Mr Wilson’s Review: Rings of Power

I remember first reading the LORD OF THE RINGS and finding myself scanning several paragraphs and skipping ahead when I found it got a little overly descriptive. Tolkien would often spend one or two or three pages describing a glen or valley or a setting. And The Silmarillion read like the Old Testament with lists of who begat who. And I found myself feeling it was often overdone. But I didn’t mind, as the epicness of the story is worth the trudge through that description. Many readers loved that exposition.

When watching RINGS OF POWER I find Amazon has tapped into Tolkien’s exposition and created a story that is character driven, mysterious, and necessarily slow. Audiences often hate book-to-movie releases because so much is left out. In this case, some audiences are mad because of the pace and the inclusion of the details, or the changes to cannon. Tolkien, I believe, would have preferred a slower pace and focus on characters as evidenced by his rich narrative.

As the multi-character stream story unfolds and storylines converge—and some eventually split again—audiences are left with a rich story ripe with hints and foreshadowing and links to later stories. In short, it is a thing of beauty but requires some maturity on the part of the audience. Many don’t have the patience for the payoff nor do they have the patience to enjoy the depth of description. They are like I was when I first read LOTR. Now I am older and appreciate the beauty and intelligence of the slow burn.

With that, it must be understood that Amazon has taken liberties with the storylines. As with any good book-to-series adaptation—which is a far better product than book-to-movie—the writers must make some changes for the sake of storytelling. To be upset about some of those changes is legitimate.

SPOILERS

Sauron is revealed, and it’s not entirely surprising that Halbrand is the antagonist. He’s been seen smithing, which certainly was a clue. The Stranger is some form of Gandalf. My guess is that he is a Proto-Gandalf and I suspect—nay, I hope—he takes one of his other names during this series. I suspect he will be known as Mithrandir, which would be my choice, or possibly the lesser known Incanus or Tharkun (as the dwarves knew him).

Technically, Gandalf does not appear in this age. This is one of the liberties that Amazon has taken. I believe they’ve done this for casual audiences to help build connections between this series and the movies. Should they have went outside canon? Maybe not to purists. But I suspect it’s a better storytelling device for general audiences and is likely to help build a wider fanbase. Too much canon may become too convoluted and confusing except for lore-gatherers, which most of us are not.

Even with Marvel, the cinematic universe differs from the comic book one. We have accepted that as a common thread in print-to-celluloid adaptations. I accept that RINGS OF POWER, LOTR, and THE HOBBIT are cinematic universes of their own, and I am ok with that knowledge.

In fact, I think Amazon made a good choice in brining Proto-Gandalf to us in this age. This story is absolutely gorgeous. Hands down it is storytelling gold. The pace lends itself to details that are in keeping with Tolkien’s style. In fact, I would argue this is more Tolkien than then movies.

The last two episodes gained speed and action that we needed and set audiences up for some thrilling RINGS mythology for many seasons to come. Embrace the LOTR cinematic universe and bask in this beautiful tale.