The Rings of Power – review

Many good people have poured their art and soul into The Rings of Power, and though as Amazon has made a conscious effort to disrespect the many fans of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I’ll do what I can to be impartial, yet I won’t hold back on my critique of the gamble that Amazon has taken.

The Rings of Power is the only Tolkien adaptation in town. $1bn – that’s how much season one is reputed to have cost – is a big bet. I’ve seen some bad reviews as well as a toe-cringingly positive review. I’m a Tolkien fan from way back – The Lord of the Rings being one of my first fantasy reads. I’ve seen the Ralph Bakshi version as well as the Peter Jackson adaptation plus Peter Jackson’s (rescue of) The Hobbit. Middle Earth, the world created by Tolkien, offered a world steeped in lore set in a carefully thought through cosmos; it reworks the mythology of the European peoples in a deep and satisfying way.

What was I looking for in The Rings of Power? Elves: ancient and wise, yet youthful seeming, and their interactions with mortals. Other primordial beings, in particular, the ents. The Undying Lands. The Lore. And depth.

First let’s zip back in time to a 1957 LOTR film proposal to Tolkien, put to him by an Forrest J. Ackerman (an SF fan) and a couple of guys with Hollywood connections. This proposal included renaming lembas as ‘food concentrate’ – this in particular seemed absurd to me – I read SF and even I can tell that that would dumb down the lore. This banal trivialisation of the carefully imagined lore typifies the sticking points in that proposal and is symbolic of the dumbing down role played by Hollywood. Tolkien shot such suggestions down and became wary of film proposals. Had Tolkien still been with us, I have little doubt that the show would require serious reworking to meet his approval. The appeal of Middle Earth lies in its distinct vision.

Now to what I was looking for and, as the show dwells somewhat on the elves, I will focus on them.

Elves

Elves are virtually immortal… age plus experience brings wisdom (even us short-lived humans get that) yet the film portrays a Galadriel behaving like a moron. To have even a sniff of plausibility, the film (ie the writers) need to get that, build it in and work the story around it; instead we’ve got an adolescent elf running amok – for ‘adolescent’ read barely sentient.

And what’s with a wimpy elven war party – answer it’s only to mythologise Galadriel as a super elf-tank – very tired storytelling and unconvincing.

Elvish interaction with mortals – this is down to the chemistry between Arondir (elf) and Bronwyn (human) and takes place in a settlement in West Mordor. The inconsistencies are multiple here – so for starters, Mordor is as far south of the shire as Madrid is from London. I’d expect those dwelling in Mordor to have a more olive complexion, unless Middle Earth skin pigmentation rules were different to here… unless, by the magic of casting, typical racial mixes from a cosmopolitan city such as New York or Los Angeles were, transplanted to each of the scenes – at the writers’ discretion.

So where is the narrative on what it means to live forever? Arondil has watched generations grow old and die; he should know them as if they are his charges or his children; instead when he walks in it’s like he’s a lone gunman poking his nose into the Township of Tombstone or checking out the City of The Twisted Knee. Here’s an opportunity for wise yet hidden dialog, or some kind of appraisal of these people and how they have come to be untrustworthy. So where is it? The elves show a little distance but that’s it.

Okay, so what could have been done? Here was a big opportunity to explore the distinction between High elves, Grey elves and Dark elves

High elves = Calaquendi = Vanyar + Noldor + some Teleri.

Grey elves = Sindar = the rest of the Sindar

Dark elves* = Moriquendi = Avari + Nandor

An opportunity for elven intrigue to get a look-in – especially as this presents an opportunity for elven intrigue – big opportunity missed. Ditto for the skimpy backstory of the humans under observation

There’s SF and Fantasy works which deal with immortality; try some of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long works or maybe Lord of Light or This Immortal by Roger Zelazny. A real opportunity for depth.

