The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime)

[Sr. Mints]

Tonight's the night, and we're gonna need a dedicated thread.

There was an article last week from Business Insider concerning the stakes of Amazon's Lord of the Rings and what it could mean for Prime Video going forward.

Amazon is facing a moment of truth as it braces to premiere the $1 billion "Lord of the Rings" prequel series, "The Rings of Power," that will set its future course as a streamer.

Amazon Studios, founded in 2010, has made its mark with critical hits like "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" as well as broader fare ("Jack Ryan," "The Boys"). But in the mid-'10s the tech giant's founder raised the stakes: Jeff Bezos wanted Amazon's own "Game of Thrones."

And, to put it in Tolkien terms, the company has not yet closed its fingers, Gollum-like, around its precious: a major watercooler show that lures global viewers en masse.

"There's no doubt that Amazon has had success," Rich Greenfield, media analyst at Lightshed Management, told Insider. "[But] they haven't had a culturally defining show. There has been no massive breakout where everyone is talking about it."

With "Rings of Power," Amazon has given Hollywood something to talk about. No single season of television has ever cost as much. On top of the $250 million deal to secure the rights from JRR Tolkien's estate in 2017 — Amazon outbid rival big spenders HBO and Netflix — it's been widely reported that the studio spent north of $460 million on production in New Zealand. Add tens of millions of dollars in marketing, promotions, and global red-carpet events and you arrive at the $1 billion total estimated by industry observers — with four more seasons planned.

The show is expected to be a hit, but if it somehow misses the mark, several sources told Insider the studio may face an existential crisis.
"The reason why it's going to succeed is because the executives at Amazon need it to succeed. If it doesn't succeed, there's going to be a big question from [CEO] Andy Jassy and the board," said one former senior Amazon Studios exec. "If we can't take this piece of IP and make it successful, why is Amazon Studios even here?"

"It has to succeed," this person added. "There's no option."

[ . . . . .]

I'm a sucker for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, so I was sold long ago.

[djsFlames]

Wasn't convinced by the trailer.

Hopefully the show itself hits the mark and inspires wonder in the same way that LOTR did.

[Finger Cookin]

I'd like to know what a five one billion dollar shake tastes TV season looks like.

[Fuzz]

Watched the first episode, found it, uh, not great? Looked fantastic, but the plot felt like a 3 hour movie with a load ripped out of it to get it to an hour.

[JohnnyB]

Thought it was pretty meh. There's something I really don't like about the makeup. It's like they're all in this medieval setting wearing a tonne of foundation. It's weird.

Also, the casting and a lot of the acting seemed very flat to me. Not much of the charm of the movies.

[Fuzz]

I laughed when they were on the boat. Yes. Sailing like normal people do, in full amour, holding our swords, unmoving for days(weeks?). The boat at the end of of LOTR was a boat that looked lie it could sail across an ocean. That one was just weird.

[White Out 403]

Boring

[Ashartus]

I certainly hope the first episode was just introducing characters and it improves significantly or it wont be worth watching. Beautiful locations but rather disjointed. I think trying to emulate the dialogue tone from Tolkien wasn't as successful as in the Lord of the Rings films either.

Spoiler!

Is Galadriel just going to swim back from Valinor to Middle Earth? If it is that easy why don't any elves that want to go back just jump in the water?

[CroFlames]

I'm gonna give this a whirl tonight. I want it to be good, but I just don't see how they can make it good by diverging so much from the source material, and what appears to be diversity for the sake of diversity.

I'm all for diversity, but forcing it takes away from the story IMO.

Will still watch with an open mind. After all, they spent a billion bucks on this sucker.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I'm gonna give this a whirl tonight. I want it to be good, but I just don't see how they can make it good by diverging so much from the source material, and what appears to be diversity for the sake of diversity.

I'm all for diversity, but forcing it takes away from the story IMO.

Will still watch with an open mind. After all, they spent a billion bucks on this sucker.

