And that’s a wrap for Season 1 of “Rings of Power”

A beautifully crafted, long, slow simmer of Tolkien’s Second Age.

Definite Spoilers for S.1 and the Season Finale

Rings of Power Season 1 is a wrap. Since my original review, two eps in, has my opinion changed?

It’s a show that has been simultaneously wonderful, intriguing, and maddening. Let’s break it down.

The Bad — Too Much Time On Their Hands

Rings of Power - Tree Blight — Viewers, unlike Elves, are not immortal.

By having a “guarantee” for five seasons, it felt like a certain sense of time pressure was lifted from the creators. That “we have to get pulses pounding so that they will renew us!” gave way to “We have all the time in the world, so let’s not be hasty!” The result? Tons of slo-mo, so many lingering looks, and …

… well, to paraphrase Emperor Joseph from Amadeus, “Too many notes.” Or, rather, too many stories, too many characters. Lindon, Eregion, Khazad-dûm, Numenor, the Southlands, the Greenwoods … the Elves, the Dwarves, the Humans of Numenor, the Humans of the Southlands, the Harfoots (and not to mention the Orcs) …

Rings of Power - Durin — Sorry to leave you hanging, guys.

Stories came and went, and the viewer never knew what they’d manage to wedge into a given episode. Remarkably enough, even the Big Season Finale just left some of them dangling in the dark, not even giving us a passing look to acknowledge them. The family conflict in Moria. The fate of Bronwyn and the Southlanders. Well, folks, we hope we remember you when we do a quick catch-up whenever Season 2 rolls around.

And I’ll add into the “Bad” the delay to S.2. Given that the first season (even with COVID) took 18 months to produce, and that they just started filing S.2 this month, I expect we won’t see anything more until early 2024. Which is … damn. Even the LotR movies kicked out reliably across three Christmas seasons.

The Good — Gorgeous and Occasionally Clever

Rings of Power - Stranger Things — Stranger Things

That said, the last handful of episodes really did start paying off all the long, loooong passages in the beginning, and the finale split story between the Stranger/Harfoots and Elves/Rings was awesome. (Yeah, the Numenorean bits were fine, too, but very much played third fiddle to the overall episode.)

Indeed, given how slowly things had been moving, I didn’t think we’d get to actual Ring Forging until next season. Instead, it fit in quite neatly here (even though, honestly, if Sauron hadn’t acted, he might have done away with the elves altogether, at least in this world’s setup).

Rings of Power - Numenor — I would watch this show just for the visuals.

Which, thinking of all that forging stuff, causes me to consider the elvish forging equipment, which makes me think of the visual worldbuilding here, and what even its biggest critics have had to admit: this show is drop-dead gorgeous. Numenor and the Numenoreans are design wonders, evocative of what the West (Gondor) eventually turns out to, but with rich overlays of ancient Middle Eastern tones and artistry. Exquisite.

There were also, by the end of the episodes, fine setups for S.2 — we are off to visit Rhun (which is a massive blank canvas, so the Middle-Earth pedants will lose some traction), and Numenorean politics is about to heat up, esp. with Miriel blinded (and so unable to use the Palantir up the attic), and the whole “Only old-fashioned race-traitors like the elves” sentiment simmering under the surface. Speaking of whom, not sure what the elves will be doing, aside from maybe arguing over who gets to wear the Three (Gil-Galad might have something to say about that, as he did in the original), and clearly there’s more to come about the internecine struggle amongst the dwarves, even if it wasn’t even acknowledged in the finale..

The Okay

This saga takes fairly significant liberties with the original material. Even if you acknowledge that they could only play with the Appendices of LotR, not the actual Silmarillion, we have tremendous time compressions and lumping together of storylines across the Second Age to show that the story itself is clearly being altered.

But to that extent (and to the end of having a single coherent show, not an anthology across those 3,400 years of Second Age), I think they did pretty well. Sure, they ended up with Galadriel basically walking, sailing, and galloping from one end of the western world to the other (I almost expected to see her riding a horse through a landscape, that would then open up after her passage to reveal our favorite Harfoots hidden from her eyes), but it all turned out … pretty okay.

Rings of Power - three rings — Three Rings. Why three? Now we know.

Did it all make sense? Sometimes. Usually. The finessing around Sauron’s reveal and the forging of the Three, for example, was very neatly done.

