort not to mess it up. That said, it's by no means perfect, and there's definitely a few characters and moments where I questioned how it made any sense. Their efforts to mimic the spirit of the movies in the emotion and interactions between characters, though, is the decisive factor that pulls The Rings of Power through.

Of course, it does help to also try and duplicate the same level of cinematography and visual perfection that simply makes Tolkien's world what it is. By nature, The Rings of Power is just beautiful to look at, and you never stop getting awed by it. Visually, it's stunning, and definitely movie-quality. I guess this is where a lot of the $1 billion dollars was spent, and I can't fault them for it. So far, it's the best looking live action tv series on a streaming platform that I've seen. Claims of "too much cgi" and "looks fake" are completely unfounded and deceiving. Nothing came across as fake, and if people find one particular shot that doesn't look good, that's just picking a needle out of a haystick and saying the whole thing is made of needles.

It's important to note that the characters that worked within these gorgeous scenes and shots were acted unbelievably well for modern tv series (I'm not a fan of a lot of casting choices in tv nowadays). Most of the actors and actresses were the perfect fit and did an amazing job maximizing their character. There was uniqueness to each one of them, and it's incredibly easy to fall in love with many of them and their interactions, which were surprisingly to me, very genuine and Tolkien-like. Even if you didn't necessarily consider a particular character your favorite, you can still appreciate how well their actor did in accurately portraying them. They remained in-personality for virtually the entire show, helping you remain hooked and take everything you see as being more believable. Like I said before, though, not every character was entirely useful. A small handful were the wrong fit. They were the exceptions, but they still existed, and you had to watch them do their thing, whatever it was. Sometimes it felt insignificant. But I'm not just talking about Galadriel, who appears to be everyone's favorite punching-bag for reasons I don't understand, or the characters played by blacks, a first for the Tolkien media world. Even the Legolas-equivalent black elf did an amazing job selling you the character and acting him well. It didn't feel out of place once you got to know them.

The sub-plots format that surrounded the main plot never truly felt like they went completely off-topic. Instead of having no real plot and saving the sole significant event for the final episode, the showrunners did a really good job tying everything in together and keep the ball rolling forward. Episodes twice as long as the average tv series wasn't a con at all. The more, the better, overall. I loved just being present to witness everything unfold at its designated pace and I don't feel I could've asked for much more besides the occasional annoying bit that could've been cleaned up or removed. The Lord of the Rings didn't have these moments, but The Rings of Power does, on occasion. But these separate sub-plots, groups of characters, and locations allows you to just feel like a part of the world more, and it's a beautiful world at that.

The events that take place in The Rings of Power are largely based off one of Tolkien's lesser-known books, The Silmarillion, the showrunners have by no means constructed a brand-new story. It's still totally bound to the great author's works. But, it must be said that not everything you see in The Rings of Power existed in the book it was based on; these alterations, I think, were the source of the issues the series had. Some changes were necessary; after all, one does not simply take a "collection of myths and stories" (think of it like a big history book about Middle-Earth) and translate it perfectly into a series that must stay in one place rather than time-jump. The Silmarillion is sworn by often, but don't think it's wise to critique The Rings of Power so severely because of its deviations from the book. I hate calling these differences a "necessary evil" because it's not. Rather, I'd chalk it up to some things translated well, other times they didn't and could've been better. But really, nothing too disastrous. Even Tolkien's own kids weren't huge fans of the movies made out of The Lord of the Rings. I myself have not read The Silmarillion, and I believe the less you compare it to The Rings of Power, the more you can appreciate the series for what it is. Good content should not be considered bad because it didn't line up exactly with a book that came out 45 years ago.

So is it Tolkien or is it not Tolkien? Does The Rings of Power stand alone or not? Yes and no. It is very different from both the LOTR and The Hobbit. They simply have a certain aura that you won't find in The Rings of Power. The fact that the series came decades after the famous LOTR trilogy can't be avoided and the series does have a more modern look to it; it just does. But critically, The Rings of Power clings to the moral standards of LOTR, and of Tolkien himself, and that's what carries the series. The genuineness of friendship is what sets this universe apart from other epic fantasy. It's Frodo and Sam, it's Gandalf and the Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, these friendships and all the emotion that goes along with the various interactions is what makes this universe so charming and wonderful. Evil is portrayed as evil, and no matter how dark it is, there is always some kind of hope. Something to cling to. The Rings of Power captured this essence, and it did it absolutely brilliantly, thus, I can call it Tolkien. There were various friendship and characters that did such a fantastic job in following the lines of LOTR in this one aspect alone, and it was such a massive boon for the series. There's clear messages of selflessness, going out of one's way to help others, doing the right thing, denying oneself and standing up to fight for a better future, there's brotherly bonds, and great value is placed upon these qualities. Seeing the characters be developed in such ways was tremendous, and I felt connected to many of them. They are easy to root for, many are honorable. The series doesn't care for "manliness" so to speak, it's just giving presenting likeable, honest characters; it's great to see and enhanced the series incredibly well.

Then.

Then it all changed.

