Almost five years after it was announced, Amazon Prime Video is finally out the first two chapters from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the platform’s most anticipated and ambitious series, based on the universe created by JRR Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson.
It’s been more than two decades since the director has played everything to the fullest that seemed impossible: bring the English writer’s epic novel to the cinema, while the industry considered him more or less delusional. But against all odds he succeeded, building that fantastic world around the work.
And in that heritage is where the biggest challenge of The Lord of the Rings: The rings of powerWhy it has neither Jackson nor Tolkien. The latter because the series is not based on a book but on appendices by the author, where he describes Middle-earth before the events of Fellowship of the Ring Y The Hobbit.
a huge challenge
Tackling the prequel to a franchise of this size is a monumental challenge, which is reflected in the budget of nearly half a billion dollars, for the first season alone. (Slight digression: was it necessary to put “the rings” twice in the title?).
Not having the author’s complete texts, screenwriters Patrick McKay and JD Payne took care of reconstructing the story and completing it with their ideas; huge responsibility that you can deposit them above or in the last of the subsoil. You will see as the chapters go by whether they were up to the task or not.
The direction of the first two episodes fell on Juan Antonio Bayona, who managed to maintain the atmosphere created by the New Zealand director; supported, of course, in battles, famous characters and incredible environments, such as the Dwarf Mines, the sea and the Immortal Lands.
On the latter point, it is worth noting that the eight episodes of the first season were shot in New Zealand, just like the original trilogy, although the second will be recorded in the UK.
Another aspect that helps maintain the DNA of the original films, is the music of Canadian Howard Shore, who was commissioned to do the same in the two previous trilogies. Working on Fellowship of the Ring Y The return of the king They earned him two Oscars.
what the plot is about
As for the storyline of The Rings of Power, much of it falls on the character of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), the elven heroine played in the original trilogy by Cate Blanchett. There are also familiar ones: Elrond, Isildur and Sauron, and some new ones: Bronwyn, Arondir and the hobbit Nori.
For those who are not followers of the saga (even if for some who are), the two chapters are available – especially the first one – it may seem slow and a bit confusing.
There are many characters in various windows with parallel stories that are, at the moment, disconnected. Although, to be fair, raising a story of this size, which could have five seasons, it can hardly be done at another pace.
On the other hand, the intention to contain the entire possible audience from the beginning is all too evident, which is understandable because not only the platforms live by quality, but a little forced. In the first two hours – for better or for worse – everything is there: action, references and characters for connoisseurs, a little romance, a lot for kids and a few gags, some useless.
Everything is given for you The Lord of the Rings: The rings of power be a hit: multimillion-dollar budget, the halo of a classic franchise and years of production. But time will tell, because as the first sentence of the series says: “Nothing is bad at the beginning”.
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christian sanchez
Source: Clarin
