The Great Wave

I think, at the moment, the lowest point of the season, only the events in Khazad-Dum lift the fortunes of a bland episode without any major narrative thrust: the island of Numenor is rapidly turning into a prison for combative Galadriel and the (not surprisingly) diplomatic Halbrand. The obsessive attention to every single detail or prop is always incredible, and sometimes you almost forget you're watching a fictional product, given the realism and attention to the smallest scene details, but this time it's not enough. After over 1900 years a new war is upon us and everyone, apart from (some) inhabitants of the southern lands, seem to not care, reveling in their indolence... and inevitably one of them is the enemy in disguise...

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.

Character arcs started to bloom in earnest this episode. My reviews of preceding episodes contain more details, which is why I chose to keep this one as concise as possible.

Director Wayne Che Yip did great work here. Writers Stephany Folsom, J. D. Payne, and Patrick McKay wrote a superb script. Outstanding cinematography as well. Thrilling scoring, editing, and sound effects. Superb hair-makeup, costume, art direction, set decoration, and production design.

Queen Regent Míriel, played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson, was alluring. Kemen (non-canonical), played by Leon Wadham, was intriguing - a relatively new entry this epi. Pharazôn, played by Trystan Gravelle, was memorable. Eärien (non-canonical), played by Ema Horvath, was curious. Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark, was superb. Elendil, played by Lloyd Owen, was great.

Halbrand, played by Charlie Vickers, was portentous. Adar, played by Joseph Mawle, was notable. Isildur, played by Maxim Baldry, was good. Valandil (non-canonical), played by Alex Tarrant, was under-rated. Arondir (non-canonical), played by Ismael Cruz Cordova, was inspiring. Bronwyn (non-canonical), played by Nazanin Boniadi, was engaging. Theo (non-canonical), played by Tyroe Muhafidin, was great. Rowan (non-canonical), played by Ian Blackburn, was remarkable. Waldreg, played by Geoff Morrell, was excellent.

Vrath (non-canonical orc), played by Jed Brophy, was outstanding. Elrond, played by Robert Aramayo, continued to impress. Celebrimbor, played by Charles Edwards, was good. Prince Durin IV, played by Owain Arthur, was great. Princess Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete, was admirable. King Durin III, played by Peter Mullan, was great - another new entry, who would later become the first among the Dwarves to wear the mightiest of the seven rings of power that were given to his race.

All other cast and crew did noteworthy work in "Rings of Power" episode 4 now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

This episode, "The Great Wave", made me realize that I will never get tired of watching Amazon Studios' version of Númenor. We also received essential reveals for characters like Halbrand (heir to the royal Southlands line) and Adar (most probably an Elven-origin progenitor of the orcs). Speaking of, the orcs continued to impress. The writers lent them a surprising level of empathy, which I greatly appreciated - the orcs weren't always bad.

Some outstanding sequences with the broken sword of Sauron further enriched episode 4 "Rings of Power". Work also began on the later-to-become-legendary tower designed by Celebrimbor to forge the titular rings of power. They also touched upon the 'old mine', which hinted at a place where we may later get to see the Balrog. They did inform us quite clearly, though, that Durin had discovered a new ore there, namely Mithril - made famous in Jackson's trilogy.

Númenor's mysterious 'king in the tower' was revealed as well, and in its own right held portent aplenty. Before long, a Palantir (one of seven ancient scrying stones) was also revealed, thus imparting strong "Two Towers" (from Jackson's trilogy) vibes. The future of Númenor, as detailed in Tolkien's books, was given its own frightful highlight.

They also played Halbrand's cards close to their chest. His 'Hulk smash' style super-strength in episode 3 was apparently a key element to be explored as the show progressed and not to be revealed too soon.

The escape and chase scene featuring Arondir and Theo felt like an interesting throwback sequence to Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Frodo, and Sam's experiences with Saruman's orcs. Near episode's end, some enthralling hints at a 'Helm's Deep' style battle to come, and a stunning mention of Sauron from the mouth of one of the Southlands folk - enough to whet fan-appetites for days.

All these elements ideally balanced the fourth episode, which somehow managed to give nothing away while also giving a taste of things to come. This episode proved to be another superb one from Amazon. It shored up sundry foundations for the rest of the series to stand upon.

Since when did one week start to feel like one month? Asking for a friend.

After what I thought to be the weakest episode yet in episode 3, this one probably is my favorite. I feel like the show finally found its footing and settled down, I thought the dialogue was better and not all over the place. Most of the storylines have me convinced now, especially Adar/Southlands and Elrond/Durin. Have to add a word for Elrond/Durin/Disa, say what you will about the rest of the episode but the scenes involving any/all these 3 have been the peaks of this show, both the acting and writing have been the strongest here son far. My biggest question mark is still the Galadriel/Numenor arc but at least its going somewhere now and the storylines will merge. Also, it was nice to finally see some other version of Galadriel that isn't always angry or lashing out even though we still got our weekly dose of it lol.

Not a fan of the slow motion action scenes though, I think it cheapens whats going on and feels more like a dream or something.

Also, I like the slow pacing but to each of his own I guess, I wouldn't want more action just for the sake of it as there isn't much going on right now in terms of conflict. I'd rather have them set up those conflicts well rather than hastily rush into them.

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.