Jack Law's Lord of the Rings Thread.

william_kent

Well-known member
Amazon’s Delay for ‘The Rings of Power’ Reviews on Prime Video Part of New Initiative to Filter Out Trolls

The series appears to have been review bombed — when trolls flood intentionally negative reviews for a show or film — on other sites like Rotten Tomatoes, where it has an 84% rating from professional critics, but a 37% from user-submitted reviews. “The Rings of Power” has been fending off trolls for months, especially ones who take issue with the decision to cast actors of color as elves, dwarves, harfoots and other folk of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth.

Some people online seem really angry about this series based on an appendix in LOTR
 

william_kent

Well-known member
True kvlt Tolkien fans are waiting for the adaptation of the footnotes from the History of Middle-earth series.

One of the more puzzling objections to Rings of Power that I've seen is that "Amazon are just making it up" - like Tolkien wasn't?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
One of the more puzzling objections to Rings of Power that I've seen is that "Amazon are just making it up" - like Tolkien wasn't?
Not sure I understand that - the objection to the objection, I mean. It's meant to be based on one person's artistic vision, and if it deviates significantly from that then it's reasonable to ask if those deviations are justified.

If it had Elrond riding around in an armoured truck machine-gunning orcs, then "Hey, it's all fiction, suck it up" is of limited validity.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The first episode far exceeded my expectations (which were very low) and so I ended up thinking oh this might be decent actually

I was happy not to see much in the way of post-Marvel snarky humour. Instead it was all pompous and humourless (or cheekily cheerily unfunnily humorous, in the case of the hobbits) – like Tolkein himself.

And the graphics was well good.

But then gave up on episode 2 last night because it was awful or because I was on a comedown or because I was on a comedown and it was awful.

I think it might be cool to do a LOTR style show with elves and orcs etc but with a GOT openness to sex and hideous violence
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I was happy not to see much in the way of post-Marvel snarky humour. Instead it was all pompous and humourless (or cheekily cheerily unfunnily humorous, in the case of the hobbits) – like Tolkein himself.
Ironically, Tolkien was known for having a pretty great sense of humour IRL.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I've watched three episodes of the new series. It seems pretty well done, and certainly visually impressive. They've taken such big liberties with the plot that I think it's better to treat it as a stand-alone story set in a vaguely Middle-earth-flavoured world.

What's with the accents, though? Specifically the terrible Irish accents of the hobbits? And are they Irish because they're sort of homespun and primitive?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Anyone notice the anti-union ( sorry, "guild" ) slant when they get to Númenor? Bezos must have had a say in that particular storyline
Yes, although it was cleverly made acceptable to a liberal audience by portraying the agitators as xenophobes. Strong Numenexit/MNGA vibes.
 
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wektor

Well-known member
Yes, although it was cleverly made acceptable to a liberal audience by portraying the agitators are xenophobes. Strong Numenexit/MNGA vibes.
will need one of those marxist analytical takes on the series once its done
 

sufi

lala
almost makes up for the crapness of episodes 2-5 which have been plodding and basic and slathered with all sorts of racisms
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I actually watched episode 3-5 last night and the show grew on me a lot

It starts to gather pace and purpose after all the tablesetting of the first 2+ episodes

Read this massive article about LOTR from an old LRB the other night, good stuff

 
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