LOTR The Rings of Power Review: Perfect escape from mundane existence

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2 in India. The series is a visual spectacle that transports the viewers to a different world.

Almost two decades ago, Cate Blanchett’s ethereal voice introduced us to the fantastical world of Middle-earth and warned us that the world as we know has now changed. Peter Jackson’s big screen adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books is perhaps the best book-to-movie experience of recent times. The magical world filled with dragons and hobbits and dwarves and elves was the perfect escape mechanism for anyone wanting to take a break from his or her mundane existence and be transported to a different world.

Taking a leaf out of the appendices of the Tolkien books, show runner JD Payne has created The Rings of Power series, which is set in a different time zone and takes us back to the very beginning of the origin of the rings. Mind you that the events unfolding in the Amazon Prime series are set somewhere in the second age in the Tolkein chronology. To make it simple - this age is way before you are introduced to familiar names like Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, Sam and Frodo or even Aragorn. The only name that might ring a familiar bell and who is in fact at the heart of this narrative is a very young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and later on we are introduced to Elf prince Elrond (Robert Aramayo).

The first episode of The Rings of Power sets the tone for what’s to follow. It’s a dark time not just for men but for other creatures as well. The evil lord Sauron is gathering all the strength that he can to forge rings of power. On the other hand, Galadriel’s path crosses with King Isildur (Maxim Baldry), who is sailing from the magical land of Numenor to Middle-earth. There is a lot of information thrown at you at the very beginning of the series. If you haven’t watched the movies or are unfamiliar with the material, then the first episode might be a bit of a puzzle, with so many new names, characters, worlds and creatures to remember. Once you pay attention to the details and where the key characters of the story are heading, it’s almost like a magical roller coaster into the world of the unknown.

Visually, The Rings of Power is a winner. The VFX and special effects are to another level. Given the massive budget (close to a billion dollars!), it doesn’t come as a surprise that the makers have invested so much in creating the perfect landscape for this story. For someone who has not only binge-watched the LOTR films but also read the books, the first episode felt very lukewarm. You can’t tell a book by its cover, so we are expecting things to pick up pace as the story unfolds in the following episodes.

If you are a fan of the films, you might be hunting for familiar connects with your favourite characters. You will need to suspend any of those expectations to enjoy The Rings of Power. JD Payne’s world not only has a different arch for the events happening in and around Middle-earth but also a few characters that are not part of Tolkien literature. So while The Lord of the Rings movies focussed on Sam and Frodo’s journey to destroy the ring, in the series there isn’t much clarity on which direction Payne plans to take the action.

The cool thing about these books is that it doesn’t matter what era the story is set in, there is enough action- adventure in almost every page. My thoughts on the first episode are that it opens up BIG and I hope that it picks up pace and starts moving up in the direction that fans are eager to see - the history of the rings, who forged them and how? And the impact these rings had on the Middle-earth and the rest of the universe.

The Rings of Power is the biggest mounting for streaming in recent times and if you have been bitten by the Tolkien bug, then there is no chance you will be able to evade the elvish spell the series casts on you. And if you are eager to draw parallels to the movies, then I leave you with a quote from a wise man - Gandalf the Grey, “For even the very wise cannot see all ends!.”