DAVID ADAMS watches the first couple of episodes of ‘The Rings of Power’…
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
In a Word: Lavish
Benjamin Walker (High King Gil-galad), Morfydd Clark (Galadriel), Robert Aramayo (Elrond) star in The Rings of Power. PICTURE: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video.
Launched amid much fanfare on Amazon’s Prime Video this week, The Rings of Power – said to be the most expensive TV series ever made – is a beautiful, atmospheric and sufficiently complex re-entry into JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
“Atmospheric and supported by a beautiful soundtrack by Bear McCreary, The Rings of Power does a great job of colouring in the bare bones of what Tolkien wrote about this prior age in The Lord of the Rings and its appendices without, at least in the first couple of episodes, making any overly dramatic moves at odds with the spirit of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.”
Set in the “Second Age”, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Rings of Power revisits the world depicted on the screen in Peter Jackson’s films and follows several different narrative strands centred on individuals, some of whose names will be familiar and others which won’t, as it tells a bigger story of a menacing darkness returning to the world after being banished following an epic ancient war with the elves.
We meet younger versions of the elves Galadrial (played by Morfydd Clark) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) along with new faces including the elves Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), the dwarven prince Durin (Owain Arthur), the hobbit-like harfoot Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and human healer Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi). There’s also a mysterious stranger, played by Daniel Weyman, whose identity is yet to be revealed.
Atmospheric and supported by a beautiful soundtrack by Bear McCreary, The Rings of Power does a great job of colouring in the bare bones of what Tolkien wrote about this prior age in The Lord of the Rings and its appendices without, at least in the first couple of episodes, making any overly dramatic moves at odds with the spirit of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.
One to savour for the fans and while you’ll certainly get more out of it having watched the previous films (or, indeed, gasp!, having read the books), it also works as a stand-alone story for those for whom this may be the first time they’ve stepped into Middle-earth. Looking forward to the next episodes.
