Prequel to the trilogy Lord of the Rings, power rings, a series consisting of eight episodes and which should stretch over five seasons, could well divide readers of JRR Tolkien as much as admirers of Peter Jackson, despite its great visual qualities and its desire to respect both the literary work and cinematographic. Inspired by the appendages of the Return of the Kingthe new and costliest production from Amazon Studios to date takes us back to the Second Age, when the elf Galadriel, narrator of the tale, was a fiery warrior thirsty for revenge, a thousand years before Frodo and his companions go in search of the precious unique ring.
Incarnated in Jackson by the incomparable Cate Blanchett, Galadriel here borrows the elven beauty of the no less prodigious Morfydd Clark, seen in the excellent horror thriller Saint Maude, by Rose Glass. While the Elves hold the evil wizard Sauron dead, Galadriel, who resents him for having killed his beloved brother, believes that he is waiting for the right moment to sow terror. Having sworn to find Sauron, she will have no choice but to get away from her family.
In parallel with the quest for Galadriel, which we wish, after the first two episodes unveiled Thursday, more substantial, the creators of the series, Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, who are at their first weapons, offer characters invented from scratch, including the human Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and her lover, the elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), and pretext subplots to bring us to meet the different peoples of Middle-earth. With supporting maps!
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In the company of the elf Elrond (Robert Aramayo), summoned by King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker) to assist the great blacksmith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) in a major project (guess which one!), we go to the Dwarves, skilled blacksmiths presented as grotesque and irascible beings, more precisely in the apartments of Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), who seems to come from the Wizard of Ozand his earthy wife, Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete).
We also meet a nomadic people, the Harfoots. Within this beardless hobbit branch with an infantile character evolves the reckless Nori, played by Markella Kavenagh, a promising Australian actress seen in the series Picnic at Hanging Rockwho, along with Morfydd Clark, manages to stand out in this cast playing stiffly or lacking in nuance.
During an escapade, Nori will discover a stranger (Daniel Weyman), literally fallen from the sky, who some believe to be Tom Bombadil… “The skies are strange”, as the wise Harfoot Sadoc Burrows, played by Lenny Henry, repeats. he is one of the racialized actors that we also find among the Elves, the Dwarves and the Humans – remember that we had criticized the too white cast of Peter Jackson’s trilogies.
Apart from a few spectacular scenes with remarkable special effects, in line with the other medieval fantasy series of the moment, The dragon housebased on the work of George RR Martin (big fan of Tolkien), power rings scrolls at a fairly slow, almost lethargic pace. It is true that there are several characters and places to set up in these two episodes directed by JA Bayona (The orphanage, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).
But this apparent calm, the bucolic scenes, the good-natured humor, the replies launched in a prophetic tone, as well as the alliances that are created between peoples suggest that, like Tolkien’s novels and Jackson’s films , power rings will be rich in adventures, twists, fight scenes and attacks by trolls and orcs. It will be necessary since the six other episodes being respectively put online each Friday, it will be easy to forget the appointment.
By the time it really gets its momentum, the series, shot in the lush New Zealand wilderness, unreservedly deploys its opulent art direction, refined aesthetic and luminous beauty. Let’s hope that all this glitz is backed up by a substantial narrative that justifies exploiting Tolkien’s universe once again. When you think that Peter Jackson fired Hobbita 300-page novel, an excessively long and exaggeratedly faithful trilogy, how not to fear the worst?