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LOTR: The Rings Of Power Series

GNC

King-Sized Canary
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
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The news is Amazon are remaking Lord of the Rings for their streaming service. For some reason.
 
I suppose a series could do a far better job then a movie, but I will not bother watching, I have the book, so no need for anything else.
 
I don't mind, I dislike the films because I feel like they misunderstood the 'feel' of the books in favour of something much bigger and brasher and more fighting-based. So there's always the chance that the TV show will be better.
 
I don't mind, I dislike the films because I feel like they misunderstood the 'feel' of the books in favour of something much bigger and brasher and more fighting-based. So there's always the chance that the TV show will be better.
You would hope so. But with how other high profile adaptions have gone recently they are upping the sex as the violence.

As you said neither of those fit with LOTR or the hobbit.

TBH I don't think anyone will be able to do a better job than that done by the BBC with their radio plays.
 
I'm not sure I could be less enthusiastic about the prospect of a Middle-Earth series produced by Amazon.

I have a suspicion that they sneaked it through under the existing licensing contract as the Christopher Tolkien was (said to be) distinctly underwhelmed by the Trilogy, so God only knows what he made of the Hobbit mess.
 
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I'm not sure I could be less enthusiastic about the prospect of a Middle-Earth series produced by Amazon.

I have a suspicion that they sneaked it through under the existing licensing contract as the Christopher Tolkien was (said to be) distinctly underwhelmed by the Trilogy, so God only knows what he made of the Hobbit mess.
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2017/11/christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-tolkien-estate-director/
it appears he had nothing to do with the tv show, i dread to think what madness we will get served up next
 
I'm a Tolkien nerd so will look forward to this Amazon thing. Whatever it is. And I'll enjoy disapproving of it, if it's crap.:wink2:
 
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As for Bombadil, he's certainly a divisive character but, by omitting him, Jackson also ditched the Fog on the Barrow Downs chapter which, I found one of the most evocative.

Will be interesting to see if the Amazon LOTR series includes that.
 
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As for Bombadil, he's certainly a divisive character but, by omitting him, Jackson also ditched the Fog on the Barrow Downs chapter which, I found one of the most evocative.

Will be interesting to see if the Amazon LOTR series includes that.

The Amazon series is based on the Second Age of Middle Earth, so no Barrow Downs.
 
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The Silmarillion is my favourite book. I’ve been reading it since the 80’s. I do really like LOTR but to me it’s the afterword of the Silmarillion which covers thousands of years whereas the main events in LOTR take months.

I’m neither here nor there on the Amazon Prime series. The Second Age is amazing, Eregion, Celebrimbor, Annatar/Sauron, the forging of the Rings of Power, Númenor…could be brilliant or — not. I expect there’ll be nice scenery anyhow :dunno:
 
A full trailer has dropped and it looks hideous - that overly clean, glossy digital look. That aside I don't really know what to make of the content, it looks generic Fantasy gubbins, with typical trailer cliches, no doubt shockingly expensive but we are inundated with stuff several times a year, if not monthly. I've only read Hobbit and LOTR, am vaguely aware of the wider mythology but that's it.


Mods: have started a new thread for this, now that there's an actual trailer. The discussion of this will no doubt ramp up as the September release approaches and I thought it might be better to syphon off this discussion here and leave actual discussion of Tolkien and his writings in the other thread, that said there will be overlap, so it might get messy, I completely understand if this gets melded with the other.
 
Looks terrible, sounds terrible, but I can think of one redeeming feature. It makes the hobbit movies look almost mediocre.
 
Ogdred; I feel your pain.

I want to like this.

But the Filums did not move me, (apart from technical admiration of the work that went into them, that and the fact they are unfilmable)

And I don't want to even think about the overdiluted stew that is the Hobbit.

However this is the SECOND age...the one in which all sorts of interesting things happened but neither JRRT or Chris wrote much about.

This will be Fanfic...and yes, JRRT did envision age later comers playing in his sandbox.

Its mere Fanfic...Like the Aeneid.
 
Looks terrible, sounds terrible, but I can think of one redeeming feature. It makes the hobbit movies look almost mediocre.

Now now, that sequence where all those CGI things that I couldn't recognise or care about ran at the other CGI things that I couldn't recognise or care about was amazing.

And all those bits where tiny CGI figures leapt about like dozens of Spiderman ninjas and hit one another flying or fell off cliffs with absolutely no consequence, were simply breath taking.
 
Just watched it.

Left me cold.

As cold as Galadriels hands with metal gloves on.

Come on! This is a person who has had traumatic and educational experiences in her life in Very Icy Environments...
 
The Peter Jackson version of LOTR is still an astonishing piece of work.
Every object was crafted in detail which essentially makes the props future proof should we all end up with 16k wallscreens.
The Hobbit was a tedious bum-numbing endurance test. I didn’t really warm to Freeman in the role.
If this goes along the route of most recent Hollywood productions - and it will - I’ll be giving it a huge miss.

I think the critical and fan fallout will be most interesting though.
 
I'm sorry to do this, but you need to see Amazon's fake fan response video (it's scripted) to understand what they're hoping to foist on the audience.

The video is unlisted, which means it doesn't turn up in search results—it looks as if there was some doubt as to whether to use it.

It's... unspeakably bad.


I haven't yet found them, but apparently the various Amazon regions have similarly scripted promos with different actors.

Astroturf.
 
So we can take it Celeborn won't be in series so as not to upset the people in that panel?

Can't have their girl Galadriel have a hetero normative relationship!
 
I'm sorry to do this, but you need to see Amazon's fake fan response video (it's scripted) to understand what they're hoping to foist on the audience.

The video is unlisted, which means it doesn't turn up in search results—it looks as if there was some doubt as to whether to use it.

It's... unspeakably bad.


I haven't yet found them, but apparently the various Amazon regions have similarly scripted promos with different actors.

Astroturf.
I have 2 HB pencils and also 2 2B pencils. Which are best for sticking in my eyes?
There are serious people who have studied Tolkien’s works at an academic level. Shame their work never amounted to the critique on a par of ‘Wow! This is awesome’.

Marketing fail. Chuck it in a volcano.
 
I have 2 HB pencils and also 2 2B pencils. Which are best for sticking in my eyes?
There are serious people who have studied Tolkien’s works at an academic level. Shame their work never amounted to the critique on a par of ‘Wow! This is awesome’.

Marketing fail. Chuck it in a volcano.
But those previous students of Tolkien were all wrong. It's only through the lens of modern Internet thinking can we understand his works.
 
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