Trotter wrote:
Former RAF airfield is new home for Middle Earth(sic)Bovingdon Airfield Studios said it was estimated the second series cost $700m (£533m), with three film units working independently around the country.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l57n0y1lmo
I had no idea. I live in Bovingdon, a five minute walk from the airfield and the new location of Middle-earth.
As for Season 2, I have only just started to watch it. I'm enjoying it. There are plot holes and dubious choices from a lore-perspective for sure. But does it matter? It's a visual extravaganza and it's always exciting to see interpretations of Tolkien on the screen.
I really don't think it's worth getting hung up on the series. There is so much negative hysteria on line that it leads me to question the sanity of the various interlocutors. These people need to relax - it's not Tolkien, it's an adaptation based on his work. Nothing in it is holy writ. Nothing in it changes Tolkien - the books are still there. Just accept it for the entertainment it's supposed to be.
“But does it matter? It's a visual extravaganza and it's always exciting to see interpretations of Tolkien on the screen.
I really don't think it's worth getting hung up on the series. There is so much negative hysteria on line that it leads me to question the sanity of the various interlocutors. These people need to relax - it's not Tolkien, it's an adaptation based on his work. Nothing in it is holy writ. Nothing in it changes Tolkien - the books are still there. Just accept it for the entertainment it's supposed to be.”
💯. I’m 2 episodes away from finishing the season and I’m really enjoying the visuals and McCreary’s score. I need to start getting the vinyl.
I really don't think it's worth getting hung up on the series. There is so much negative hysteria on line that it leads me to question the sanity of the various interlocutors. These people need to relax - it's not Tolkien, it's an adaptation based on his work. Nothing in it is holy writ. Nothing in it changes Tolkien - the books are still there. Just accept it for the entertainment it's supposed to be.”
💯. I’m 2 episodes away from finishing the season and I’m really enjoying the visuals and McCreary’s score. I need to start getting the vinyl.
Scarlet_Sorcerer wrote:
“But does it matter? It's a visual extravaganza and it's always exciting to see interpretations of Tolkien on the screen.
I really don't think it's worth getting hung up on the series. There is so much negative hysteria on line that it leads me to question the sanity of the various interlocutors. These people need to relax - it's not Tolkien, it's an adaptation based on his work. Nothing in it is holy writ. Nothing in it changes Tolkien - the books are still there. Just accept it for the entertainment it's supposed to be.”
💯. I’m 2 episodes away from finishing the season and I’m really enjoying the visuals and McCreary’s score. I need to start getting the vinyl.
I'll qualify that RoP S2 doesn't interest me, so I'm not specifically going looking for positive or negative commentary on it, but I really haven't seen any "negative hysteria" for this season via the usual media channels (whereas S1 was - arguably rightfully - being flamed from all sides everywhere). The people like myself who thought S1 was tripe have (probably) mostly not bothered with S2 at all. I've seen more about it in this thread than in the entirety of my internet experience. It just doesn't seem to be a talking point at all in the collecting community this time around. It is just fast-food TV aimed at a different type of viewer than me.
Would have been nice if they had created something watchable for me, but just like PJ with The Hobbit movies, they didn't. :Shrugs:.
The late Stu wrote:
Scarlet_Sorcerer wrote:
“But does it matter? It's a visual extravaganza and it's always exciting to see interpretations of Tolkien on the screen.
I really don't think it's worth getting hung up on the series. There is so much negative hysteria on line that it leads me to question the sanity of the various interlocutors. These people need to relax - it's not Tolkien, it's an adaptation based on his work. Nothing in it is holy writ. Nothing in it changes Tolkien - the books are still there. Just accept it for the entertainment it's supposed to be.”
💯. I’m 2 episodes away from finishing the season and I’m really enjoying the visuals and McCreary’s score. I need to start getting the vinyl.
I'll qualify that RoP S2 doesn't interest me, so I'm not specifically going looking for positive or negative commentary on it, but I really haven't seen any "negative hysteria" for this season via the usual media channels (whereas S1 was - arguably rightfully - being flamed from all sides everywhere). The people like myself who thought S1 was tripe have (probably) mostly not bothered with S2 at all. I've seen more about it in this thread than in the entirety of my internet experience. It just doesn't seem to be a talking point at all in the collecting community this time around. It is just fast-food TV aimed at a different type of viewer than me.
Would have been nice if they had created something watchable for me, but just like PJ with The Hobbit movies, they didn't. :Shrugs:.
I tend to agree with this sentiment. Most of us who wanted an actual faithful adaption and didn’t get anything close to it in season 1 didn’t expect things to be different in season 2 and if anything, as they have gone further and further away from what Tolkien wrote about the 2nd Age the people who are watching either don’t know it or have resigned themselves to it.
I have pretty much resigned myself to it being an adapation based on the Peter Jackson movies, hard to say how faithful it is to the movies though and I can see people who are really into the films getting upset by the changes they have made.
Head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke
“ There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.”
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/ama ... r-bridge-deal-1236172909/
“ There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.”
