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There's lot of criticism of the actors, but could anyone do better with this script?

The problem we're seeing more or less everywhere is weakly-written female characters. A good character needs an arc - in the case of Galadriel, they're obviously going for the hero's journey, but if you have her start out infallible and invulnerable, there's no development possible and so nothing to invest in for the audience.

Contrast her with Eowyn, who had to overcome her insecurities and social role to become a warrior, and she ended up scoring a critical success against the enemy.

We don't love characters for their strengths, we love them for their flaws, and how they overcome them. The modern way female characters are being written is robbing the audience of strong and relatable characters.

Also, you have to lift up underrepresented groups, not tear down others. The troll scene showed 10 male elves easily swept away and then defeated by Galadriel without raising a sweat - that was an unintentionally funny scene and a missed opportunity. What if she'd given commands and gotten her unit organized and used sound tactics to defeat the troll. Which scene was more compelling, this one, or in FotR where a group of the world's most formidable warriors back up by a wizard barely survived?

Why dwell on this? Because Galadriel is the main character of this saga and she's awful - to the point I want to cheer for Sauron. I don't understand how anyone could have thought this was a good idea for a main character.

I'm not sure this is fixable - when you add this to the total demystification of the elves, who are supposed to be powerful immortal beings - and remember, Galadriel is supposed to be thousands of years old, not an impulsive 20-something. Because they're just treated like any other person. She doesn't have to glow like she did in LotR, but all I'm getting is a very unappealing self-absorbed person who I just don't care about.

The writing is head-scratching - was she going to swim all the way across the ocean, catching fish and rainwater along the way? Why not just finish the voyage and take a boat back? It's just so stupid - how did that make it past an editor, or anyone at all reading it?

A lot of the CGI is spectacular, but a lot of it is not. Khazad-Dum didn't look right because everyone was oriented toward the viewer, which didn't make sense - whereas Numenor didn't have this problem.

The costumes are awful, looking like cheap synthetic velvet with gold leaf pasted to them. How is this possible with a budget like that?

I'm really disappointed - this really hand enormous potential - the right story was chosen, but this project really needed people passionate about Tolkein involved. I just don't feel the love.

This show isn't as awful as some of the reviews paint it, but it's lazily written with no subtlety and fairly wooden acting, and it's also ridiculous. It's a mish-mash of superhero story and angels & devils, with a dollop of scifi.

For anyone who complained they were looking for scifi and got religious fantasy, the title is The Messengers. What did you think it would be about? The cover even says "When evil rises, good awakens".

Anyway, I suffered through the first few episodes because J. D. Pardo is so engaging, but in the end it wasn't enough.

Here's a review from someone not involved in the production.

This is an amazing achievement on an obviously minute budget, covering three heroes of the Titanic story that deserve more attention. The sets & effects are adequate for the purpose, and the acting... not exactly Oscar material, particularly the bit parts, but the Bride actor does a good job and and Philips isn't bad either.

This film won't appeal much to anyone with no interest in history or the Titanic, but if you are, it is faithful to the record and the actors are not hard on the eyes, especially the Bride guy, who is objectively beautiful.

It was a nice touch having an image of the actual Titanic iceberg in the background when the Carpathia arrives.