The Lord of the Rings - Second Age - Amazon Prime

[BAYLOR]

It's interesting that they don't talk about Galandriel as the Old One. A lot of that sort of cultural context is missing in the Elven Culture, even though it should be obvious amongst the nearly immortal species.

I imagine that there are whispers and sometimes quite loud arguments amongst themselves, and the ambition to prove themselves would be very present with the young ones. All the other races takes the ageing pretty normally and sometimes understands that physical weakness increases while the wisdom increases in most people.

I liked that they showed an elf with not a perfect hair, because just like the overweight and depressed elves are amongst the population, those with the bad hair day should also be a thing. And yet, especially in the Tolkien world, they are forever young, even if the context relays that they are actually ancient.

The funny thing is that when the LOTR happens, there are elves in the middle-earth that has never been to Numereon or even seen the light of the Undying Lands. In that context, Jackson's films showed beautifully their dying wish to see the Ancestor Lands. But that is pretty much it.

If I understand the series right, the situation is opposite and the Elves wants to explore Middle-Earth and see how rounds the globe really is. It is kind of sad that we know there's much more to Middle-Earth and its celestial companions, but Tolkien never really had time to show us the whole map or the surrounding space-system.

In that context, the astronomer hobbit is a really intriguing character, as it can possibly reveal us more about the Tolkien universe than we've known before ... if we accept it.

This might end up being a very interesting series .

 

[ctg]

This might end up being a very interesting series

Yeah, the potential is there. Let's just wait to see the execution.

 

[AE35Unit]

Mini trailer on imdb
IMDb: Main Teaser
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Main Teaser | IMDb

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

Lots of already disappointed Tolkien fans here, I see.

Well, I'm no Tolkien fan. When it comes to reading, on the scale of Low to High, I like my Fantasy buried at the bottom of Mariana Trench level. Borderline Historical novels in fact. Medieval worlds with just a hint that the supernatural might be possible and no races beyond humans. There are exceptions: The Witcher really clicked with me. But I was never able to read Tolkien's trilogy past the first third of The Fellowship...

I'm far more open-minded when it comes to Fantasy movies, series, video games... And I got a kick out of Jackson's trilogy when it came out, except maybe the third one which had a lot of fat that should have been trimmed. I hated the Hobbit trilogy with a passion. Complete waste of time, more bloated than a Hobbit's stomach at sundown.

I must say I am very much looking forward to this series. It looks very well produced, far beyond what Netflix was able to do with The Witcher, and to my ignorant eye it looks fresh, full of new characters and locations that I haven't seen before or am unable to recognize. If the storytelling remains tight and a handful of characters grab my attention, I'll binge the whole thing with tremendous pleasure. If I'm able to look past those 'Harfoots' (Are they the ancestors of Hobbits then?) and their stupid clown gait.

 

[ctg]

far beyond what Netflix was able to do with The Witcher,

Witcher is a difficult beast and Netflix has made a lot of it its own version. However, I think they're doing the right thing by making it their own and giving based upon credit to the creator. Like they're doing it with this series.

Will it rival GoT? We'll see.

I hated the Hobbit trilogy with a passion.

I liked it, but I also wanted more from it than what Jackson gave us. But he had to remain somewhat loyal to the story structure. Just like in this one, as Sauron has to show how slippery he can be to make a fool out of Galandriel and Celebrimbor (the ring smith).

The latter I can only remember from the games, and in them, he was still offended hundreds of years after his death by Sauron's treachery that he actually sickly enjoyed slaughtering orcs through a possessed body.

So they'll have a freedom to do a lot of things, but they'll also have a structure that dictates the rules. And if they'll do both well, they most definitely have a success in their hands. Will it yield an Emmy? We'll have to wait, again. If they'll cock it up, this will be remembered as the most expensive project that flopped, before someone else reaches that limit.

 

[Judderman]

This trailer makes the show look a lot more promising. Not a GoT but definitely looking good. The only downside of the trailer was no Lenny Henry

 

[Judderman]

Apparently expected to cost $1 billion dollars for 5 seasons! That first season better be good to keep people coming back. Could be a big money maker in the end.
Will be interesting how well it competes with the Game of Thrones spin-off. The Dragons series comes out a couple of weeks before the LOTR second age.

