The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

One of the most expansive, lush and well-photographed projects you’ll ever see — a gorgeous, sprawling and magical albeit somewhat overstuffed epic filled with fascinating characters populating a world that feels like a colorful waking dream. ... Talented and good-looking actors (and many more) deliver strong and earnest performances, even when the dialogue is, let’s face it, a little corny and reminiscent of a children’s storybook.

It may take a while for “The Rings of Power” to sort itself out, by contrast, and get the forge fired up. But so far, pretty good.

The Rings of Power presents something familiar, but freshened up enough to make the visit worthwhile for established fans and Tolkien newbies.

Amazon's formidable loot -- enough of an investment to become an inextricable part of the coverage -- has been brought to bear in the service of relatively uninspired storytelling, deficient in narrative urgency.

The series marries what we've learned to love about contemporary fantasy, like Game of Thrones with its multiple main characters, with the depth and detail of Tolkien's universe. While there's still a whole season to watch, The Rings of Power is off to a successful start in delivering on its promise of quality and firing on all cylinders.

Whatever’s happening with The Rings of Power, it somehow manages to put a fresh coat of paint on what came before — plus its own delicate flourishes, which might evolve into something truly fascinating.

The first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are visually gorgeous, densely lived-in, and awe-inspiring at times. ... There is a big problem, though. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power might have a strong start, but its plot is laden with so many moving parts and far-flung heroes, it’s easy to see the story cratering. ... Without watching beyond the two episodes provided for review, we can only be cautiously optimistic — and skeptical of what’s next.

Lavish and sweeping, The Rings Of Power puts its money where its mouth is. It might take a second to get accustomed to these new characters, but the signs are that it will be worthwhile.

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.

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.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” flutters to life in bursts, offering reason enough to believe, with time to play out its own story and optimize its own strengths, the Prime Video creation could leave its own gleaming mark on J.R.R. Tolkien’s still-expanding universe. Genuine chemistry draws sparks of humor and heartache.

“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.

Let’s hope the whole enterprise gets better as the story reaches the middle acts and makes its turn towards the finish. Because I have to say, “Rings of Power” does not overwhelm, dazzle or sprint out of the gate.

The story is expansive enough to fill up the show’s huge map, and where its fantasy premises promise impressive set pieces, like a battle with an ice troll or ships sailing into the Undying Lands, The Rings of Power lives up to those promises. Its emotional core, though simplistic, is just as big and openhearted.

Great-looking but indistinctive in the early episodes (this review is based only on the first two).

It’s true, the pace of The Rings of Power’s first two episodes is slow and deliberate, and the show has to work to balance its screentime amongst many seemingly disconnected plotlines. But it’s clear that the show feels confident enough in the story it’s telling to allow its audience the necessary time to get to know its characters and their various goals and passions, before launching into the potentially world-ending stakes in their future.

This first hour is a slog punctuated by the occasional battle with a Ray Harryhausen-esque snow troll. The second episode, written by Gennifer Hutchinson (“Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”), proves more satisfying.

If you were burned by Jackson’s bloated, CGI-drenched Hobbit movies, this is the prequel the original Lord of the Rings trilogy really deserves.

While these first two hours read as a little dry, there’s plenty of promise in the robust world of “The Rings of Power”—hopefully, enough to overcome the stiffness of its prologue.

The good news is that the first two episodes of The Rings of Power are packed with eye-popping visuals, several vividly-drawn characters, and a sense of awe that was such a crucial component of the first three Jackson films.

With war brewing and the forging of the rings seemingly still far off, the first half of The Rings of Power’s first season constitutes little more than stage-setting for the struggle to come. Given the lack of quests and central commanding figures, it often makes for less-than-gripping drama. However, given that there are four more seasons already planned, and potentially dozens of new characters to be introduced, the slow and throat-clearing build is possibly a good sign.