On the other hand, the idea that rerouting a big reservoir of water across twenty miles of earthen tunnels to pour into a volcano’s caldera to create a massive explosion and pyroclastic flow that destroys the landscape but doesn’t kill everyone nearby, so as to create a “nuclear winter” localized landscape and weather system, perfect for orcs … well, that’s just silly, but it’s beautifully set up and executed and it beats any story Tolkien gave us about the founding of Mordor, and it’s a goddamned story about elves and orcs, so I can live with it.

Rings of Power - Two Trees — I mean, WARS have been fought over trees in this mythos.

I’m slightly less sanguine about the plague on the Tree and the origin of mithril and all of that — except, again, it replaced centuries of kingdom-building and elvish (and dwarvish) politics. A big goofy, but within parameters (especially given how arboreal health seems elsewhere in canonical Tolkien to be so damned portentous).

So, yeah, the books talk about the Istari arriving by boat from the West, greeted by Cirdan (who gives his elven-ring to Gandalf), and all of that a thousand years into the Third Age, not falling from the sky thousands of years earlier. But … whatevs, it kept people guessing and doesn’t effectively change the dynamic. (And despite utter confidence that that’s Gandalf there in the burlap robe, for a variety of reasons, I’m holding out hope that it’s actually Saruman. Or maybe one of those Blue Wizards who actually traveled to the east …)

Rings of Power - Galadriel Warrior Princess — Canon or not, I enjoyed Galadriel, Warrior Princess

As to whether Galadriel was a warrior princess … again, it works here, even if it’s not quite what our known background info would suggest. Again, adaptation, and, let’s face it, with the pacing problems the show had, having a damask-robed slow-motion Galadriel looking somber the whole time as she walked from grove to grove would be … damned boring.

In Sum

Rings of Power - Harfoots — Safe travels and fair roads until we meet again.

Overall, it’s not quite as Peter Jackson-mesmerizing as I had hoped, and it suffered from too much material presented too slowly, but I would much rather have watched Rings of Power than to have never seen it. I hope, eventually, to enjoy at least another season of it.

TV Review: “The Rings of Power” (2022) (two episodes in)

It’s a show that wasn’t needed, but it’s a show I’m enjoying so far.

All right, here’s the Number One Question that is burning in the heart of every fanboi out there: Was this series absolutely necessary?

No. Of course not. No TV series is “absolutely necessary.” And, honestly having lived in Prof. Tolkien’s head for nearly half a century, I can say that I would have survived if we had never gotten a visual study of the Second Age (as adapted and time-compressed for television).

That said …

I’m enjoying it

I enjoyed the first two episodes of “The Rings of Power.” The adaptations for “Let’s put all the exciting stuff of the Second Age into a single cast of characters that isn’t all-elvish, kind of like Tolkien did for the Third Age” are, so far, fine. I like the characters introduced, both known and unknown. And the FX were quite suited for a billion dollar investment/adaptation.

I can easily be a pedantic purist. But I also tend to accept what is presented to me and evaluate it for what it is, not against some Platonic ideal of the True Tolkien Story. Given the number of renditions of the tales that Tolkien himself did, that seems like a wise starting place.

The status quo we begin with is fascinating, and highlights something that LotR fans usually forget: the Elves are just as culturally flawed and personally prone to error as any random Human, Dwarf, or Halfling. In LotR, we focus on the top-tier Elvish Elders (Elrond, Galadriel, and, yeah, ~~Mr. Galadriel~~ Celeborn), or on the Elvish Super-Hero, Legolas.

But the First (especially) and Second Ages are full of Elves making horrible, monstrous, myth-making and realm-dooming mistakes of vanity and hubris and obsession. RoP gives us those Elves (including, ironically, Elrond and Galadriel), driven by their passions, their griefs over the First Age conflicts, their prejudices, their obsessions, their flaws.

That some of them (Galadriel) are correct in their concerns is not important. That they are not all spouting off profundities and hand-washing, mournful platitudes is.

I am quite satisfied by what we have seen so far, even if we have literally burned through 25% of S.1’s episodes in still setting up the situation. The show has a five year plan (they know precisely what the final scene will be), though only two seasons have been purchased.

Threads

There are a lot of threads in the air. Here are a few:

Rings of Power Players — I’m not altogether certain, after two episodes, that we have actually met all these people.