 

[Bick]

Thankfully I don’t have Amazon Prime.

 

[AE35Unit]

Oh thankfully I do

 

[ctg]

Man, if I'm reading this correctly, the Witch King of Angmar is going to be one of the main baddies this series. But what I didn't like was Galandier placing her hand on a Palantir and cracking it by touch. Why would it happen?

And this one is Sauron, yes?

 

[BAYLOR]

Man, if I'm reading this correctly, the Witch King of Angmar is going to be one of the main baddies this series. But what I didn't like was Galandier placing her hand on a Palantir and cracking it by touch. Why would it happen?

And this one is Sauron, yes?

Perhaps, The very touching of the Palantia and seeing the visions set things in motion?

 

[paranoid marvin]

I read recently that the actors were looking to get the pronunciation of Elvish words as accurate to Tolkien's intention as possible. Whilst this is to some extent admirable, it does concern me that maybe they are looking to get the minutiae, the larger story nay slip.

The trailers are interesting, and whilst I'm not convinced that the series will be a success, I'm also not convinced that it will be a disaster.

I will end up judging this series not on how accurate it is to Tolkien's vision because (outside of LOTR and The Hobbit) I'm not well versed enough with the Tolkien's work to make such an informed decision. What's important to me is how good a story it tells; and if that means that some liberties are taken with the lore of Middle-earth, so be it.

Apparently this series has been commissioned with 5 seasons, so what I'm hoping is that they will lead right up to Gandalf visiting Bilbo at Bag End. Perhaps after this, we could get a serialised version of The Hobbit, LOTR and the events between the books (and perhaps afterwards).

 

[BAYLOR]

I read recently that the actors were looking to get the pronunciation of Elvish words as accurate to Tolkien's intention as possible. Whilst this is to some extent admirable, it does concern me that maybe they are looking to get the minutiae, the larger story nay slip.

The trailers are interesting, and whilst I'm not convinced that the series will be a success, I'm also not convinced that it will be a disaster.

I will end up judging this series not on how accurate it is to Tolkien's vision because (outside of LOTR and The Hobbit) I'm not well versed enough with the Tolkien's work to make such an informed decision. What's important to me is how good a story it tells; and if that means that some liberties are taken with the lore of Middle-earth, so be it.

Apparently this series has been commissioned with 5 seasons, so what I'm hoping is that they will lead right up to Gandalf visiting Bilbo at Bag End. Perhaps after this, we could get a serialised version of The Hobbit, LOTR and the events between the books (and perhaps afterwards).

No matter how good it might be , what could end up hurting this series and curtailing its run , is the huge cost of production. Don't get me wrong I would love to see this series have a successful and complete run.

 

[ctg]

I leave this here

 

[BAYLOR]

I leave this here

This could doom it to failure.

 

[farntfar]

I don't know who this boy is, but he makes some good points, from a position of ignorance.
I mean he hasn't read any Tolkien at all, and yet is able to say how Jackson was faithful to JRRT, whereas he expects Amazon not to be.
Well I fear that, even while we the faithful have moaned about Jackson in many ways, I think the overall feeling is that he kept to the spirit of the LOTR even if he screwed some details. (I'm NOT talking about The Hobbit.)
This lad expects the Rings of Power to try too hard to conform to modern/current mores and customs. He gives the example of using current music (*), but I think he's just trying to avoid saying current morals. (We've already spoken of ethnicity in each race in Middle Earth, and I don't wish to reopen that debate in relation to this video.)
He may have a point, but again, he has only the same info that we've got; ie the released trailers. So he may or may not be right.
Let's hope, as does he, that his fears are not founded.

*I just wanted to say that whatever else you think about Jackson's trilogy, the music was excellent.