The good news is that in its first two episodes, Rings Of Power isn’t just good; it’s stupendous. ... While the show takes its time introducing us to the world and its initial groups, there’s no sense of dragging. The plot is propulsive, which is not necessarily a term one would normally use to describe Tolkien.

The series certainly looks sumptuous and works hard to conjure the ethereal atmosphere of Tolkien’s legendarium. It has a sprawling ensemble and many potential narrative directions. But I’m not entirely sure what it’s about.

It’s fantasy writ exhilaratingly large, although at the start, what’s so impressive about showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s streaming effort (September 2) is its balance between the glorious and the vile, the romantic and the brutal, the euphoric and the despairing, and the grand and the intimate. ... It feels fresh and alive—and poised, consequently, to be the one that rules them all.

The pace, too, is a little all-or-nothing. It either races through astonishing action scenes, or lingers on a single conversation or meaningful look. But these are quibbles and, in the end, the spectacle wins. This is enormously enjoyable TV, a cinematic feast.

The first episode is dedicated primarily to world-building, exposition and proving that storytelling on this scale can be executed for television and generally succeeds, even if some of that exposition lags. Then in the second episode, the story starts to actually move along and there are characters and scenes that I found utterly charming in the way a show like this requires for long-term survival, even if some of the effects and epic scale diminish a tiny bit.

This isn't Westeros. Nobody's going to get their helmet lobbed off here. Instead, it’s a spectacle-filled return to a lovingly rendered Middle-earth that promises to deliver an awfully big adventure.

The invented exploits of the Harfoots and their star-man guest may drive purists batty. I don’t care; they give heart and a common touch to a story that could otherwise quickly become a live-action unicorn tapestry. ... A troubled, obsessed, Carrie Mathison-like Galadriel may not be purely Tolkien. But she is interesting, and that’s what “Rings of Power” will need to be, more than faithful, to sustain itself over multiple seasons. “Rings of Power” is spectacular on the screen, but spectacle will take you only so far in TV.

Adar’s début drips with signifiers. ... When Adar informs Arondir in Episode 4 that he has been told many lies, some that “run so deep even the rocks and roads now believe them,” it is still a thrill. Tolkien succeeded in creating a mythic world, one that has now grown vast enough through acts of typological repetition and imitation to conquer television, too.

It’s the most expensive show on TV and it looks like the most expensive show on TV. Is all the spectacle in service of a story that will charm viewers the way characters like Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn did for generations? The problem is that it’s way too soon to tell as these first two episodes are all about introductions and world-building. ... There’s a reason for hope in that department thanks to sharp casting.

The sweep and scope are in place. ... The Lord of the Rings had a single, simple plot: get the ring in the fire! There’s less of that here. The scene-setting keeps being interrupted by action sequences.

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.

Fantasy is a big genre, and there's room for both approaches. And for those who've missed Middle Earth and its inhabitants, The Rings of Power should feel like a homecoming.

The Rings of Power is a reminder of what drew many of us to epic fantasy in the first place: wonder. ... This series set in an ancient realm displays one dazzling and painterly landscape after another. Power also doesn't skimp on action. [12 - 25 Sep 2022, p.10]

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power is worth the wait: a grandly ambitious epic with stunning visuals.

The somewhat flawed series can't yet touch those impeccable ["Lord of the Rings"] films, but it scratches the surface. And if nothing else, the gorgeously rendered "Rings" is the most transportive current series on TV.

The Rings of Power, which was developed by showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne and based largely on Tolkien's appendices, is dense with exposition, but also manages to nail down the mystical poetry of this specific universe. It’s not clear yet whether the show can maintain this spark beyond its first two hours, or whether it will get bogged down by its own expansiveness. But, for now, it seems like The Rings of Power has pulled off the near-impossible.

For now, however, it’s safe to say that Amazon throwing the weight of its coffers at this property has resulted in a perfectly winning adaptation that unfolds swashbuckling adventures with clear reverence and affection for the considerable mythos behind it.