Galadriel

Those who know their G-elf lore know that Galadriel was kind of a crazy rebel in the First Age and (OMG THE FIRST AGE IMAGES OMG) she is still now obsessive over the threat of Sauron. (And, yeah, she’s right, but is right in a wrong way.) Who has rescued her and boytoy Harbrand from the ocean (my bet is it’s Numenorean folk, kicking off that whole part of the storyline)? What will Gil-Galad’s reaction be when he discovers that Galadriel has given a hard pass on his “gift” of return to Valinor? How does she end up getting one of the Three Rings for Elven-Kings under the Sky?

Valinor

In the canonical Tolkien, the Elves rebelled in heading off to Middle-Earth from Valinor, in sort of a Garden of Eden sort of thing, in angry pursuit of Melkor/Morgoth and the Silmarils. And, as I recall, those Noldor Elves were originally banned from returning for their presumption of leaving it in the first place. I don’t know the specific moment that Elves were allowed to go back (let alone the non-Noldors), but having it show up here as a “gift” that the Elven High King can grant is … interesting.

Elrond

Elrond is part of one of the two cases that are mentioned elsewhere in Ep. 1 of Elf/Human — the son of Eärendil and Elwing. Born in the First Age alongside a twin brother Elros. At the end of the First Age, both brothers were given a choice as to what heritage they would become. Elros chose Human and was the first king of Numenor. Elrond chose Elf, and stuck around for a lot longer.

I almost thought they were going to refer to that early on when there was the “Yeah, you’re not an elf-lord” thing going on. I hope they eventually make it clearer, because it’s a key part of what makes Elrond who he is, and also really informs his attitude toward his daughter Arwen hooking up with the Human (and distant descendent through the lines of Numenor) Aragorn.

I don’t mind Elrond being an aspirational flunky for Gil-Galad, because he was. I don’t mind the difference between LotR Elrond and RoP Elrond because it’s three thousand years ago. Galadriel had mellowed. Elrond has gotten cranky. So be it.

Durin

I trust that, unlike in Pulp Fiction, we’ll see what’s in the box that Durin and his dad look into. My assumption is that it is some of the first mithril mined by the Dwarves, which will in turn prompt them to delve too deeply and unwisely. Will we see the unveiling of Durin’s Bane (the Balrog of Khazad-Dum) during the course of this series? I am absolutely certain we will.

I loved the “living” Khazad-Dum, by the bye.

Nori (and the Stranger)

So the Harfoots fit okay into the origins of Hobbits that Tolkien gave us, and their elusiveness reminds me of his discussion of how, in the Fourth Age (of Man) they gradually faded into the background, invisible from our sight. Nori as the rebel who wants to see the world amidst the village that wants to stay secret and safe is not a new trope, but it’s done well here, with her friend/foil Poppy giving us the conflict externally that a book might do internally.

Of course, the key with Nori is her finding and caring for the Stranger. Who is he?

Sauron (as a falling Lucifer from the skies, I guess) is an obvious and ironic guess — esp. after the whole firefly stunt and its aftermath — in which case, wanna bet that those constellations are visible in, say, Mordor?

But almost as likely is that we’re seeing one of the first Istari — the Wizards — sent down from the heavens. Yeah, the timing doesn’t fit with Tolkien’s canon, and the Istari showed up from Valinor at the Grey Havens, but we already know that dramatic license is being taken, so why not?

Of course, if it’s an Istar, then as the (presumed) first, it would be Saruman. And, as my son said, it would all be worth it in order to see Saruman eat a snail.

But if it were Gandalf, that would explain his fondness for Hobbits all these centuries later.

I am eager to learn (or to see how long they drag out the uncertainty).

Arondir and Bronwyn

So there are a lot of folk who see racism in some of Tolkien’s work. And, yeah, when he deals repeatedly with purity of white bloodlines, literally describes Orcs as a “Mongol race,” and has various Arabic and African humans ally themselves with the Super Bad Guy, that argument (about a Brit who was born and lived as a kid in South Africa) is not too difficult to make.

But Tolkien also talked about conflict between the different races/species in Middle-Earth. The most famous was the conflict between Elves and Dwarves, but the disdain of the Elves for Humans was also there: short-lived, vain mortals who were easily corruptible in exchange for promises of power.

It is absolutely believable that the Elves would maintain an active watch and suppression of Humans who had allied with Morgoth in the First Age. And absolutely believable that those Humans multiple generations on would resent that.