The Undying Lands (or Valinor):

There’s a snip of the destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor by Morgoth (aka Melkor) – a lore building chance that goes to waste. There’s also an opening scene depicting young Galadriel alongside other young and spiteful elves – but you have to infer that that takes place in The Undying Lands. As an aside, given Galadriel plays a key role (as a tank), this is the only character building and it’s slight.

Other primordial beings

A glimpse of ents plus an Ice Troll – whose sole purpose apparently is to be tanked by Galadriel.

The Lore

Limited really to a Sauron-Morgoth brand – a kind of ‘follow this mark and you will find me’. Leaving clues to be found out is… well comic bookish. Serious megalomaniacs are cunning and devious and work under the radar – they’re certainly not the attention seeking villains from a 1960s Batman + Robin adventure.

Then with the Destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor – this is an opportunity that went begging – the scene is brief and the why of this is glossed over. A pity. The lore so far is unconvincing.

Depth: yet to happen

That’s dealt with what I looked for and assuming a satisfactory result there’d be no need to examine further as the other elements would seamlessly blend in. The Rings of Power isn’t in that place, so next stop:

Casting: careless, laughable – why would there be racial diversity in a tribe of wandering hobbits? Same question for Arandir – or are we supposed to believe a race confined to the north western edges of Middle earth would somehow breed along apartheid lines – ie with no genetic blending?

Effects: wasted opportunity – Why would Elves build high rise condos in Lindon when there’s huge tracts of land in Lindon – that’s effectively what the show shows – so I’m guessing the writers’ imagined a kind of Hollywood with a few more trees.

Some of the story devices would hold more interest if worked better; eg the cow’s black milk – good idea but it was implausible that this would only happen when an elf just happened to be there. It’s like: the director told me to bring the cow here and then they’d sort out the special effects. Easy money, eh?

Fan Disrespect

It’s impossible that Amazon didn’t know they were going to alienate a significant portion of the potential audience. It knew and it decided it would do this anyway – after all, it might seem counter-intuitive to mention this but it is in a position to manipulate the ratings – which it has done. High-handed and arrogant, but leaving aside the lore, the casting, the effects, the story and the Big Brother style of manipulating / stifling reviews, is the show any good?

A: It’s the only Tolkien adaptation in town.

Recommendation 1: not for the Tolkien purist

Recommendation 2: it’s not awful but it won’t make a lot of sense if you’re not immersed in the Lore. If you are immersed in the Lore, go back to Recommendation 1.

Recommendation 3: If you’re a contrarian, here’s a chance to join in, but don’t expect to get it unless you learn the lore, and once you do go back to Recommendation 1.

Recommendation 4: Ideal for professional reviewers who often confine their review to the corporate gloss packaged around the film.

Rating. I’m not a purist but as a writer, I get it that a license to adapt needs flexibility… but in turn there ought to be a central, definitive version from which to stray… which hasn’t been created yet. This certainly isn’t it; it isn’t a story to last the ages, rather it’s a story that won’t age well because it’s ‘of this time’. And yet the story of the One Ring lingers – I’ve bought the books – I’ve bought the companion volumes edited by Christopher Tolkien – I’ve pored over the lore. The Rings of Power isn’t awful but it is unsatisfactory in too many ways. In street culture, it’s as if the front cover of the novelisation of the Rings of Power, depicting ageless elves, serene, wise and yet flush with the grace of youth had a penis and testicles scrawled on the front cover. At its heart this is journeyman storytelling hitched up to a budget on steroids. It could have been so much better.

5 stars out of 10

Conclusion: Amazon, in its wisdom, elected to produce a show that they it would alienate the fan base; it has handicapped itself from the start and will have to work hard to limit the damage it has brought upon itself.

Episode seen #1.

* Here I must mention that I miss my hot dark elf – Xolon – from EQ, but she would definitely not fit in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I have several works out there including Door Witch, The Tau Device, The Turning Stone, Silt From Distant Lands and The Slow Holocaust, so yes I know all about creating works and recognise how one can be inspired by the demonic genius of others, but I keep away from fan-fiction.