My Precious … before we head over to Middle Earth, please be aware that this review contains many,many spoilers. If you have not watched Lord of the Rings:The Rings of Power yet, please turn back now!
If you’re confused about why you seem to have woken up in 2011 and there are Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones prequels all over the place, welcome to my world π Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the latest fantasy prequel series to make its way to a small screen near you and it is incredible!
Set during the Second Age, about 3000 years before the adventures of Frodo and Sam in The Lord of The Rings movie trilogy and The Hobbit film series, The Rings of Power explores the history of some of our favourite characters in their younger years. The Prime Video series stars Morfydd Clark as Galadriel (played by Cate Blanchett in the Oscar winning movies), Robert Aramayo as Elrond (played by The Matrix‘s Hugo Weaving in the original films),Β Markella Kavenagh as Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot, Ismael Cruz CΓ³rdova as Arondir, a Silvan Elf in love with a human healer, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as MΓriel,the queen regnant of NΓΊmenor and Daniel Weyman as The Stranger who may either be the villain Sauron or a younger Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen).The series draws its storylines from creator J.R.R Tolkien and his son Christopher’s works. Tolkien’s grandson Simon serves as a consultant on this prequel series.
2022 is going to go down as the year that gave us older geeks our youth back. That or somehow we are ageless elves who have lived long enough to see cinematic history replay itself.
Recap:
We are immersed back into Tolkien’s vast and fantastical world with a quick look into child Galadriel’s idyllic childhood in the famous Valinor and her adoration of her big brother Finrod (Will Fletcher). The elves’ happiness is short-lived, however, as the evil entity Morgoth laid waste to the once beautiful land. Galadriel and her people move to the far-flung Middle Earth and a mega battle ensues. Finrod loses his life in the battle, as does Morgoth. To avenge her brother’s death, the now young adult Galadriel takes up his sword and hunts down Morgoth’s Orcs, led by the nefarious Sauron, for centuries across the ruined Middle Earth.
While the entire world seems to be ready to forget the war and the Orcs, Galadriel is determined to keep hunting. She reluctantly returns “home” to the elves’ new stronghold in Middle Earth, to be honoured at a ceremony by the High King of the Elves and not listen to her friend Elrond’s advice to cool her heels and accept passage to Gray Haven. She naturally deflects before her accession and battles a sea monster before being rescued along with her new seemingly human companion Halbrand (Charlie Vickers). She is taken to the gorgeous NΓΊmenor where she receives a rather frosty welcome from Queen Regnant MΓriel and is immediately taken as a valued “guest” i.e. prisoner of the kingdom.
Elrond, far from being the withdrawn and stoic elf who stands in the way of his daughter’s true love in LOTR, is a celebrated and well loved architect, who the High King tasks with helping Celebrimbor (Charles Edward) to help build the forge that will eventually create the rings of power and the One Ring. He seeks the help of his friend, the dwarf Prince Durin IV, to help with the forge and their reunion is less than happy.
Meanwhile, our first look at the Harfoots is a gender reversal of the Frodo and Sam friendship with the young and adventurous Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and her best friend Poppy (Megan Richards) who come upon a giant stranger and it leads to some difficulties for our curious pair.
Arondir, who is not so subtly courting the human healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) faces bigger challenges than a forbidden love. He is kidnapped and forced into slave labour by the vicious Orcs and tries to escape in a seriously cool sequence.
Impressions:
For once in my life, I am relieved that having Long Covid fried my brain cells and f***ked with my memory so much that I have forgotten most of what happened in LOTR. It means I can enjoy The Rings of Power as a standalone series and review it on its own merit. I mean,I did a quick deep dive into how it all ties in together so I wasn’t completely blind going in.
Clark does a fantastic job as young Galadriel. Besides her resemblance to Blanchett (great casting there,by the way), Clark layers her performance with a sense of determination and grit that one can appreciate will eventually grow into the serene (mostly) power and grace the older Galadriel possesses. I am going to offend the hardcore fanboys here but YES to 2022 wokeness and allowing the female characters to be the heroines of their shows. Much like Milly Alcock and Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon, Galadriel is the focus of The Rings of Power and hers is the most compelling story to watch. Chafing under the rule of her High King Gil-galad (Jessica Jones‘s Benjamin Walker who I am LOVING seeing on screen again!) and her best friend Elrond (yes, the handsome Aramayo who played Young Ned in Game of Thrones) always thinking he knows what’s best for her, our girl is out to hunt Sauron who slayed her brother and butchered her home,no matter the cost.
The budget for The Rings of Power is $60 million per episode and it shows in the quality of the CGI. As the ship came to port in NΓΊmenor,the visuals took my breath away. Equally amazing is the underground dwarf kingdom,Khazad-dΓ»m .The illustrious attention to detail makes Tolkien’s imagination pop on screen.
In case you’ve missed it, there has been an almighty uproar on the Internet about some of the elves, dwarves and Harfoot being black. Oh, we can have dragons and giants but a black warrior elf and dwarf is too much for a few disgruntled middle-aged men living in their moms’ basements to bear? Bless your hearts!
As a brown geek chick who will someday soon have little curly haired mini geeks running around, I am all for representation in fantasy. As was the case with seeing an Indian woman play the lead love interest in the second season of Bridgerton,it makes me SO proud to see a black man in elf ears and costume in The Rings of Power AND enjoying an interracial relationship. Detractors should bear in mind that when the LOTR trilogy was released, actors of colour were not being hired for lead roles. It’s a sad reality but thank the Gods, Hollywood is finally seeing the light and all colours of our multicultural rainbow. We’re here to stay – f***ing deal with it!
Ok,I’ll get off my High Queen Elf horse now.
Theory:
Galadriel and the Queen are eventually going to become BFFs – after an unnecessarily,long-drawn out cat fight because ,while the show writers are woke, they aren’t woke enough to avoid pitting strong female characters against each other. Arondir eventually makes his way out of the Orc prison by killing them all like the badass he is. The Stranger will eventually win the hearts of the harfoot people and potentially turn out to be the Big Bad. Elrond is going to live to regret his eagerness to assist in the creation of the forge and consequently, the rings of power. We have five seasons to get to the start of LOTR so buckle up for a wild ride of epic battles, ill-fated romances and tons of magic.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power airs on Prime Video every Thursday.