The delicate balancing act of racism in fantasy is that (a) it presupposes actual separate races/species in the fantasy world, which is a legit thought exercise but also mirrors historic racist tropes that different human “races” are similarly distinct — that Whites vs Blacks vs Yellows vs Reds are a real a thing as Humans vs Elves vs Dwarves vs Hobbits.

(The same thing comes up in science fiction, as multiple species interact.)

I don’t know that Arondir and Bronwyn’s relationship is believable, to the extent that we really haven’t seen much of what led to it or what it actually is in the present. But it’s a completely legit thing to play with in this world.

Oh, yeah, diversity

When nobody cares about the ethnic background of actors in an adaptation of a fantasy like this, that will be the proper time to say, “Oh, all Elves are white, and all Dwarves are white, and all important Humans are white, and probably all Halflings are white” and stage that as an experimental art film.

Until then, I really don’t care.

In sum …

I’m enjoying RoP, even as it sets up multiple storylines that have taken at least two (and likely even three) of eight episodes to start progressing. I am curious to see where they are going. They have not presented me with anything that I cannot deal with, and I really want to see what they do next.

Movie Review: “Fellowship of the Ring” again (2001)

Twenty years later, I still love these movies, especially the first one.

Twenty years ago started three of the greatest Christmases ever. Yeah, there was family, and food, and presents. But there was also, year after year, a new Lord of the Rings movie.

Holiday planning in that era always sounded like (from my perspective), “Okay, we arrive in California on Thursday … Christmas is Saturday … so can we sneak off to a matinee of the next LotR movie on Friday, or do we have to wait all the way to Sunday?”

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring, the best, for my money, of the LotR trilogy. I mean, all three of them are good, but FotR hews closest to the original, and tells the best story.

I’ve reviewed the movie six times, but I want to highlight my latest thoughts, twenty years on. I love so much about this film — the visualization of Middle-Earth, Howard Shore’s stunning soundtrack, the faithfulness of the adaptation (with trade-offs to keep the movie flowing forward yet stay within the three hour range — a sad wave to both Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs). This particular review, I wanted to focus on one particular aspect: the second bananas.

The LotR trilogy has a remarkably solid core cast. Elijah Wood gives us a Christ-like Frodo, evolving from care-free hobbit teenager (equivalent) to increasingly tormented Ring-bearer, to post-war vet who can’t find his place back in the Real World (but fortunately has another world he can move to). Ian McKellen’s Gandalf is equal parts avuncular uncle, force of nature, and leader who’s read too many prophecies and knows too much of what’s really going on to be honest or comfortable. Viggo Mortenson’s Aragorn is the surprisingly reluctant hero with an inferiority complex (likely after having had his foster father rag on him for decade about how weak humans are). Orlando Bloom’s otherworldly Legolas, John Rhys-Davies unfortunately humorous Gimli, Sean Astin’s stalwart Samwise, Dominic Monaghan’s semi-responsible Merry, Billy Boyd’s utterly irresponsible Pippin — all are an excellent core that carry the trilogy forward movie by movie.

But one of the real powers of the trilogy, as seen in this first film, is the quality of the supporting cast, the next tier who aren’t the focus of the story, but who bring a powerful richness to it.

Ian Holm (Bilbo) has such great moments as doddering fool, twisted Ring-bearer, and ingratiating friend. He adds backstory texture to the tale, demonstrates early on the corrupting power of the Ring, and foreshadows the tragedy that Frodo will face. Thank God Jackson didn’t do a Lucas and try to CG-retrofit Martin Freeman (also a great Bilbo in the The Hobbit films) into the original films.

LotR Ian Holm - Bilbo — Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, careening between charming and very scary.

Hugo Weaving (Elrond) has the tragic pathos and elvish ego to be utterly believable as a leader who bears the bittersweet realization the strength of the elves to stand down their ancient foe Sauron is passed, and in being the SOB/sympathy parent toward Arwen in her doomed relationship with that feckless human, Aragorn.

LotR Hugo Weaving Elrond — Hugo Weaving as Elrond, who always looks like he has a terrible headache.

Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) is equal parts tragedy, wisdom, and spookiness as the greatest of elves remaining in the mortal lands of Middle Earth. As the narrator of the film (not the original concept, surprisingly enough), she provides a perspective and insight and sorrow to the whole proceeding. A lot of it is camera angle, slow-mo, and background music, but Blanchett’s distinctive, earthy beauty and smile play such a role.