The first five episodes made The Rings of Power live on top of the world. Amazon had done it! They had made a good show and captured the essence of the movies that came before it.

Then came episode 6.

I was at a loss for a while after that one. Stunned, quite literally, in the worst way possible. I haven't the faintest idea what on earth happened, but disaster struck, and it struck hard. The first five had moved the show at a relatively slow but consistently-moving-forward pace, but episode 6 ditched all of it, and it wasn't like episode 1. No, far from it. Battles ensued, action was picking up. It was okay, really, until the gore showed up. And the blood. So much blood. Orcs, and screaming, death, not hidden off-frame or toned down in any way. Just pure, raw, uncensored violence and chaos that got worse and worse by the minute. Every time I thought I had seen the worst, it got worse, in shocking ways. Narrowly-avoided poking out of eyes (still stabbing heads with lots of blood), tearing out arrows from people's flesh, scorching the wounds with hot irons to try and stop the neverending flow of blood, blood, and more blood, people screaming as their body is tormented in such a terrifying way. You can feel the sheer pain from across the screen, I started to cringe and get uncomfortable at just how gory and ugly it was. The bad guy terrorized people even more yet still, slowly stabbing people one by one, putting a knife to a kid's mom's neck to slice it... more fighting ensues, with more severe violence, then at the very end, someone sticks an evil sword into a shrine, turns it like a key, and a mountain a hundred miles away proceeds to blow up. The volcanic eruption covers everyone in ash, the episode immediately ends when the wall of fire and smoke hits the camera. The end.

...Wait, what?

Just shock. Absolute shock. It took a while for me to recover from what I had seen. It was a day before I could even try to unpack the story that had apparently unfolded during the complete, botched disaster that scarred my brain for even more days than just one. I concluded that absolutely nothing of value had happened at all, and the series I praised for being very true and honest had been completely destroyed in a matter of eighty minutes. Hardly even angering. Just sheer stunned. Whatever on earth had to happen to turn the series upside down, it happened.

I've never seen such self-destruction take place in any movie or tv series, ever. Nothing comes close. There was no excitement that the pace was picking up, or that evil was revealing itself. It had gone too far. WAY too far. The sour taste stuck all week long. Just like that, The Rings of Power had unhooked me, and immediately came doubt. Perhaps too much credit had been given to Amazon, too early. Maybe they weren't that smart at all. What if the rest of the episodes were like this? Since they went from highest point to lowest, there were no guarantees of anything anymore. Such an episode sowed seeds of doubt, skepticism. Nothing was as believable as it had been anymore. Trust that the story was on a good course for the future became questionable. Everything became fragile and susceptible to disaster.

I was very sorry indeed to find that episode 7 was not much better. This time, the very friendship aspect was targeted. The fighting that did occur was between characters that I thought were on the same side. The iconic sea captain who befriended Galadriel and supported her turned on her after the battle of episode 6, wishing to have nothing to do with her. A father-son relationship that had been mended earlier on in the series was re-hashed and torn wide open again, the ensuing argument a little too much. Nomadic halflings arrived at the place they were staying for the winter, only to find their trees barren and dead. That was normal. What was also normal was the stranger with the halflings using his power to heal the trees and make everyone happy. But what wasn't normal was the arrival of three bizarre witches who bent the rules of magic to remote-detonate all the carts the halflings had with fire, causing chaos, screaming, and crying. These things seemed more like cruelty aimed directly the audience as opposed to anything story-related. Character development was reversed and knocked backwards two steps, their arcs in episode 7 setting them up only to simultaneously knock them down. This is not anything like LOTR or The Hobbit. This is your average adult-fantasy, with no emotion, no balance, nothing. I walked out without finishing the episode, fairly confident the series had been permanently demolished. Two weeks ago, it was one of my favorite things to watch. Now, it just felt empty. Recovery seemed impossible. The slow pace and all the good qualities was fine in the first five episodes, but it felt pointless now. Just get the series over with already. Praise of the design of the plot turned to annoyance and impatience thanks to the screwing up of episodes six and seven. Infuriatingly like watching a poor kid get his jenga tower knocked down by a bully every time he builds it. It only hurts this much because The Rings of Power had the essence of goodness firmly in its grip, before willingly chucking it all into the sea.

I debated watching the season finale at all. For the sake of review, however, I decided to stick with it. Friday had already arrived. It was a guise to give it a last chance, but purposely spoiled the "big twist" so as to not get shell-shocked again. I wasn't in the mood to go through an episode 6 or 7 blind again.

"Hope is not meager even when it is" is something one of the characters says in the finale. Ironic, because the series revitalized itself in the finale. The major issues of epsiodes six and seven were but a thing of the past, and number eight carried the same energy as the first five. There was once again tremendous balance of the light and dark aspects, with no gore to be found anywhere. Characters felt like themselves again. Relationships were restored. Emotion could be felt in its climatic moments. Believe it or not, I was once again hooked somewhat, because its recovery was well done. The story made sense, and reached its seasonal climax in epic and dramatic fashion. I really appreciated the set design in this one. Elven forges and complexes are a sight to behold. What was undone with the previous two episodes was treated like it was all a bad dream, as if all that gore and terrible dread never occurred. Unfortunately, I'll now always be wary of the series in that area moving forward.

