Give this appendix an appendectomy.
The latter is uber-elf Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) who spends the premiere telling people to worry about Sauron.
In response, people tell her not to worry about Sauron.
Morfydd Clark in ‘The Rings of Power’.Ben Rothstein/Prime Video
That’s one hour down, seven to go this season.
Sound like a billion dollars yet?
Cate Blanchett played her inPeter Jackson’s movies as a Vulcan Witch for Justice.
‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Matt Grace/Prime Video
She free-solos up a frozen mountain alongside an ultra-mega waterfall.
War claimed her brother and drenched the world in blood.
She suspects vanquished Sauron still lingers and has hunted him for ageless decades.
Most other elves think Sauron’s gone forever.
This is not the only accidentally funny line, but it is the most brazenly dumb.
Um, Mr. Elf Lieutenant, isn’t the sun-scaring shadow countryexactlywhere you should look for the wicked godmonster?
Galadriel narrates a history-lesson prologue.
There is a battle montage, Mordor weirdness, then a hard cut to halfling antics.
This is the precise structure that began 2001’sThe Fellowship of the Ringfeature.
Obvious reference points do this show no justice.
InFellowship, Jackson cranked a trip to underground Moria into a cinematic horror-action-comedy rock opera.
When an equivalent setting appears here, it’s big, bright, and bland.
It is where a dwarf complains to an elf: “You missed my wedding!”
The mood is stilted, dull.
They ride an elevator.
He’s an elf patrolling unruly humans who call him nasty names like “Knife Ears.”
She’s a single mom whose sweet chats with Arondir cause social ruckus.
Arondir remembers when the locals fought for evil.
Bronwyn’s fellow villagers despise the occupying force leftover from a conflict no human remembers.
I don’t think Tolkien intended his elves to seem a tad fascist.
But unlike, say,House of the Dragon, this series also briefly takes fantasy-world racism seriously.
The humans don’t like Arondir.
The Harfoots fear everyone else.
“What have elves ever done to you?”
Galadriel asks jerky Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), a human running from a brutal past.
Foregrounding inter-species anxiety is certainly a new Middle-Earth take.
I worry it won’t last.
A dwarf-elf alliance looms.
There may be bigger things to worry about than, like, interpersonal relations.
What do we want fromThe Lord of the Ringsnow?
(Rings of Poweris officially “based onThe Lord of the Ringsand Appendices.")
Age only enriches his vast imagination; somehow Sauron’s All-Seeing Eye now perfectly summarizes the digital surveillance state.
You’d think a new tale would want to explore less-traveled corners of Tolkien’s wide unguarded lands.
AndRings of Powerdoes conjure the elves' previously unseen homeland, Valinor, in two embarrassing ways.
First, it’s a babbling brook where cute kids frolic.
Then, it’s a heavenly light ray pouring out of parting clouds.
Otherwise, the first two hours stick to seen-it-before places and boring situations.
Nori says Chosen One things: “It’s like there’s a reason this happened!
Like I was supposed to find him!”
Tolkien’s saga was anti-industrialization, which makes it hilarious thatRings of Poweris an Amazon product.
(Imagine Saruman throwing an Arbor Day party.)
D. PayneandPatrick McKayshow no instinct for pacing.
A big sea attack looks unfinished, introducing a massive threat that’s quickly forgotten.
A. Bayona finds isolated moments of grandeur, but the helicopter shots get repetitive fast.
Frequent cuts to an explanatory map are more funny than informative.
Amazon only made the two episodes available to critics.
Maybe things pick up.
New locations could feel less likeNow That’s What I Call Middle-Earth!karaoke.
Clark’s a rising star who was unfathomably freaky inSaint Maud.
The other characters are so lame I was rooting for the orcs.
that have proliferated through the streaming era.
