Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Reviews Are In And They Are Practically One-Sided
Will we agree?
Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is almost here and the reviews are coming in. With the first two episodes ready to drop this Thursday, the critics seem to be mostly saying the same thing: The Rings of Power is potentially great, but it’s not quite there yet.
With a wonderful critics’ rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, the Rings of Power reviews are unsurprisingly mostly positive. Words like “ambitious”, “gorgeous”, and “jaw-dropping” litter the early assessments of the first two episodes. Still, the optimism in the reviewers’ text is almost universally cautious. It is perhaps best summed up by RogerEbert.com‘s Clint Worthington who writes that “its lush production design and the promise of five seasons to tell its story makes me think there’s potential in this adventure—even if we can’t see it yet.”
This seems to be the general consensus so far among the Rings of Power reviews. On one hand, all the critics adore the show’s visuals. Inverse‘s Alex Welch delivers the high praise that the show’s visual effects leave it feeling “no less inviting or lived-in” than those of Jackson’s adaptations. Shakefire’s Matt Rodriguez draws attention to its “gorgeous set production” and David Opie of Digital Spy insists the show “deserves to be seen on the big screen instead of on your phone.”
On the other hand, many of the positive Rings of Power reviews express the sense that something they can’t quite put their finger on was missing. Writing for the News-Herald, Mark Meszoros says the first two episodes of the Tolkien series are “intriguing but not quite engrossing.” Kate Sánchez of But Why Tho? writes that the series “may not be epic but it is good, even if it isn’t hitting the high bar set for the world.” At ComicBook.com, Jamie Lovett speaks to the show’s potential when he writes that it has “good bones.” He likewise praises the “strong cast,” the action which he calls “stellar,” and the “interesting” plots. Still, he has reservations. “I was left wanting something more,” Lovett writes. “I don’t want to be interested, I want to be excited.”
Overall it seems the Rings of Power reviews are showing that–good, bad, or anything in between–the series finds itself wrestling with the legacy of Peter Jackson’s films. With the final entry in Peter Jackson‘s adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work releasing almost a decade ago, critics seem unable to escape the arguably unfair expectation that The Rings of Power fill the void. Disconnected from the narrative of Jackson’s films and–unlike The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit–adapted from work that often reads more like history texts than novels, the makers of The Rings of Power were never going to be able to recapture what fans felt when they first saw 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring. But whether or not that expectation is unfair, it may be inevitable.
Amazon Prime subscribers can decide for themselves whether or not they agree with the Rings of Power reviews when the first two episodes arrive on Thursday. The premiere episodes are set to stream Thursday night at 9PM Eastern.