It's long overdue that I mention the musical score for the series. It's superb, with perfectly composed character themes and motifs integrated at just the right times to get you to feel the weight of what is happening in each scene. For the fateful, dramatic conclusion of the first season, the soundtrack showed up in full force, paired with a set of scenes that really hold you and keep your eyes glued to the screen. To think that only one week after walking out of the previous episode, you're tempted to forgive and forget. The actors showed up as well, delivering some of the best performances in all of the series so far. In a way, it's almost funny how the season ends the same kind of way it began: firing on all cylinders, guns blazing, confident you'll love it and accept it as worthy of Tolkien's legacy. Scenes move in rapid succession, never really slowing down, but the weight of each one is felt, and stacked on top of the next, and the next. It's very easy to be drawn in and know what exactly is at stake here. Even the symbolism was on point. The big twist was the cherry on top of it all, though it adds some confusion to your being mildly blown away when the screen goes black.

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Please skip to the bottom to read the review's conclusion.

The big twist, which I read beforehand, wasn't terrible. It was executed well considering all circumstances. Halbrand turning out to be Sauron himself in disguise was a surprise, but such deceptions are to be expected from the future Dark Lord himself. What was more or less confusing was how one should pair Halbrand's previous actions with the fact that he is one of the most evil beings ever to walk Middle-Earth. All throughout, he appears friendly and talks rather normally, acting nothing like the Sauron we know would. This is where the conflict is. From a writing perspective, this is almost an impossible thing to execute correctly. With such an eagle-eyed audience and social media that picks up every detail and spreads it like wildfire, if Halbrand acted even just a little bit suspicious, at any time, the twist would've been given away from the beginning. But if he doesn't act suspicious at all, then the reveal of him being Sauron seems incredibly far-fetched and unbelievable. I've seen many twists spoiled because of a hyper-analytical audience, so Amazon going the other direction was the best option in a really lose-lose writing scenario. I can't fault them, really. But that doesn't mean it doesn't still feel strange in retrospect seeing Halbrand/Sauron get triggered when Adar tries to anger him by mentioning "a lost loved one, a woman perhaps," or when Halbrand is visibly going through mental indecision about making the right choice.

How the theme of light and dark was executed was also 50/50. It never really became clear until the final episode, but there's meant to be a realization that the good guys, by pushing for the right thing to happen, were unknowingly aiding the bad guy all along. Pretty interesting concept at face value and you can see how it applies to Galadriel, but it's nothing particularly genius. Were it not for Sauron screaming "Sauron lives, because of YOU!", this theme would have been almost unnoticeable. Then again, evil did "reveal itself" like the showrunners promised.

The three witches were one of those things that are just going to fade out of memory. The appearance design was a little strange, and the way they acted had more of a generic fantasy feel than anything. There were some thoughts of wondering how they'd fit into the greater scheme of the plot, but wound up existing only to give some tension and fight scenes to the Harfoot-and-stranger sub-plot. Yeah, they came, they tried to make weirdness creepy and cool, they did their witchy thing, then they died. In the end, they were just good poster and twitter ad material.

The eruption of Mount Doom, however, was entirely lame. I was tempted to be surprised and treat it like a brilliant twist, but five minutes of thinking about it afterwards showed me how cash-grab that move was. Mountains blowing up when water is added to their volcanic bottom is decently believable. I just don't understand the whole remote detonation thing. Really? A key in a stone is going to shift land mass to release water that's going to flow all the way across the land to the mountain. Yeah, it's dramatic, but why couldn't have said key been taken instead to the mountain itself, where it could've activated some "fire of Morgoth" thingy, as an example, right there in person. That would be more believable. Now, the iconic fires of Mount Doom amount to "just add water."

Conclusion

Eight episodes, each worth over seventy five minutes, is a lot to unpack in one sitting. So many different things happened in all that screentime. Many good things happened, of a quality higher than a lot of new, popular series out there. But with every good part, even in the finest episodes, loose ends seemed to lurk right around the corner, whether it be an awkward presentation of new lore, or focus on a character that doesn't seem entirely useful. Some scenes weren't good at all. These weren't issues all the time, rather, they seemed to trade places being "the loose end" when the others were executed well. But it prevents a lot of "couldn't be better" moments and keeps the rating from being as high as it could be. Amazon successfully did the most important thing, if nothing else, by holding to the same good-vs-evil essence and reliance on character interaction the earlier LOTR and Hobbit movies, but that ball was completely dropped in episodes six and seven, which wound up tanking the rating significantly. I'd watch a season two largely thanks to the recovery, but I doubt I'll ever enjoy it again as much as I did when it was just the first five episodes and a brighter looking picture.

They claim it'll take at least two years for the next season to be released, understandable for the most expensive tv series in history. But I'm in no rush for those years to go by. Please, take your time. I can wait. The Rings of Power passes, but only with a C grade. There's good and bad, and the bad seems to minimize the good. 7.0 out of 10 is the most I can give it at best, and no higher than that.