LotR Cate Blanchett Galadriel — Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, mysterious, charming, tragic

Christopher Lee (Saruman) is certainly a villain. But he’s a whole-hearted one, and you can see where he’s been corrupted/seduced by Saruman, with the threat that if the most powerful wizard in Middle Earth can be so turned, what chance does anyone else have. Given that the other opponents in the film are scary, voiceless creations (Sauron, the Nazgul, the Balrog), Saruman becomes the able spokesperson for the bad guys. I regret losing his “I want to be a Third Power” subplot from the books, but Lee’s scenery-chewing largely makes up for it.

(Lee apparently really wanted to play Gandalf, and I’d love to visit that alternate reality — but I’m glad I live in this one.)

LotR Christopher Lee Saruman palantir — Christopher Lee as Saruman, who “delved too deeply” into the Palantir of Orthanc

But best of all, as I always conclude, is Sean Bean (Boromir), given a role much more sympathetic, less egotistical, than Tolkien provided his character. Boromir’s vice is his virtue: his caring for others, his willingness to sacrifice all in a monomania to protect those in his charge. He’s mentor and protector of Merry & Pippin, drilling them in combat, advocating for them on the ascent of Caradhras. He’s the man of action and protection, running to the door at Balin’s tomb, to see the approaching orcs (and cave troll), and grabbing Frodo when he’d run back to Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, and restraining Gimli from re-entering the Mines. He’s the voice of compassion as everyone mourns Gandalf’s death. Time and again, he’s the hero always at the fore, less cerebral and strategic than Aragorn, dealing with the immediate needs of his people and his cause … and, ultimately, he cares too much to not fall into the Ring’s seductive trap of power, or — once he needs to redeem himself — to survive the experience.

Tolkien’s Boromir is kind of a dick, if ultimately valorous. Jackson/Bean’s Boromir is the guy who really should be the hero of the story, and falls just short of the goal.

LotR Sean Bean Boromir hobbits — Sean Bean as Boromir, wrassling with Merry and Pippin, because he’s a cool guy and wants to protect the weak.

A 20th Anniversary view of FotR is a splendid way to spend an evening. To my son’s dismay, I’m willing to wait a year (as I did in 2001-2002) to rewatch The Two Towers.

2020 In Review: Movies

A look back at what I watched this year.

We watched a lot more movies this year than usual — though only one in a movie theater. That was due to the pandemic lockdown, indirectly — that we had the Boy home with us from college after mid-March, as well as my mom living with us for a number of months early in the pandemic, meant lots of opportunities and impetus to watch stuff, whether streaming or on disc.

Looking through my Letterboxd diary, I have 57 entries for the year (compared to 33 in 2019). Of those 57, 45 were rewatches of something I’d seen before, sometimes recently. 44 were flagged with a “♥”; 13 were not.

Let’s look at the best and worst (subjective). The links are to my Letterboxd review for each flick.

Films I watched that I rated lowest:

Films I watched that I rated highest:

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010) ♥
Julius Caesar (1953) ♥
The Avengers (2012) (twice!) ♥
Coco (2017) ♥
Good Omens (2019) ♥
1776 (1972) ♥
Hamilton (2020) ♥
Moana (2016) ♥
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (twice!) ♥
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (twice!) ♥
Zootopia (2016) ♥

Oldest Movie Watched: The Thin Man (1934) ♥

Only Movie Actually Watched in a Movie Theater: Birds of Prey (2020) ♥

My Movies of 2019

Some new stuff, a lot of old stuff.

According to Letterboxd, I watched (or at least recorded watching) 33 movies this year, 5 of them in a movie theater.

Of those, the ones I ranked at 5 stars (for what that’s worth) were Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and a rewatch of Fellowship of the Ring. There were a lot of 4.5 stars, though, and a lot at lower scores that I flagged as being a favorite vs being well-crafted (though the two are sometimes difficult to separate).

Looking forward, the movies I’m most anticipating seeing in the theater in 2020 are Black Widow, No Time to Die, and Wonder Woman 1984 — which probably says all about me you need to know. Other films I might see in theater when they release in 2020 (as currently scheduled): Birds of Prey, New Mutants, Onward, Dolittle, Eternals, and Dune.

Beyond that, I expect much streaming and disc-watching in the New Year.