I don't understand why you have diversity as a potential negative and why it would take away from the story.

I think it's a positive. here's a good piece on it that was written before the release.

https://gamerant.com/lotr-rings-of-p...ity-important/

The fans that are opposed to the addition of diversity, whatever their argument may be, are completely dismissing the perspective of entire groups of people. Many of the individuals that are passionate followers of Tolkien’s works and the recreations made of them, have been fans of the stories for years- maybe even their whole lives. For those people, Tolkien’s worlds were a unique and immersive experience that inspired the reader to be courageous. In most cases, they even had a character, or multiple, that they connected to and saw themselves in, but being an almost entirely white cast, this was an experience that in many ways, only white viewers could have.

By making some of the prominent and respectable characters of the world people of color, or by fleshing out the story arcs of a few female characters, the Rings of Power writers made the world more accessible to a broader audience. Now, a whole new generation of young people, at a greater number, can watch this series and see themselves in the characters. That is the purpose of diversity in film, so that the immersive, connecting effect of the characters is not reserved for only one group of people.

Tolkien wrote a story that was relevant to his time period and that’s no different from what the Rings of Power creators are doing now.

Writing in any genre requires that the writer know who their audience is going to be so that they can write to the standards of that group of people. This is exactly what the writers of the Rings of Power did by trying to create a telling of a classic tale for a modern world. They knew that their audience was diverse and so the content needed to be as well. This is a very important factor in writing adaptations, especially with a story this old.

Also, it’s important in adaptations that changes made to the content do not take away from the story, but add to it. So far, the changes that the Rings of Power have made seem to abide by this but that cannot be said for certain until the series is released.

[CroFlames]

I'll take a wait and see approach. Like I said I'm going in with an open mind. I'm a huge fan of all the new star wars content and their diverse casts, especially the strong female characters.

I've read almost all of his extended works, and I mean Tolkien is pretty clear on what the different races and species look like. Description was his calling card after all. So diverging from that has me nervous that it won't be true to the source material, and to me, the source material is perfection.

So we'll see.

[bdubbs]

I personally enjoyed the first two episodes, though liked the second one better than the first. Dwarves are awesome.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

I personally enjoyed the first two episodes, though liked the second one better than the first. Dwarves are awesome.

Dwarves are some of my favorite Tolkien peoples. They are awesome. I love the LOTR movies and I think they are masterpieces, but there is one part that irritates me irrationally. The part where Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn are chasing the Uruk-hai and Gimli is huffing and puffing and says "I'm wasted on cross-country. We Dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances." This is actually the exact opposite of true. Tolkien dwarves can bear great burdens and march endlessly without tiring. Gimli would have been the least tired of the three. Dwarves are fearless and tireless.



This is my last post before I watch Rings of Power tonight. Don't want to spoil anything for myself.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

I personally enjoyed the first two episodes, though liked the second one better than the first. Dwarves are awesome.

Second episode was definitely better than the first. Hopefully the series trends upwards from a pretty flat start.

[Regulator75]

Nice seeing different races being represented in Middle Earth too.

The show isn't the best, but far from crap. I'll continue to watch.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Nice seeing different races being represented in Middle Earth too.

The show isn't the best, but far from crap. I'll continue to watch.

There's plenty that can be criticized, but to me it is a bit absurd for people to get upset about a few characters having darker skin or some of the heroes being women.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

There's plenty that can be criticized, but to me it is a bit absurd for people to get upset about a few characters having darker skin or some of the heroes being women.

Yeah, that's certainly not the casting problem.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

There's plenty that can be criticized, but to me it is a bit absurd for people to get upset about a few characters having darker skin or some of the heroes being women.

Why are you quoting my post? I'm not upset about any of those things.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Why are you quoting my post? I'm not upset about any of those things.

I was agreeing with you, not implying you were one of the people upset about that.

[direwolf]

The first episode took a while to find its legs, but once it got going I was fully on board.

Episode 2 was excellent. I'm excited to see where this goes from here.