 

[BAYLOR]

I don't know who this boy is, but he makes some good points, from a position of ignorance.
I mean he hasn't read any Tolkien at all, and yet is able to say how Jackson was faithful to JRRT, whereas he expects Amazon not to be.
Well I fear that, even while we the faithful have moaned about Jackson in many ways, I think the overall feeling is that he kept to the spirit of the LOTR even if he screwed some details. (I'm NOT talking about The Hobbit.)
This lad expects the Rings of Power to try too hard to conform to modern/current mores and customs. He gives the example of using current music (*), but I think he's just trying to avoid saying current morals. (We've already spoken of ethnicity in each race in Middle Earth, and I don't wish to reopen that debate in relation to this video.)
He may have a point, but again, he has only the same info that we've got; ie the released trailers. So he may or may not be right.
Let's hope, as does he, that his fears are not founded.

*I just wanted to say that whatever else you think about Jackson's trilogy, the music was excellent.

The music in the Jackson film was excellent and set the tone nicely . Especial the intro and opening scene of the trilogy .

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I have to say that this guy sounds like he is making up his points as he goes along. He has no special knowledge or background to back up his judgements. As farntfar says, he only knowS what we know from watching the trailers -- in fact he knows a great deal less than some of us, since he's not read The Lord of the Rings nor the source material for this new production, and we know much less than certain Tolkien experts of my acquaintance. He' s not even particularly into fantasy. He's just a guy who liked Peter Jackson's LOTR and seems to have a distrust or even a grudge against Amazon.

For instance, he talks about the trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring and specifically about the music. The fact is that many movie trailers do not use the actual soundtrack from the movie they are promoting, and if I remember correctly The Fellowship was no different. It did not give us samples of Howard Shores soundtrack, probably because Shore was still in the process of writing and recording it when the trailer was produced. Similarly I assume that we have yet to hear the soundtrack for Rings of Power, so there is no way to compare the two. The new soundtrack may be better, it may be worse, but I think we can be sure that it won't contain hip hop which is an idea that seems to have come out of nowhere.

I also read somewhere that Howard Shore is doing the music for the Amazon series. If true I think it is safe to say that whether the music lives up to the movies or not, at least it will not be horrible.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have to say that this guy sounds like he is making up his points as he goes along. He has no special knowledge or background to back up his judgements. As farntfar says, he only knowS what we know from watching the trailers -- in fact he knows a great deal less than some of us, since he's not read The Lord of the Rings nor the source material for this new production, and we know much less than certain Tolkien experts of my acquaintance. He' s not even particularly into fantasy. He's just a guy who liked Peter Jackson's LOTR and seems to have a distrust or even a grudge against Amazon.

For instance, he talks about the trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring and specifically about the music. The fact is that many movie trailers do not use the actual soundtrack from the movie they are promoting, and if I remember correctly The Fellowship was no different. It did not give us samples of Howard Shores soundtrack, probably because Shore was still in the process of writing and recording it when the trailer was produced. Similarly I assume that we have yet to hear the soundtrack for Rings of Power, so there is no way to compare the two. The new soundtrack may be better, it may be worse, but I think we can be sure that it won't contain hip hop which is an idea that seems to have come out of nowhere.

I also read somewhere that Howard Shore is doing the music for the Amazon series. If true I think it is safe to say that whether the music lives up to the movies or not, at least it will not be horrible.

The previews clips actually look good.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Apparently Amazon is worth $1 trillion, so even if this whole series returns not a penny Amazon can afford to run it.

However...

this all has the feeling of the video games crash back in the early 80s. Atari was flying high, selling consoles and games and making a ton of money. Then they started to overstretch themselves, and (if I'm right) they did crazy things like may more Pacman cartridges than there were actual systems to run it on. They paid a ton of money for the ET licence and thought that any old rubbish that they put on the cart would sell, simply because it was Atari and it was ET.

With bigger and bigger budgets for these tv series, there's no way that they can ALL return the outlay spent on them; and it's quite possible that NONE of them will. With Netflix, Amazon, Sky, Disney to name but a few, it's possible that one could come out on top. Obviously Amazon are thinking that with the Tolkien franchise they will have the subscription service to rule them all - that is until another service comes up with an even bigger budget franchise. The things is that all these firms have mega amounts of cash, but eventually, inevitably, it's bound to run out for some of them.