Review of season 1:
I found all the racism and hate the show got discusting. I don't care if a elf is black or the main character is female. But what I care about is story, characters + development, writing, acting, cgi, dialogue, sets, costumes... And there is a lot wrong here
The good:
+ some visuals are great (eruption of the volcano), some city shots
+ Liked the beautiful scenery, places
+ a lot less cgi orks (compared to the hobbit) and more real costumes and makeup, I love how the orks look
+ Sometimes LODR feeling (orks walk with their torches, orks bow before Adar, landscape views, horses riding, some city shots
The mixed and bad (a lot):
- the biggest flaw is the STORY and the weak characters! Its so slow! LODR is so good because there is an amazing storry it tells! This series is badly written! Its hard to describe but for me it felt really emotionless. I didn't connect with most of the characters. Most of the people (elbs, nomenor,...) didn't feel like real living creatures. The cities feel lifeless. Its like a beautiful shell with no soul inside . The series has 8 episodes that feel like a prologe before it really starts.
Is sauron back? Yes we already know he is! Who is he? Galadriel chaces him... Hobbits walk, Elrond wants mithril., A stranger falls from the sky who doesn't know who he is... orks create mordor, the elb rings are made. Thats it basically
- it mostly doesn't feel epic at all (this is the most expensice Series of all time!). Mostly it feels quite small ( f.e. 3 ships sail to middle erarth, what a huge army,... I miss huge markets, crowds, bussy city places, huge Armies, many many orks, huge battles, more than 3 seconds of the balrog, more Valinor....
And I just don't connect emotionally with the characters. Most of the I just didn't like a lot and so its hard to care about whats going on.
They made such a bug fuss in advance that the writers room is top secret and many people give their best that this storry is a epic story worth telling... And what they created is a mess. Thats is far from Tolkins writing quality!
- Saurons sword thing is not used as a weapon, or a ritual. No, it's a key! Hidden in the basement of people. Opens a gate that releases water so that the vulcano can erupt to create mordor. Why was that not done when sauron was not hiding hundrets of years ago? He made that whole mecanism and then orks had to build a tunnel exactly where the elbs had there watchtower for years... They have eyesight like eagls... And why is he doing all that in the first place? He meets galadriel by accident on a float in the middle of the ocean. Whats the chace! Then he goes to numenor. Wants to stay but galadriel convines him to follow. He pretends to be a king of the southlands by wearing this little sign... For what reason? As soon as galadriel is suspicious, she finds out that he isn't... He fights Adar and the orks. Adar killed him first? Did he tell him to dig the tunnel before that? Then they bring him to kelebrimbur. He actually has all the good ideas how to create the rings. Then galadriel find out he is sauron, doesn't tell it anybody and he escapes to mordor... Its a mess. Was all that so he can learn how to create a ring of power?... Nothin is explained. What makes the rings special? Is it the mithril? There is tons of it... Is it the diamants? Nothing explained. Saurons ring gets his power because he bounds part of his sould to the ring. In LODR that ring felt so powerful and creepy... These elb rings not...
And to be honest, I do not want sauron to be totally demystified... I like it when he is eveil and thats it. I could connect with helbrand at all! And is sauron evil enough? With the old sauron, I connected the absolute evil. Hellbrand is kind of not evil enough...
Bad writing:
-why is the queen of Numenor suddenly blind? She saw perfectly after the eruption! Helped to rescue people.
-Helbrand is sauron, nobody saw it comming. Not, every dialoge was ambiguous
- Halbrand has a teribble wound, Galadriel says he needs special treatment, next second he gets up and off he rides on the horse. Mhm
-the sea is alwys right: isildurs mum dies drowning...
- how are the southlands called, Adar doesn't say it. No. A terrible writing apears...Mordor... Why? They really think that the adience must be super stupid! Thanks
- There is one rope that holds together the tower... Well build!
- Ship burns, isildur is in the water, nobody cares
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- How did all the people escape the tower building and get to the village without being seen?
- Nobody, Nobody could ever survive that vulcano eruption!!
- the dialogue: f.e. "the sea is always right"... Really blown uo dialogue where people say epic things but you don't feel.it (f.e. Queen of numenor and the captain in the last episode on the ship), why does the stone sink.and the ship not, because it looks upwards...
- why did the numenorians know where the village is and that its under attack? They just show up in full sprint
- how did they fit all the horses on these 3 ships?
- the "meteorit guy" lives with the hobbits for some time, nobody cares that he is dirty and filthy, give him sth to wash himself... He gets this filthy planket to cover himself and thats it
- the hobits are heartless: if you break your foot, they don't support you, they leave you behind to die. At the same time Noris dad gives a speach where he says that their main thing is that they are strong and stay together
-the balrog is awakened by a leave (never shows up again)
- how the old hobbit dies, they watch a sunrise, he tuns his eyes, he is gone, thats it
- the stranger / gandalf can suddenly talk fluently in the last episode
- I am not the biggest fan of the color grading and the colourful look the show often has. LODR was more dark and less colorfull
- main characters don't devellop a lot, they stay flat (galadriel!)
- love storry doesn't feel real and forced (elb and woman)
- why did sauron love galadriel? She hates everything about him...
- some character I didn't like (theo) AND Galadriel. She tells Adar I will kill every one of your children, she is just not likable st all!
- the range of emotional expression is mostly staring. Galadriel always has the same facial expression
- Citys like Numenor doesn't feel real, there are just a view places they show. No huge crowds. No places that make the city alive...
- sometimes I couldn't beleave how bad the cgi looks: when the queen of numenor has her vision of numenor apocalypse and the waves coming is... pfui.
- everythong feels.so.small. No crowds, the amount of people.in battles....
- the warg looked like the hyena form lion king, I could not supress my laughter
- slow mo is used far to often! Slow mo fight scenes, slow mo horse riding, slow mo entering a ship, slow mo dying...
The show is kind of ok if you are generous but I am super disappointed. I really love LODR (watch all 3 movies every year) and this felt heartless and didn't catch me.
Ps. This should have been a highlight of the year but i forgot.aboit it already.
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