They're developing a series based on the books!

 

I'm wary, but how amazing would it be if they got it right!?

Edited September 2, 20223 yr by YRBB

 

On 8/26/2022 at 4:52 AM, I Am A Swede said:

I first read The Lord of the Rings before I was 10, and The Silmarillion shortly thereafter. I go back to Unfinished Tales frequently, and I love diving into The Book of Lost Tales and the other parts of The History of Middle-Earth. This is a fantasy world that is so close to my heart and has been for almost 4 decades

Same.  And for me 5 decades!  First read in 1971.
 

On 8/24/2022 at 3:25 PM, Taoboi said:

As someone who was and continue to be an uberfan of Narnia

I first read the Narnia books in 1964!

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by janea4old

3 hours ago, janea4old said:

Same.  And for me 5 decades!  First read in 1971.
 

I first read the Narnia books in 1964!

Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

AT LONG LAST!

I am quite impressed and happy with the first episode. Visually, it strongly evokes the original trilogy and just feels like Middle Earth. Story wise, I felt it was gripping enough so far. I loved the little glimpse of Sauron. Felt like it came right out of the movies (but I will try not to constantly make that comparison, difficult as that may be). Morfydd Clark as Galadriel was phenomenal. The ending was a lovely cliffhanger. I think its biggest triumph for me personally was that I felt immersed in that world even after the episode ended. It was convincing and gripping enough. Not all hope is lost.

Edited September 2, 20223 yr by YRBB

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

 

Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.

• Studio: New Line Cinema
• Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Action, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

S01E01

@Noel
There is already a thread here:
https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/55535-amazon-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/

@Errol can the two threads be merged? Not sure where the ,merged thread should be located.

7 hours ago, janea4old said:

@Noel
There is already a thread here:
https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/55535-amazon-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/

@Errol can the two threads be merged? Not sure where the ,merged thread should be located.

Crap-ola. I looked under the subforum for Prime Video and could not find it. From the link you gave, I've posted in that thread several weeks ago, but I believe it was posted in the general Primetime Shows forum (not the actual Netflix | Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime subforum). If it needs to be merged, then that's fine of course.

Edited September 3, 20223 yr by Noel

I think it's safe to say that opinions have been somewhat divided after the premiere. They've been either absolutely glowing, praising the show (and Amazon) to the heavens, or completely scathing. I have found though that a much larger percentage of the negative reviewers actually present reasons for their dislike (terrible writing, stiff acting, unlikeable characters, a dull and slow moving show), and even offer some positive (some beautiful scenery, nice music), while the positive reviews mostly just seem to declare the show amazing, magnificent, breathtaking and an overall marvelous experience. They don't seem to have found a single flaw. Yet, it is the negative reviewers who are labeled trolls and have their reviews deleted. Funny that....

I don't have access to Amazon Prime so I haven't seen it, except for the few glimpses offered in reviews on Youtube, and I agree that some of the scenery does look spectacular. But beautiful scenery can't make up for bad writing, bad acting or bad pacing, and those three are the most common denominators in the reviews I've seen. Since I haven't watched the show I can't weigh in on those points. But I have to say that some of the casting looks awful. Celebrimbor looks like Regis Philbin's younger cousin. None of the elves I've seen look anything like elves. Where's the grace, the poise, the elegance?  And the hobbits, sorry, Harfoots......

What I can gather from the reviews and the plot summaries the show pays just as little respect to Tolkien's actual writings as expected, but even without taking that into consideration there are things that defies belief. Do the writers actually realize how far apart Middle-Earth and Valinor are? It's an entire ocean between them, not something like the English Channel. Yet they still have Galadriel jump from her ship just as its about to land in Valinor and start swimming (!) back towards Middle-Earth. That's almost like trying to swim over the Atlantic Ocean!

And for the love of everything that's holy, please, please, please don't make Meteor Man be Gandalf! Please!!!   🙏  (The Istari don't land in Middle-Earth until well into the Third Age)

 

 

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by I Am A Swede

I believe the only reviews being deleted (not from critics, but from RT users) are because it's been a target of right wing incel review bombing, a common tactic of theirs for any project with diversity and/or female leads in recent years.

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by Vee

IMDb has 72 star reviews, of which thirty-six (!) are 10/10, fourteen are 9/10, thirteen are 8/10, six are 7/10 and three are 6/10. They use words like "Amazingly mesmerizing", "Stunning", "Spectacular", "Awesome", "Top Notch", "Mind blowing", but not a single review with less than 6 stars is featured. Do you expect me to believe that all of the lower scoring reviews (and I'm absolutely sure there have been some of those) were being made by right wing incels or trolls? Or could the complete lack of negative reviews have anything to do with the fact that Amazon owns IMDb, and that they are censoring the reviews?  🤔

I have no problem with people enjoying this show, that's their prerogative. But I do have a problem with this attempt by the showrunners and Amazon trying to label all those of us who have objections to what they are doing as trolls, racists, misogynists and any other -ist you can think of. Are there some of those among the critics? There probably are, and that sucks, but we're not all that. And it sucks even more that all our valid criticisms are being summarily dismissed like this. We wanted to love this show, and we would have been their biggest supporters if they had done right by Tolkien. But they haven't, and now that we're objecting to what they are doing they simply insult us and call us names. 

