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A dazzling spectacle offers enjoyable escapism in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Harfoot characters keyart The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

By Tevya Turok Shapiro

9 Sep 2022

Amazon’s prequel series expands Tolkien’s works with the most dazzling CGI money can buy, bringing a host of new characters and locations to the screen. But its success has been marred by backlash against its more inclusive casting.

The Rings Of Power (TROP) builds on appendices in JRR Tolkien’s original novels about the fabled Second Age, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (TLOTR). The series begins with a short history of The First Age, the primal era in which the great powers of Middle-earth arose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UAUAuKNcU

One might have thought that a mega-production delving far back into the lore would have Tolkien fans ecstatic, but additions to beloved franchises are held to extraordinarily high (sometimes paradoxical) standards. So the reception of the long-anticipated series has been predictably complicated.

Firstly, there’s the expectation created by the record-breaking budget that is in the realm of a billion dollars – easily the most expensive series ever made. Amazon leaned into this hype by incorporating the ridiculous cost into the marketing of the series, a strategy which does attract more viewers, who assume money equals quality. But also leads to criticisms such as “it’s not that great for the money they spent on it”.

A production of this size will always be extensively watched – the two-episode premiere was viewed by 25 million people in the first 24 hours, a record for Prime Video, and crucially, two-and-a-half times more than its rival series, HBO’s House Of The Dragon, the Game Of Thrones (GOT) prequel, which premiered the previous week.

Fantasy feedback loop

An interesting phenomenon of seminal works like those of Tolkien is the feedback loop created when they are expanded or remade. Many consider Tolkien the father of fantasy; his epic books influenced innumerable works of fiction, some of which have become hugely popular. So now, with his universe being adapted as a series, it must either compete with or resist the influence of modern franchises it spawned such as GOT.

The early plot points of TROP are embarrassingly similar to that of GOT – a discovery in the icy north of a powerful evil, which most believe to have vanished long ago. TROP has also diversified its cast to match GOT’s broader appeal and representation. Amazon dotted the story with just enough characters of colour to both assuage the reasonable protestations of the whiteness of Tolkien’s Britain-inspired world, and avoid threatening the racists. In a universe in which practically the entire plot revolves around the cultural intersection of races, the inclusive casting adds a variation and fullness, but alas it was wishful thinking that any number of non-white good guys would go unpunished by internet trolls.

Lenny Henry as Harfoot elder Sadoc Burrows, Thusitha Jayasundera as Malva, and Maxine Cunliffe as Vilma in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Sophia Nomvete as Disa in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Despite a glowing reception of the series by many critics, the diversity of the cast and the agency and power of TROP’s female characters caused such vicious review-bombing that Amazon disabled reviews on IMDB, a review aggregate platform that it owns, and TROP is still down to 6.7 on IMDB at time of publication.

Puerto Rican actor Ismael Cruz Córdova has been receiving hate speech for two years as a result of being cast as an elf who courts a human. TLOTR films showed an elf-human relationship and The Hobbit films even featured a romance between elf and dwarf – an unlikely pairing which Tolkien never made mention of; but apparently a brown man and a white woman is somehow more upsetting and “inaccurate” in the eyes of certain zealots.

Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Ismael Cruz Córdova as Arondir and Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Outside of the inclusive casting, TROP is still in keeping with Tolkien’s traditional Christian values (Tolkien described TLOTR as a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work”). While GOT is sexed-up with taboo, banter and relativistic morality, TROP is fairly serious and presents a clear narrative of good vs evil, light vs dark.

The first minutes feature a conversation between a youthful Galadriel and her older brother about discerning right from wrong, a continual theme for her character. It could easily be transposed to a Sunday school.

Another obstruction to TROP’s success is the legacy of Peter Jackson’s popular film trilogy – big shoes to fill indeed. Amazon reached out to Peter Jackson, only to suddenly cease communication, possibly due to the enduring tension between Jackson and the Tolkien estate. The same way TLOTR borrowed its central themes from a great work of fantasy before it, TROP plays it safe, using TLOTR as its thematic bible to an extent that Jackson may not have appreciated, with most of the storylines having clear parallels.

Galadriel resurfaces

Just as in TLOTR, Sauron has been vanquished long ago but the wise protagonist suspects he may have secretly been preparing to resurface all along. This time around that is Galadriel, one of the few characters viewers will have seen depicted before. The Galadriel of TROP (played by a fearsome Morfydd Clark) is a powerful warrior commander based on a letter in which Tolkien described Galadriel as having been of “Amazon disposition” in her youth. Throughout the course of the series, we see her transition from headstrong fighter, punching through ice walls, charging into battle, and disemboweling snow-trolls, to the “elder stateswoman” played by Cate Blanchett in TLOTR.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Robert Aramayo as Elrond Morfydd and Clark as Galadriel in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Robert Aramayo as Elrond Morfydd in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

The friendship between Galadriel and Elrond, another familiar character, should delight fans. The young half-elf Elrond (played by a cheeky Robert Aramayo) begins as an optimistic herald, but he too transforms. Aramayo stands out as a performer, and his chemistry with Clark forms a landmark we can use to orientate ourselves amid the web of narratives.

Just as in TLOTR, we meet a handsome young hobbit who’s too curious for her own good and a tubby cautious friend who sticks by her side. The playful back and forth between the mischievous “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and the worrisome Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) is obviously reminiscent of Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.

Starting in a completely different time period involves a lot of setup, so these characters, familiar either in nature or name, are among dozens we’re introduced to in the first three episodes, which some fans have found overwhelming. The series also introduces several new locations, each one more splendorous than the last.

Production still from The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios Production still from 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power'. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

The scale is immense.

It’s no wonder that the teaser trailer was dominated by CGI pans of glistening ports, snowcapped mountains, and elven cities; for these locales are TLOTR’s most unrivalled feature, both in the literature and visual productions.

Dazzling spectacle

TROP is a dazzling spectacle. Practically every shot flexes its impressive CGI, yet it feels slower than Peter Jackson’s trilogy, even though each film was of legendary length. The early episodes, at least, are dialogue-heavy, using the landscapes to entertain us through the exposition and occasionally rushing in and out of an action sequence.

The magic of Tolkien’s races persists: the poeticism of the idealised elves, the charm of the halflings and their utopic lifestyle of abundance and detachment from the consequences of the real world, and the humour of the dwarves, who are somewhere between Gimli’s lovable stoneheaded antics from the first films and the overly cartoonish bumbling of his kin in the less nuanced The Hobbit films.

Elven characters keyart The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios Elven characters from 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power'. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Dwarven characters keyart The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios Dwarven characters from 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power.' Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Harfoot characters keyart The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios Harfoot characters from 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Image: courtesy of Amazon Studios

Still there’s no pleasing superfans, often desperate for new productions but determined that they not deviate from the source material to the required extent to keep things fresh. A TLOTR prequel was inevitable and yet its existence in relation to its beloved predecessor dooms it to some degree of controversy. Tolkienites might point out inconsistencies in lore and undeserving extrapolations, but for the many casual fans of The Lord Of The Rings, The Rings of Power is aesthetically astonishing and highly accessible escapism, easier to watch than the big players in new wave fantasy. DM/ ML

Episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are available in South Africa weekly from 3 September on Prime Video.

You can contact This Weekend We’re Watching via [email protected]

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Magazine

Fantasy feedback loop

Galadriel resurfaces

Dazzling spectacle