The Rings of Power review: A visually staggering, flawed epic (2024)

The Lord of the Rings prequel is Amazon's most expensive show to date – but can it be the hit the streamer needs? On the basis of two episodes, the jury's out, writes Stephen Kelly.

It is a curious quirk of fate that The Rings of Power, a Lord of the Rings prequel based on the histories of a fictional world, written by JRR Tolkien, should premiere two weeks after House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones prequel based on the histories of a fictional world written by George RR Martin.

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Martin, of course, famously wrote Game of Thrones as a reaction to The Lord of the Rings, with the aim of turning its heroic tale of good versus evil into something grittier and real ("what was Aragorn's tax policy?" he once asked). While The Rings of Power, Amazon Prime's biggest, most expensive show to date, seems to have been created as a reaction to Game of Thrones, with seemingly every streamer of recent years desperate to emulate its success. Based on its first two episodes, the result is fantasy television of unparalleled grandeur –one more suited to cinema screens than laptops and TVs –with a world that is vividly realised, and a plot that, while undeniably uneven, is charged with a soaring sense of mythic lyricism.

Developed by showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay, relative newcomers in the world of screenwriting, The Rings of Power is largely adapted from the immense backstory found in the appendices of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the adventures of Frodo and the Fellowship, and –as we're told in solemn voiceover by Morfydd Clark's Galadriel – centuries after a great war between Morgoth, a godlike being of supreme evil, and the elves. It tells the sprawling story of how the sorcerer Sauron, a once-devoted servant of Morgoth, first rose to power through the forging of the 19 rings, which he secretly controlled through the One Ring (Gollum's "precious").

The Rings of Power is the passion project of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who in recent years has become a contentious symbol of billionaire decadence. The rights alone cost $250 million. In a Vanity Fair article published earlier this year, it was reported that the first season cost $462 million to make (to contrast, the first season of Amazon's other big fantasy series, The Wheel of Time, cost $80 million). In the end, expenditure for marketing and subsequent seasons will likely push the entire project past $1bn, which would make it the costliest show ever made. So far, that money burns right through the screen.

For a television series, the production values are staggering. The sets feel huge and lived-in, the costumes are beautiful and intricate, and the digital effects are sharper than most movies. Because of rights issues, The Rings of Power cannot brand itself as a prequel to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, but the family resemblance is uncanny. Just take the scope and scale of its shooting in New Zealand, whose sweeping vistas and idyllic greenery were first favoured by Jackson. This time they are utilised by, among others, JA Bayona, best known for directing the underrated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, who takes charge of the first two episodes of the eight-episode series made available for review.

Just as it did in the LOTR films, New Zealand's scenery grounds the story in a place that manages to feel both authentic and unearthly. There is also a fluid elegance to how on-location shots and practical sets are blended with digital backdrops, which carry an almost painterly quality to their design. This especially goes for many of the scenes involving the elves, which tend to be bathed in beautiful, ethereal light. Compared to Jackson's trilogy, which had a more textured, characterful look, this shine can give The Rings of Power a chilly quality at times, almost as though it is too clean, too immaculate. It is undeniable, however, that in purely aesthetic terms, this is the closest a TV show has come to blurring the lines between television and cinema – even if, narratively, it is a rather ponderous version of the former so far.

As the story begins, Galadriel is the only one who believes that Sauron, who killed her brother, is not only still alive, but is building an army of Orcs in secret. Most viewers will recognise Galadriel from Peter Jackson's trilogy, where she is played as the epitome of Elven wisdom by Cate Blanchett. Here, thousands of years younger, she is a rougher prospect: brasher, angrier, and played with steely conviction by Clark, who anchors the show with an authoritative, commanding performance; little surprise to anyone who saw her blistering turn in 2019 horror Saint Maud.

Galadriel is determined to find Sauron, but is being held back by her fellow elves. A young Elrond (played by Robert Aramayo) thinks that her obsession has gone too far. "Evil does not sleep, Elrond," she tells him. "It waits until the moment of our complacency, it blinds us." Elrond himself has a task. He has been ordered by the Elven king to assist the legendary smith –and future creator of the rings – Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) on a special project, which will take him to the spectacular realm of the dwarves. While across the map –and yes, there is a map –we are introduced to the Southlands, where tensions between elves and men run high, and the Rhovanion, where Nori (Markella Kavenagh), part of the tiny breed of Harfoots who are a kind of Irish variant of the Hobbits, yearns for adventure –right before it falls from the sky.

The first episode struggles slightly under the weight of establishing the world and setting up all of its threads; some of which are more interesting than others. The forbidden romance between Elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and human Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) in the Southlands, for example, is quite flat in comparison with Galadriel's compelling mission of revenge. The Harfoots, meanwhile, straddle a thin line between charming and mawkish, although the charm wins out in the end thanks to a scene-stealing performance from Kavenagh, and a joyful appearance from Lenny Henry as a Harfoot elder. (It should also be noted that Henry is one of many black actors in the cast: a welcome update to the unfortunate racial optics of Jackson's trilogy).

The second episode is snappier and more engrossing. There's a thrilling (and again, impressively epic) sequence set at sea, while much of the show's early levity comes through a wonderful set of scenes between Elrond and his old dwarven friend Durin (Owain Arthur), who is upset at the Middle-earth equivalent of Elrond having left him on read. This episode also announces The Rings of Power as quite a different prospect to The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Rather than a hero's journey, this is a slower, more granular tale, which can at times suffer from the prequel urge to fill in backstory – much like an appendix. As is often the case with prequels, seeing what already happened in the past is not as interesting as pushing a plot forward (the exceptions, such as Better Call Saul, tend to negate that by going in-depth on character).

Unlike, say, Game of Thrones, the characters of The Rings of Power are more archetypal, more traditionally mythic. This is not to say that Game of Thrones is better because it is more subversive: Tolkien and Martin merely inhabit two different realms of fantasy. Game of Thrones is engrossing because of its complicated characters and challenging morals; The Lord of the Rings, while not a simple tale of good and evil (remember Boromir?) is arguably more poetic in tone, and ultimately more moving in nature.

The first two episodes of The Rings of Power occupy an awkward space where it's not yet apparent if either of these approaches apply to it –its characters have not yet revealed themselves as complex, while it's too early to tell if it will rebottle the catharsis of Tolkien's work or Peter Jackson's movies. Yet what does make it work so far is what made The Lord of the Rings work: the earnestness of its performances, and the sincerity of its writing. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay may have come from nowhere to develop The Rings of Power, but they display a deft understanding of Tolkien's soothing rhythms, his grandeur and musicality. It's a pleasure to hear the characters talk.

There are reports that The Rings of Power will determine the future of Amazon's streaming strategy. Whether it will be the hit that Amazon Prime needs it to be –considering the amount of money that it costs – remains to be seen. Based on the first two episodes, the signs are promising –but maybe promising is not enough when expectations are this high. Either way, there is no doubting the scale of the show's ambition, or its dedication to the soul and substance of Tolkien's work. For a TV show that is essentially the newest play-toy of a billionaire, it is surprisingly bold stuff.

★★★★☆

The first two episode of Rings of Power premiere on Amazon Prime on 2 September, with subsequent episodes following weekly

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