I am enjoying this prequel so far, though it bites off a chunk of a book if its going for Silmarillion origin stories.
It seems more restrained in story telling style than Peter Jackson's pull out all the stops and all the tropes of epic tales told in the cinematic realm. It's no less beautiful in its camera work and cgi. As a true Tolkien fan I didn't much care for the melodrama and overt sentimentality writ large in LOTR, or the ridiculous cgi that had armies swarming like pikes of fireants in a flood. Those elements were not necessary and detracted from the experience.
The series format seems better suited to the multiple stories lines, would have been better for LOTR and the severely stretched Hobbit.
It's early in this series, so I hope the trend continues.
If you liked Peter Jackson's POV, you might find this a little bland, but its worth a try at least.
Edit early October after 5 episodes:
Oh well. First two episodes set my expectations too high. It's a muddled romp through scenes with no overarching theme, and whether its writing or story editing, seems to assume facts not in evidence, doesn't offer any reason d'etre for the action, or any reason for audience to care about the actions of its characters with the exception of the dwarves and the proto-hobbits, and one fallen elf. Elves as a collective people seem to be suffering from adolescent existential angst, drama without much purpose, with the numenorians and all of middle earth a prop for their catty behavior. Chief among storyline weaknesses:Galadriel as presented is not a capable epic hero rallying her peers to her quest. Still worth watching out of disinterested curiosity whether or not the production works its way out of the mire its has become 1/2 way through. Not gonna be a bingeable classic.
At this point, best thing that might happen would be an 'in the middle of the film' 5th wall chorus of Monty Python Knights dashing through a scene shouting "Get on with it!"
It seems more restrained in story telling style than Peter Jackson's pull out all the stops and all the tropes of epic tales told in the cinematic realm. It's no less beautiful in its camera work and cgi. As a true Tolkien fan I didn't much care for the melodrama and overt sentimentality writ large in LOTR, or the ridiculous cgi that had armies swarming like pikes of fireants in a flood. Those elements were not necessary and detracted from the experience.
The series format seems better suited to the multiple stories lines, would have been better for LOTR and the severely stretched Hobbit.
It's early in this series, so I hope the trend continues.
If you liked Peter Jackson's POV, you might find this a little bland, but its worth a try at least.
Edit early October after 5 episodes:
Oh well. First two episodes set my expectations too high. It's a muddled romp through scenes with no overarching theme, and whether its writing or story editing, seems to assume facts not in evidence, doesn't offer any reason d'etre for the action, or any reason for audience to care about the actions of its characters with the exception of the dwarves and the proto-hobbits, and one fallen elf. Elves as a collective people seem to be suffering from adolescent existential angst, drama without much purpose, with the numenorians and all of middle earth a prop for their catty behavior. Chief among storyline weaknesses:Galadriel as presented is not a capable epic hero rallying her peers to her quest. Still worth watching out of disinterested curiosity whether or not the production works its way out of the mire its has become 1/2 way through. Not gonna be a bingeable classic.
At this point, best thing that might happen would be an 'in the middle of the film' 5th wall chorus of Monty Python Knights dashing through a scene shouting "Get on with it!"