 

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by I Am A Swede

2 hours ago, Vee said:

I believe the only reviews being deleted (not from critics, but from RT users) are because it's been a target of right wing incel review bombing, a common tactic of theirs for any project with diversity and/or female leads in recent years.

 

1 hour ago, I Am A Swede said:

Or could the complete lack of negative reviews have anything to do with the fact that Amazon owns IMDb, and that they are censoring the reviews?

According to THP ("The Hollywood Reporter"), Amazon was holding/suspending the reviews on the Amazon site to verify if they are reviews by viewers and not from groups of people who have racist agendas.  Hollywood Reporter also said that despite the fact that Amazon owns IMDB, the reviews on IMDB were not being suspended.

Quoting THP snippets:
An Amazon source says reviews are being held 72 hours to help weed out trolls and to ensure each review is legitimate. The source later claimed Prime Video started the policy this summer on all its shows.

“Review bombing” is when a group of online users post numerous negative reviews for a product or service due to its perceived cultural or political issues rather than its actual quality. 

Amazon owns IMDb but hasn’t suspended that site’s audience ratings.
End quote.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-amazon-review-bombed-1235211190/

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by janea4old

37 minutes ago, janea4old said:

 

According to THP ("The Hollywood Reporter"), Amazon was holding/suspending the reviews on the Amazon site to verify if they are reviews by viewers and not from groups of people who have racist agendas.  Hollywood Reporter also said that despite the fact that Amazon owns IMDB, the reviews on IMDB were not being suspended.

Quoting THP snippets:
An Amazon source says reviews are being held 72 hours to help weed out trolls and to ensure each review is legitimate. The source later claimed Prime Video started the policy this summer on all its shows.

“Review bombing” is when a group of online users post numerous negative reviews for a product or service due to its perceived cultural or political issues rather than its actual quality. 

Amazon owns IMDb but hasn’t suspended that site’s audience ratings.
End quote.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-amazon-review-bombed-1235211190/

No, they just delete reviews that are negative.

And why is it only "review bombing" when the reviews are negative? It can work both ways. Some of the reviews out there are so over-the-top positive that it's bordering on the ridiculous. I don't think for a moment all of them are legitimate.

Is it really that difficult for Hollywood to understand that sometimes people just don't like the product they put out? Tolkien's world is the origin of the fantasy genre as we know it. It has been around for 70 years and counting, and has acquired a large, loyal fanbase. Is it really that surprising that when someone bastardizes the world they know and love they are upset and critical?   🤔

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by I Am A Swede

1 hour ago, I Am A Swede said:

No, they just delete reviews that are negative.

And why is it only "review bombing" when the reviews are negative? It can work both ways.

"Review bombing" is a very common and well known troll practice these days towards films, TV shows or other media that are perceived as 'woke.' When users spam user review sites, YT comment sections, etc. they do this often to try and smear any project they deem too progressive, usually because it features women, people of color, LGBT folks or other minorities. You can google it. It didn't start here.

Your opinion of this show isn't the issue here. You're entitled to your opinion (as are the Tolkien scholars and fans who seem to love it); I personally don't give a shít about LOTR or this show. But the fact is The Rings of Power was targeted by right wing trolls just like many, many other pieces of media because its marketing has focused on what they perceive as a 'woke Galadriel' as a feminist heroine. They are spamming these sites for that reason and because it features Black actors and other minorities in key roles. People can hold whatever individual opinion they want, but when it comes to the mass negative spamming for these products it is not a organic criticism issue, It is incels and misogynists.

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by Vee

8 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

Yet they still have Galadriel jump from her ship just as its about to land in Valinor and start swimming (!) back towards Middle-Earth. That's almost like trying to swim over the Atlantic Ocean!

I just watched.  Over two episodes she's still swimming.  It's taking her forever.  Some ships and rafts pass by and she gets some respite.  But she's still out st sea.  She's only able to swim that far because she has a strong elf-body and a strong will.  But she still hasn't reached shore.  They are making the enormous distance evident.  And yes it should be the distance of an ocean or half-ocean at least.  It's supposed to be a near-impossible task and they're showing it that way.

Edited September 5, 20223 yr by janea4old

The focus so far is the developing evil.  I don't really want to watch that at this time in my life.  I suppose there will be victories of the Light but I don't know how much the series will show that. I need something about hope and universal spirit.  

So far the only character that seems really "off" from the books is Gil-Gilad.   I think it might have worked with a better actor, but this actor doesn't seem to get it, so far.