|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
45
Mixed:
19
Negative:
1
|
Critic Reviews
The TimesSep 11, 2024
Season 2 Review:
If this can feel like a series almost drunk on its budget and running time, there is still the intimate, twisted dance of Sauron and Celebrimbor (Edwards really is superb here). It’s almost as if evil old Sauron is bending not just Celebrimbor to his will but us too, and in doing so, ironically, saving the day.
Read full review
The Observer (UK)Sep 10, 2024
Aug 30, 2024
Season 2 Review:
The second season does improve as it progresses. .... But old habits die hard, and The Rings of Power can’t shake its addiction to ponderous speechifying and thuddingly self-evident character reveals (one made me put my head in my hands as I watched). The frustration with those, aside from the obvious, is the space they take up in a show that has so much universe to explore.
Read full review
Aug 29, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Scenes featuring the long lanky “Stranger” (or Istar, played by Daniel Weyman) and the Harfoots are improved now that he is able to speak (though a detour into a second Harfoot village feels a little like homework). The Khazad-dum plot, in which King Durin III is slowly corrupted by his ring, is genuinely affecting thanks to a number of textured, moving and humorous performances, even if it reprises beats we know from earlier installments. .... But the show’s use of the orcs baffles me even more in the second season.
Read full review
The IndependentAug 28, 2024
Season 2 Review:
An indulgent belief that “epic” means every interaction must be portentous – and that humour must be eschewed at all costs. The result is like being on a mirthless rollercoaster ride: thrown around, spun upside down, but always wondering when the fun is supposed to kick in.
Read full review
The TelegraphAug 28, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Were it anything other than a Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power would be passably entertaining and there’s no denying its naff charm. It has the creaky quality of a cheesy Eighties fantasy movie – think The Beastmaster on a blockbuster budget or Krull with better CGI.
Read full review
Sep 1, 2022
Season 1 Review:
he first hour of the show — the series reportedly cost a record-breaking $58 million per episode — is little more than a series of action set-pieces with fancified language and British accents to make it all seem meaningful. ... In the second episode, the exposition dies down a bit, and glimmers of character do emerge, hinting at better episodes to come.
Read full review
Aug 31, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Instead of reinventing Tolkien’s lore, they reinscribe it in a story that reverently and expensively draws on ones viewers will have heard many times before. The end result could be timeless or tired. But in its earliest episodes, Rings of Power tantalizes without challenging.
Read full review
Aug 31, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The characters — including Elves Galadriel and Elrond, played by Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving in the films — are phyllo-dough thin, and the plots not much more substantial. ... The performances are serviceable but unremarkable, while the dialogue is particularly corny and inartful, with too many intoned monologues about the search for “the light” or the ever-vague nature of evil.
Read full review
Aug 31, 2022
Season 1 Review:
“The Rings of Power” is neither a disaster nor a triumph, merely television of a visibly expensive, fitfully inspired sort. It looks good, has a few charismatic performances that sell the characters and is all in all watchable, if something less than compelling — predictable even in the suspenseful parts, occasionally exciting and sometimes sort of boring.
Read full review
iAug 31, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The dialogue’s often clunky, with cod mysticisms. Tolkien purists will probably be equally aggrieved by the insertion of invented characters and storylines. But showrunners JD Payne and Patrick Mackay have taken a mass of material, originally presented as a chronicle with little in the way of dialogue or character development, and forged a compelling, coherent narrative that fills a mouth-watering gap.
Read full review
Aug 31, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Viewers hungry for Middle-Earth Anything could be satisfied, and I guess you could argue Rings of Power is no worse than all the other expensively empty genre adventures (Altered Carbon, anyone?) that have proliferated through the streaming era. But this series is a special catastrophe of ruined potential, sacrificing a glorious universe's limitless possibilities at the altar of tried-and-true blockbuster desperation.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score