If you’d asked me two years ago what “The Lord of the Rings” was, I would have guessed that it was some modern movie franchise. “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR), “Game of Thrones,” “Lord of the Flies,” and “Dungeons and Dragons” were all the same to me. I didn’t know what they were, nor did I care. I assumed that they had lots of computer-generated violence and no traditional values.
However, when my sister started watching the Peter Jackson trilogy because of an interest in Elijah Wood (who played Frodo in the LOTR films), I, too, became an LOTR fan.
Through the LOTR franchise, I learned about the classic literary works by J.R.R. Tolkien upon which they were based. In fact, I adopted the unpopular opinion that the Jackson trilogy are not the masterpieces they’re cracked up to be.
During the past year, I’ve learned a lot about the Tolkien mythopoeia on paper and screen and its devoted fans by joining several LOTR Facebook groups. One of the main discussion topics was “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series on Amazon Prime Video. If I’d had any interest in watching season one of “The Rings of Power” before, seeing the memes, jokes, and harsh criticisms would have dissuaded me.
‘The Rings of Power’
“The Rings of Power” takes place thousands of years before the events in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” during the Second Age of Middle-Earth. Tolkien wrote little about the events of this period, with the main writings being found in the appendices of the third LOTR book, “The Return of the King.”
The largest work which Tolkien wrote on earlier times in Middle-Earth is “The Silmarillion,” an amazingly complex anthology on the First Age. The Tolkien Estate did not grant permission to adapt this epic work; Amazon, which is producing “The Rings of Power,” combined the hodgepodge lore from the appendices and Tolkien’s other writings to craft a story.
This story lacks continuity with the official mythopoeia. The events of thousands of years take place during a much more compressed time frame. This is understandable from a storytelling perspective, but it’s frustrating to Tolkien purists.
Although the events of “The Rings of Power” take place long before “The Lord of the Rings,” fans will recognize the names of many characters, whose immortality allows them to be in this much earlier prequel. Elves like Galadriel and Elrond are shown in younger form, and Middle-Earth’s supervillain Sauron appears in a few different human forms before he is the disembodied eye.
‘Elven Kings Under the Sky’
The story of Season 2 is not hard to follow without watching the first season, as I did. The first episode begins with a detailed three-and-a-half-minute recap of the last season, which was helpful.A strange redheaded young man (Jack Lowden) appears as Forodwaith Sauron at the beginning of this first episode “Elven Kings Under the Sky,” which might confuse even devoted fans of the first season. This turns out to be a prologue detailing events which took place millennia before season one. Here, the dark lord Morgoth’s successor (Sauron) is assassinated by his orc henchmen.
After being stabbed more times than Julius Caesar’s assassins could shake a stick at, his bizarrely black blood oozes down into the fortress’s stones, creating a disgusting subterranean pool. In a brief time lapse spanning thousands of years, the pool of Sauron’s life force grabs and devours any creature which comes near it until it eventually looks like a seaweed monster, slithering into daylight. He absorbs an unsuspecting peasant and regains human form as the dark-haired Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), who Galadriel discovered was Sauron in disguise near the end of the first season.
Great Beauty and Little Substance
The part of the season premiere which I recounted above, all takes place before the title appears on the screen, which constitutes a prologue. Including the season one recap, this opening sequence lasts 22 minutes.I have little recollection of what happened in the episode’s actual plot for the next 38 minutes, although I watched it just a few days ago. Nevertheless, I clearly remember the different aesthetic qualities and can instantly recall vivid pictures from different scenes.
I found the later part of the episode so boring that I struggled to stay awake. The dialogue was dull and confusing, with an illogical blend of English and Elvish.
The main action, which broke up the monotony, was disturbing in its graphic violence, full of horrific stabbings and black blood. The images that I recall are from scenes in the elven realms. They were magical and beautiful, transporting me to the ethereal realm I pictured when reading Tolkien’s books.
Although the scenes were doubtless primarily computer-generated, I couldn’t deny their beauty and that they caught my attention. In fact, they corresponded more closely to the Middle-Earth I imagined than much of the scenery in the Jackson trilogy. When it comes to painting a beautiful picture on the screen, albeit an artificial one, no one can compete with the technology Amazon’s wealth can buy.
But this tech-enhanced imitation of LOTR falls far short of Tolkien’s enduring fantasy. The story of “The Rings of Power” is shallow, the script is poorly written, and the actors seem as computer-generated as the glowing trees behind them.
LOTR is a classic because of its timeless lessons about bravery, honor, and sacrifice. “The Rings of Power” obscures those values with poor filmmaking and a confusing Tolkien mythology.
