‘Rings of Power’ Thrives on Detailed World Building and Gorgeous Imagery

A Tolkien scholar I am not. Nor am I a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings series. And you can have your Hobbit.

So, now that the Tolkien devotees are dispensed with, welcome those of you curious as to whether or not causal or Rings/Hobbit-agnostic viewers will enjoy Amazon Studio’s massive new fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Bottom line: if you’re a fan of epic scale, of gorgeous cinematography, or of intricately detailed world building, then you’re going to find a lot to like about Rings of Power as it is all of those things and more.

Rings of Power takes place several thousand years before the events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies with which we’re most accustomed. The intent is to illustrate the dissolution between the elvish alliance with humans, the creation of the infamous rings, and the rise of Sauron. While much of that is documented in various locations within Tolkien’s writing, it’s not a story known to causal audiences, so it makes sense that Amazon Studios would bet so heavily on this project. Yes, it’s a prequel (and I generally dislike prequels), but it looks to hold more than enough content to avoid any sense of deja vu.

The first two episodes I’ve screened I’ll admit to receiving on a pure stylistic level. The various Middle Earth and so forth locations are lovingly rendered and intricately detailed. With lush cinematography and stirring music, it’s the kind of series that would inspire viewers to again travel around the world to walk in the footsteps of its characters. You can tell the filmmakers and crafts teams poured their hearts and souls into creating this series, and it achieves what I assume to be a very difficult task. It manages to appear familiar to those accustomed to the original films while still offering a sense of the new. It’s likely to be a top contender in next year’s Creative Arts categories, perhaps even besting the incredibly hot House of the Dragon thanks to its more universal approach to its world.

While I enjoyed the series as a Tolkien neophyte, it did feel at times as if I were reading a book in French. Hear me out on this one. I once was fluent in French. I could hear the language without translating it word for word in my head. Yet, over time, I’ve fallen out of practice and eventually deteriorated to the level of a high school freshman. Ok, maybe not that bad, but not nearly as fluent as I once was. Watching Rings of Power felt like I was trying to watch something in French, but I was only catching every other word. I wandered through the series hearing phrases, seeing artifacts, and visiting locations that I’m convinced I should have known. I had memories and echoes of similar names and events from Lord of the Rings. They just remained beyond my grasp, and it felt unsettling to me at times. I made the determination to buckle down and go for the ride, yet there is the feeling that I would appreciate the series far more had I understood more of the central Tolkien mythology.

The varied stories as presented over the first two episodes are all compelling. There are a lot of characters in the series, but I won’t go into each and every subplot. I would, however, argue that there are really three main storylines. If there is a lead character, then it’s a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) whose role as an elvish warrior puts her into a leadership position to potentially avoid the impending doom of Sauron that we all know is coming even if other elves belittle her fears. Then, there is Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) another elf who roams the countryside looking for leftover orcs or other monsters. He also holds a forbidden love for human healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi). Finally, there are the Harfoots, another type of Hobbit. The focal points there are Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and her friend who strongly resemble Elijah Wood and Sean Astin from the original trilogy. By the end of the second episode, we’re well established with these characters, and the storylines surrounding them are compelling enough to warrant revisiting them in future episodes.

I’ll just fully admit that Tolkien’s broad and intricate mythology just isn’t for me. I respect and admire the filmmaking behind Rings of Power and recommend it for certain. I just can’t escape the feeling that it would resonate more with me had I understood more of the backstory, history, and characters depicted within the series. Is it a flaw that I feel this way? I’m not ready to say that just yet. I’ve only seen two episodes, so it may all become very clear as the series continues. It would be premature to start comparisons against House of the Dragon (as another fantasy prequel series) because I’ve not seen enough of Rings yet.

But what I have seen makes me feel like I’m at a dance party, and I don’t know any of the moves.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drops two episodes on Friday, September 2.