leonhardwalhout

As some other people have pointed out this episode it quite a bit better then the previous episode but still nothing that will sell it to people who still have their doubts about the series.

Still some big adaptational changes. Most people have already made their clickbait youtube video about Dwarf woman and the fact that they don't have beards. I'm actually almost ok with this but it just gives me the thought of producers sitting in a boardroom discussing that Bearded woman would look weird and could possibly alienate some ethnicities/religions who would be offended with it and that offending Tolkienist would be a lesser evil. But whatever, it's mainstream entertainment and that just how it works so whatever.

What I found more vexing was when they told the story of Morgoth and the Silmarils and how their beauty nearly turned him from evil. Which is such a gigantic departure from Morgoth characterisation for no apparent reason. The Silmarillion makes it very clear that Morgoth only wants them since he can't create beautiful things for himself ("Evil cannot create it can only mock" as we have all had shoved down our throat for the last couple months on anything related to Rings of Power) and because they have the light of the trees in them, or in layman's terms he wants to steal the light/pride of the eldar. Whenever he sees something or someone else who is fair/beautiful he grows jealous and seeks to destroy/corrupt/dominate it. Maybe it's meant to show that Celebrimbor is ignorant to the dangers of creating someting of immense beauty/might which will lead to him becoming a banner (if you get this reference, I raise my glass to you) but still, since I don't know which direction the serie will go it just seems so wrong to me. We'll see if this part pays off (while it might seem strange that I just ranted like a lunatic about 2 lines of dialogue. But it really stood out to me).

As many have mentioned the scenes with the dwarves are a standout with some great acting and amazing effects and the southlands scenes are also good. Galadriel scenes are whatever and the stoors plot is a big whatever despite some fine acting. It feels way to detached from the rest of the series to actually make an impression. Maybe it will grow on me but for now it feels like a part they shoved in so they can have hobbits in the show.

Despite some improvements the show still feels average and with next episode most likely introducing a new subplot I'm afraid that the show will eventually lose it's focus.

Ignoring the inaccuracies to the source material (flying dragons (first dragons didn't fly and couldn't breath fire and when they showed up it was in a last ditch effort by Morgoth to save himself), Finrod surviving the second age (though Sauron was partially responible for his death as told in the tale of Beren and Luthien), Celeborn and Celebrian not showing up despite Celeborn marrying Galadriel in the 1st era while Celebrian was born in the year 300 second era, and the whole putting 2 stories that originally took place 2000 years from each other, Saying that all 2 relations between men and elves ended in tragedy despite the fact Idril & Tuor eventually sailed to the undying lands and Tuor being counted among the eldar). This episode does a fine enough job to start the show. It sets up most of the major storylines but doesn't automatically reveal all it's cards but it didn't really blow me away.

The acting was mostly good (especially from Robert Aramayo who plays Elrond), the cinematography and editing was mostly competent. Music felt a bit generic but I might need to rewatch it a couple times to form a better opinion on it, and the effects where mostly also fine (with the notable of a few scenes at the beginning).

The dialogue was a bit hit or miss. Tolkien's work mostly prides himself on his rich use of language and it's something most adaptations can have problems with (looking at you Hobbit trilogy). Since this serie has to invent most of the dialogue itself it could go horribly wrong if they used too much modern talk, overexplanation or too simplistic. And there were some lines that certainly had this issue (mostly the scenes with Medhros) but for the most part it was fine and sometimes even good.

Overall I would say that despite being a terrible adaptation of the source material, it does fullfill it's job as simple entertainment that most people can watch without too much difficulty. Shame for me but if they made the show how I wanted it, it would be unmarketable which it not something Jeff wants.

Hard to say what this means for the rest of the series since it can get better, worse or stay the same quality, but I'll keep watching and if it ever becomes terrible i'll stop watching. After all it's just a show, the books still exist and there are so many other things i can watch or do with my live.

I mean, what did you expect? There are a lot of things to like from a filmmaking perspective, but at the end of the day I'm constantly reminded at the fact that I've practically watched this story before. While there is nothing new about this when it comes to american movie, it feels strange to see it used in a relatively niché(?) genre by a well respected(?) director. If you never watched the original version and like musicals then you'll probably like it...