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/ama ... r-bridge-deal-1236172909/
I dropped out of RoP during the first episode so I have limited 'data' so to speak, but I have to address this phrase or idea that 'we will always have the books' (ironically often voiced at the same time as accusing ppl of gatekeeping). Fortunately being critical of art or entertainment even if based on a book isn't forbidden just because there is a book. Moreover movies and tv-series do impact also on how writers and their books are viewed. A simple example: my in-laws were considering reading the lord of the rings, but they tried to see Jacksons movies first and they decided tolkien was uninteresting. The thing is; Peter Jackson turned tolkien into a lightweight action-franchise and despite Walsh and Boyens fortune-cookie takes like 'even the smallest person...' the movies fail to convey anything truly profound. It's sad because part of The Lord of the Rings greatness lies in how it allows the reader to visit another world (or another chance at our world) while at the same time saying something truly profound about the human experience.
When the first seasons of GoT ran the show garnered considerable praise for how it demonstrated that point of view matters and for how it explored the consequences of moral choices (even seemingly good moral choices). Now i quite like the first books of the song of ice and fire but they really don't match Tolkien with regards to having something serious to say about life and death. But GoT the tv-series made people have such conversations. RoP inspires conversations of a very different and much lighter kind and Jacksons movies the same.
All that said I dont require movies or tv-series to be 'deep' or serious to enjoy them. I like 'the rookie' and i like 'the witcher'. Both are fluffy and nice, but they are well-written. When i turned off the TV as Galadriel jumped ship to swim back to Middle-Earth it was not only because i had felt zero Tolkien (besides familiar names) in the episode but because it was just bad writing.
When the first seasons of GoT ran the show garnered considerable praise for how it demonstrated that point of view matters and for how it explored the consequences of moral choices (even seemingly good moral choices). Now i quite like the first books of the song of ice and fire but they really don't match Tolkien with regards to having something serious to say about life and death. But GoT the tv-series made people have such conversations. RoP inspires conversations of a very different and much lighter kind and Jacksons movies the same.
All that said I dont require movies or tv-series to be 'deep' or serious to enjoy them. I like 'the rookie' and i like 'the witcher'. Both are fluffy and nice, but they are well-written. When i turned off the TV as Galadriel jumped ship to swim back to Middle-Earth it was not only because i had felt zero Tolkien (besides familiar names) in the episode but because it was just bad writing.
i know im in the minority here, possibly a group of 1 :) but i really enjoy the programme. the books are still on my shelf, unharmed and ready for reading. its quite possible to like the programme and at the same time be an aficionado of Tolkien.
Gerryt wrote:
i know im in the minority here, possibly a group of 1 :) but i really enjoy the programme. the books are still on my shelf, unharmed and ready for reading. its quite possible to like the programme and at the same time be an aficionado of Tolkien.
Gerry: thousands of ppl visit this site, and there are alot of opinions :)
I just finished season two…much of it was at least tangentially entertaining and there is a lot to like for a generic fantasy adaptation but there is something that I had a hard time getting over.
By the end of the season, Sauron desperately wants all the rings for himself to distribute, not just the Nine, and he would have no better chance than right at the end after an awkward fight scene with Galadriel when she is the most vulnerable and wounded. She chooses to jump off a cliff to get away from him after he seems to be able to defy all laws of physics and Why he didn’t immediately jump down after her and take Nenya is makes no sense.
How many times could he have killed her and yet didn’t? Many.
Sauron and Galadriel having been paired in this way makes pause a bit. The dichotomy alone doesn’t bother me. In latter writings as Tolkien reworked Galadriel, he imagined Galadriel as Sauron’s chief adversary all along. In itself, that’s fine. More than fine. But this is a kind of reversel, where the actions of each enabled the other. That sure feels like something Tolkien wouldn’t have liked.
the setup of their relationship seems to me to be that Sauron would not have fallen back into evil (or at least would not have had as easy a time doing it) had it not been for Galadriel. She gets him in to Numenor, then Mordor, then Eregion In turn, Sauron rescuing Galadriel from the water and then choosing not to kill her at every opportunity means that his final defeat—at the hands of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum at the end of the Third Age—is because of Sauron’s mercy. A villain showed a good guy mercy and therefore evil was defeated. I don’t ever recall Sauron showing anyone mercy…
Again, trying to enjoy the show, it’s just I’m very conscious of the show runners not being nearly as familiar with Tolkien as they claim.
By the end of the season, Sauron desperately wants all the rings for himself to distribute, not just the Nine, and he would have no better chance than right at the end after an awkward fight scene with Galadriel when she is the most vulnerable and wounded. She chooses to jump off a cliff to get away from him after he seems to be able to defy all laws of physics and Why he didn’t immediately jump down after her and take Nenya is makes no sense.
How many times could he have killed her and yet didn’t? Many.
Sauron and Galadriel having been paired in this way makes pause a bit. The dichotomy alone doesn’t bother me. In latter writings as Tolkien reworked Galadriel, he imagined Galadriel as Sauron’s chief adversary all along. In itself, that’s fine. More than fine. But this is a kind of reversel, where the actions of each enabled the other. That sure feels like something Tolkien wouldn’t have liked.
the setup of their relationship seems to me to be that Sauron would not have fallen back into evil (or at least would not have had as easy a time doing it) had it not been for Galadriel. She gets him in to Numenor, then Mordor, then Eregion In turn, Sauron rescuing Galadriel from the water and then choosing not to kill her at every opportunity means that his final defeat—at the hands of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum at the end of the Third Age—is because of Sauron’s mercy. A villain showed a good guy mercy and therefore evil was defeated. I don’t ever recall Sauron showing anyone mercy…
Again, trying to enjoy the show, it’s just I’m very conscious of the show runners not being nearly as familiar with Tolkien as they claim.
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