The Great Wave

4th episode in we are treated to some serious bad writing and even worse execution of the bad writing.

This episode really made me wonder if the writers even read any Tolkien at all. I could be wrong but I feel at the end Amazon is going to regret not getting Peter Jackson involved.

On the plus side the orcs look pretty cool and the cinematography is more than adequate. CGI looks above average as well. But the script is weak and drags on. There are also more useless, annoying characters introduced in this episode and dull filler material. Yes, only 4 episodes in and already we have an episode comprised of filler material.

Still going to keep watching.

Episode 4 of Rings of Power is actually pretty great, for the most part. Like previous episodes, the dialogue and acting is very average and the story is muddled and confused. We are now 4 episodes in - 4 hours of screentime and yet the story is still barely progressing, I feel like at times I'm watching something pointless.

That being said, there is a lot to like in this episode, for one - the music. Bear has composed a great soundtrack for the series as a whole, but it isn't more present than it is here. There are truly some fantastic themes throughout this episode. The visuals are amazing, as usual but the standout has to be the story within Khazad-dûm. Elrond and Durin have a very good on screen friendship and both actors play well off each other. Disa is also entertaining, even though I haven't been fond of the actress during the marketing of the series. Every scene that takes place within Khazad-dûm was great and I would rather see an hour of just that than everything else that took place elsewhere in the story.

Like the past 3 episodes the characters are still what drag this down. Despite me being able to look past all the lore breaking nonesense the series has been doing so far. The Arondir and Bronwyn relationship is still as bland as it was in episode 2, Galadriel is still a grumpy college student. The problem with this show is that they are trying to balance too many characters at once. They have invented all these new characters, when they should have been focusing on the central ones, top give us time with them. We have seen them for 4 hours now, and only 3 are even remotely interesting.

I will keep up hope that the series will get better, despite this being a pretty solid episode. Maybe in the future of this series does get a season 2, they will vastly improve on everything that has made season 1 poor.

6.5/10.

So let me say that the CGI is very good, at least for the Númenor and Khazad-dum part. Costumes are also excellent. But you can see that most of the money is spent to CGI+other supportive equipments but not screenwriting.

1) There is a time-lapse scene for the Elrond-Durin part, but the screenwriting is so terrible, most of the viewers will get confused. You have to tell the story way more better than this.

2) You literally left the village couple days ago. Dude, you really didn't take any food with you, Jesus. Such a bad writing!

3) I won't mention Galadriel's part again, she looks like an immature human, not one of the greatest elves alive.

There are other bad parts, but I won't take my time to mention them. You do not have to respect original LOTR lore, you can always write something new, if you are talented enough! This show reminds me the last season of Game of Thrones, where screenwriting was terrible since there was no book to look at!

Ive never written a review before, nor will I again probably.

Ive read the books twice for my own pleasure and once for three sons. I love LOTR but Im no die hard.

The first three episodes have been a bit of a slow burn, but interesting at the very least. Such is the requirement for character development, contrary to the ensemble of hate spitters Ive heard over the past year.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Was it perfect? No. But can you name a previous entry that was? They are all invariably flawed but thoroughly enjoyable. As was this. Kudos.

Lets end the venemous keyboard warriors..

The first four episodes feels more like a prologue for what is to come. In my belief, I think episode 5 will be the actual beginning of the show - like reading the first chapter of a book after reading the prologue.

In this episode we have more of the same: Galadriel still brooding about in Númenor - but all that is about to change. Arondir will be released with an ultimatum for the people with Bronwyn. Elrond will uncover a secret of the dwarves.

Over all a pretty good episode that fills in gaps and leads us well into the story with a cliffhanger of great size. I'm looking forward to episode 5 - I'll be tuning in next week.

7.5/10.