Welcome to the Second Age of Middle-earth …

If Amazon’s Middle-earth series is going to be set in the Second Age …

Well, that really doesn’t narrow it down much. It’s a bit like saying, “We’re setting a series here on Earth, somewhere between King Tut and the modern era.” That’s sort of hard to build a coherent narrative around.

That said, there are two major story arcs taking place in Middle-Earth after Morgoth (Sauron’s former boss and a much more powerful dude than Sauron ever was) is defeated at the end of the First Age. The first is creation of the island of Númenor and the rise of the race of Men living there (who are sternly warned by the Powers that Be that they can do whatever they want, as long as they don’t sail west out of sight of their island, toward the Undying Lands, and you know how that story is going to end).

The other thing going on during this vast 3500-or-so years is Sauron, having survived the fall of his boss Morgoth …

a. … becoming an advisor and friend to the Elves, and advising one of them on how to craft some nifty Rings of Power, and, through charm and wit and a bit of black magic, cutting himself in on that Ring action: forging the One Ring that has power over the ones the Elves have, as well as others he then hands out like candy (“The first powerful mind-controlling artifact is free!”) to lords of the Dwarves and Men.

b. taking over Middle-Earth, except for some areas of resistance by Elves and Dwarves, but then being defeated by the prideful Men of Númenor and taken captive.

c. As a captive, becoming an advisor and friend to Ar-Pharazôn, the King of Númenor. Sauron’s the one who whispers in his ear that all those injunctions against sailing West are “Sad!” and “Unfair!” and “Fake Curses!” This leads to the inevitable Númenórean expedition to conquer the West, which in turn leads to Númenor being sunk Atlantis-style and only some of the Men who were “the Faithful” getting to flee to Middle-earth proper, there founding the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.

d. Having survived the drowning of Númenor, eventually launching a new war on the Elves and Men, leading to a Last Alliance between those races, which leads to the defeat of Sauron — for a time — while the One Ring is lost — for a time. And that’s the end of the Second Age.

Some of this may sound familiar …

(The Third Age which follows is basically a slow diminishment of the Elves and Dwarves and even the Men, in part through their own doing, in part from the actions of the rings, in part as guerilla warfare by a slowly recovering Sauron. The northern Man kingdom of Arnor is destroyed by Ringwraith action, the southern of Gondor is ground down by action coming out of Morder, the Dwarves suffer setbacks in Moria and Erebor, the Elves start booking trips to the Uttermost West, and so then we get the whole Lord of the Rings saga.)

So there’s definitely stuff — over thousands of years — that you could build a multi-season story around. The rise of Númenor , Sauron shenanigans, the forging of the Rings, the fall of Númenor … depending on how much they want to butt up against that Peter Jackson prologue, they could go all the way to that Last Alliance.

If you go over that long a period, you have very few characters that are around that whole time — Sauron, certainly, and the Elves. No humans, though, which means either zeroing in on a particular time frame within that period, or having an evolving cast.

The only other candidates might be the Istari, the wizards — but canonically they don’t get sent to Middle-Earth until the Third Age. Still, as Maiar, lesser angels, one or more of them could still show up in some role. It’ll give the purists fits, but that’s almost inevitable anyway.

You could zero in on one particular period, at the end of the age: the fall of Númenor, the founding of Gondor and Arnor, the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, the fall of Sauron. There are humans whose lives span that period. But that gets squarely into Peter Jackson-adjacent territory chronologically and narratively (“Oh, look, yet another Elves & Men vs. Sauron saga”).

Sadly, despite the desires of the article author below, it’s highly unlikely we’re going to see Cate Blanchett or Hugo Weaving reprise their elvish roles for an Amazon TV series. But the geek in me looks forward to debates over “who’s the better Galadriel?” and the like, so it’s all good.

Or, so I hope.

Do you want to know more?

Tolkien’s Art

Honestly, I’ve never cared much for Tolkien’s renditions of Middle-Earth — a bit too cute and folk-tale-ish for my fantasy tastes for what Middle-Earth should look like.* But I’ve always deeply appreciated that he made them, and they are very pretty in their own right.

——
* I was more of a Bros. Hildebrandt guy back in the day.

BBC Arts – Middle-earth in colour: How Tolkien drew his fantasy universe – BBC Arts
The author was a talented illustrator of the maps and legends of his epic imaginary world.

Original Post

Be a Dunedain!

A lovely mash-up of Lord of the Rings and Mulan.

