The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power review — dazzling visuals, epic dialogue

Welcome back to Middle-earth, and by that I mean thousands of years back. It is the Second Age of JRR Tolkien’s mythical land (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were set in the Third Age) and Frodo Baggins is but a glint in his distant ancestor’s eye. In fact, hobbits are here still a tribe of nomadic creatures called Harfoots.

Luckily, elves being immortal means there are at least some familiar names from the past films, though they have different faces. Robert Aramayo takes over from Hugo Weaving as Elrond, an aspiring young politician and not yet the master of Rivendell; Cate Blanchett is succeeded by the luminous Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, now a young commander in the elven army. New characters include an elf warrior, Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova, and an intrepid young Harfoot called Nori (Markella Kavenagh).

Billed as being based on “The Lord of the Rings and its appendices”, Amazon’s $1bn new series (five seasons are planned) begins with a prologue about an ancient war between good — the elves — and evil — the ancient foe Morgoth. But, as we begin, the war has seemingly been won, the enemy vanquished. A reluctant Galadriel faces the prospect of relinquishing her quest to avenge her brother’s death. Meanwhile, Elrond is recruited by master craftsman Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) in an ambitious scheme to forge powerful magical rings. What could possibly go wrong? Sure enough, dark forces are already stirring. A cow oozes black goo instead of milk and a comet delivers a lanky bearded stranger into the care of Nori.

It’s more than 20 years since Peter Jackson (who had no role in the new series) single-handedly rejuvenated the fantasy film genre with The Fellowship of the Ring. Since then we’ve had two Lord of the Rings sequels and his Hobbit trilogy as well as the paradigm-shifting TV series Game of Thrones. So the first question will be: how does The Rings of Power compare?

It’s immediately evident that showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay’s Middle-earth is far more inclusive than Jackson’s, with a diverse cast across the species of humans, dwarves, elves and halflings and a more active role played by women than simply waiting to get married to Viggo Mortensen. Galadriel here climbs frozen waterfalls and battles snow trolls and sea monsters while Nori takes on the Frodo role of the halfling with an eye for adventure. But in almost every other way the first two episodes feel like old hat. The Harfoots’ broad comedy is family-friendly but unfunny. The po-facedness of the elves, on the other hand, veers into the silly, everyone speaking in an otherworldly Royal Shakespeare Company accent.

The visuals are pity-it’s-not-on-at-the-cinema dazzling. The world has an astonishing beauty, blending the natural splendour of the New Zealand locations with state-of-the-art visual effects. But the epic can quickly become monotonous: every line whispered or gasped, every entrance heroic and every panorama filled with glittering waterfalls. We could do with a few less crescendos and teary-eyed speeches, especially so early on in the saga when we don’t quite yet know who anyone is or what the stakes actually are.

No doubt a quest will arise over the full eight episodes, but so far The Rings of Power has yet to find its large, furry feet.

★★★☆☆

On Amazon Prime Video from September 2