Original Post

The new Amazon “Lord of the Rings” series will focus on Aragorn

There’s a ton of stuff you could do on the years prior to LotR or The Hobbit. Aragorn as one of the Rangers is busy keeping the peace in the North against orcs and the creeping return of evil, while learning / dealing with his heritage as Heir of Isildur. You could do a lot in that setting, with regular visits to Rivendell or even beyond, without affecting the canonical stories. You can also pull in a variety of recorded events over Aragorn’s long life — serving in Rohan, serving in Gondor, hanging out with Gandalf.

Plenty of good material there. I’m excited.

‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Series Reportedly Set to Follow Young Aragorn
Amazon’s very expensive Lord of the Rings TV series will reportedly focus on a young Aragorn, the character played by Viggo Mortensen in the film trilogy.

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“Bads is FALSE!”

False News works overslime! They reports precious, that most palantir news bouts us is bads! Bads is FALSE! Despites tremenders things we does with orconomy & all things elsed! Why does Sméagol work so hards to works with medias? MEDIAS WICKED! Takes their credantulas precious?

— Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) May 10, 2018

RT @realGollumTrump: False News works overslime! They reports precious, that most palantir news bouts us is bads! Bads is FALSE! Despites tremenders things we does with orconomy & all things elsed! Why does Smeagol work so hards to works with medias? MEDIAS WICKED! Takes their credantulas precious?

(Gollum J Trump is so much more enjoyable than the original.)

We almost got a 2-hour Tarantino “Lord of the Rings” movie

Actually, I’d be fascinated to see a Tarantino LotR movie, but this was the loathsome Harvey Weinstein trying to convince Peter Jackson to reduce his LotR ambitions to a gutted 2-hour fantasy adventure flick, threatening to bring in Tarantino or someone else instead to make the film.

Weinstein told Jackson he had to make one two-hour film or he would be replaced by Shakespeare in Love director John Madden, or Tarantino. “Harvey was like, ‘you’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out. And I got Quentin ready to direct it’,” Ken Kamins, a producer who worked for Weinstein on the project, told the author.

Jackson said he got a memo dated 17 June, 1998 from Jack Lechner, the development head of Weinstein’s company Miramax, detailing “a more radical, streamlined approach”, which would allow the story to be told in one film. This would have meant cutting the Helm’s Deep valley, having Eowyn replace Faramir as Boromir’s sister, the Balrog would disappear and Saruman too was on shaky ground, the Stuff website reports. “It was literally guaranteed to disappoint every single person that has read that book,” Jackson told Nathan.

Mercifully, Weinstein was convinced to let Jackson shop the project around, and New Line Cinema jumped on the opportunity.

Kill Bilbo! Weinstein ‘threatened to hire Tarantino’ for Lord of the Rings | Film | The Guardian

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Lovely, Tolkienesque maps

This cartographer is doing maps of the UK’s national parks in the style of Tolkien’ maps in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, etc. He’ll also do custom work.

A Cartographer Is Mapping All of the UK’s National Parks, J.R.R. Tolkien-Style
Yeah, we think parks are pretty magical, too.

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Why are we now getting a “Lord of the Rings” TV series?

Because Christopher Tolkien, at 93, has retired from his role as the (very, very strict) gatekeeper of J R R Tolkien’s literary estate.

I’m torn on this, because Christopher has been notoriously restrictive of any use of his father’s stories, to the point of their being choked off to just a few adaptations over the 4+ decades since his father’s death in 1973. Indeed, only 1960s contracts for movie rights, bandied about the legalsphere for years, allowed for the Peter Jackson movies to be created, for example — movies which Christopher apparently despised.

And that’s where the “torn” comes in, for while the Tolkien Estate has been so strict, it’s also thus prevented dilution of the property through a variety of bad adaptations.

It’s a dilemma — the value of the literary estate, indeed even the public knowledge and appreciation of the estate, depends to a large degree on how that estate can be further presented to new generations. But to do so runs the risk of creating something that devalues the property.

On the other hand, great works can overcome bad adaptations. There have been a lot of bad Shakespeare stage productions, and movies and TV adaptations, but the Bard lives on. More proximately, decades of third-rate movie and TV adaptations of Marvel’s works didn’t destroy the comics, and also didn’t prevent a set of highly successful movies being made of them.

Indeed, one could argue quite successfully that Peter Jackson’s LotR and even his Hobbit trilogy have reintroduced JRRT’s works to people who would never otherwise have heard of them.

Christopher Tolkien has done a remarkable job in curating and fleshing out his father’s writings, almost to a fault. If his passing the torch means that the world his father can be created can be explored by more creators, I think it worth the risk.

In historic move, Christopher Tolkien resigns as director of Tolkien Estate
It turns out a “Lord of the Rings” TV series isn’t the biggest Tolkien news of the week or the month or the year. Christopher Tolkien, son and literary heir of J.R.R. Tolkien, res…

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So, yes, it turns out there will be a (sort of) Lord of the Rings TV show

So much prospect for awesomeness. Amazon should be able to do a good job of this.

Setting this in the Pre-LOTR story era has a lot of possibilities. I’m assuming a more anthological approach — there’s a lot of material in the canon that would make for some great stories, but it would be hard to make a continuous prequel narrative of it without causing purists (or, one presumes, the Tolkien Estate) some serious aesthetic grief.

I look forward to hearing more.

Amazon confirms a ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series is in the works
Amazon is making a TV series in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ universe.

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A “Lord of the Rings” … TV series? Tell me more!

This is all way preliminary, but word has it that Warner Bros. is negotiating with the Tolkien Estate over an actual TV series (likely on Amazon) set in Middle Earth.

There are a lot of interesting ways this could go. A series that focused on the LotR could pull in a lot of details that got rushed through (even in the 3½ director cuts). Imagine 8-12 hours (a season) per book. We could get Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Mounds. We could get the loads of little details and dialog.

Or, alternately, we could see told tales from elsewhere in the Tolkien mythos — some Silmarillion, perhaps.

Or — and this seems the least likely, given the Tolkien Estate’s control over the material — anthology (by episode or season or multip-ep arcs) stories set in Middle Earth during the War of the Ring, or the Last Alliance, or other narratives. Stories of people who aren’t the Fellowship or Thorin’s band. Drama in Laketown. A heroic vignette during the siege of Minas Tirith. Refugees from Minas Ithil. What happened to those wizards sent off to Rhun? What’s life like in the White Havens, watching an endless stream of Elves sailing to the Uttermost West?

Lots of possibilities that long-form TV could allow. I’ll be curious to see what, if anything, comes from this.

‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Series in the Works
Amazon Studios has emerged as a potential buyer for the drama from Warner Bros. Television.

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"Lord of the Rings" by way of "The Suicide Squad"

This reworking of a LotR trailer with the tone (and Queen music) of the Suicide Squad trailer is not only pretty amusing, it actually, finally, totally makes appropriate use of Peter Jackson's Gimli.

(h/t +J. Steven York)

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This is the funniest "Lord of the Rings" video I have ever seen

At least it is if you've ever worked in or around an IT project.

(h/t +Doyce Testerman)

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The Harried "Hobbit"ses

Interesting video talking about how, essentially, the entire Hobbit trilogy was barely held together, plotting / writing-wise, due to lack of prep time for things like plotting and storyboarding and actually thinking about what the hell they were doing.

In other words, it was like NaNoWriMo, with a multi-million dollar budget.

Blaming a lack of time for flaws in a film is a hoary excuse. But it seems to fit with the problems that the Hobbit trilogy had, in terms of making bad long-story decisions in favor of making short-story flashy events.

What we ended up with is still a hell of a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but it made for a tale that is far too easy to rightfully criticize, and which tarnishes that vastly superior Lord of the Rings trilogy in its thoughtlessness.

Peter Jackson Explains All of the Hobbit Movie Problems
In a vivid portrait of brutal honestly, a The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies special feature reveals why the trilogy was a disappointment.

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Movies Out of Time

Some great work here of movie posters from modern films re-imagined in classic times by Peter Stults. Fun stuff.

POSTER SERIES “WHAT IF: MOVIES RE-IMAGINED” RE-CASTS MODERN FILMS
Designer and Illustrator Peter Stults is back with more movies re-imagined.

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A map of Middle-earth, annotated by Tolkien

This is very cool.

(Word has it that Christopher Tolkien will be issuing a trilogy of atlases based on it.)

Tolkien’s annotated map of Middle-earth discovered inside copy of Lord of the Rings
Map goes on sale in Oxford for £60,000 after being found at Blackwell’s Rare Books inside novel belonging to illustrator Pauline Baynes

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