Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power Newest Trailer Should Ease Fears Over Bad Visuals, Though Story Concerns Remain

I must say, I was not one of the people who were criticizing the visuals in first Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power trailer. I understood why it caused such a debate in the LORT community, but I thought that was how it was going to look anyway. However, after seeing the newest trailer, I know understand the true potential Amazon has at its disposal for the Rings of Power’s visuals and why people were so upset in the first place.

Now I am not a Tolkien mega fan, just a casual viewer. So, maybe that is why I kind of liked the initial trailer. And it is also a reason as to why I feel like I have an obligation to defend my fellowship of other casual viewers who also liked the trailer.

Well, I guess I should start with at least why I liked it.

I found the scenery shots, such as the ones of Numenor, the mountain/plateau shot, and the Elven city (which I think was Rivendell?) all looked fantastic. At least in my opinion, I thought that Amazon really mastered the scenery/wide shots in that trailer.

Oh, I also found that battle scene between the golden-armored Elves (the ones who looked like Roman legionaries) and the hordes of orcs really cool too.

Of course, there was the moments of bad CGI (I’m looking at you, mountain-climbing Galadriel). But I expected that was how this series was going look in the first place. I thought that it was going to have fantastic wide shots and scenery visuals (as did the original movies), but there would also be some cheesy CGI (like the Hobbit trilogy had).

To my surprise, the new trailer that released today completely blew my expectations out of the water. Not only has Amazon corrected their cheesy, Hobbit-like CGI mistakes, but have also created unbelievable visuals in the process.

That scene of Galadriel and some spear-impaled Elves levitating off the ground in that red-scarred wasteland was awesome. Clearly, Galadriel and her Eleven compatriots are in the middle of some horrific battle. If I had to guess, I would say that it was the final confrontation between Morgoth and the Elves/Humans/Maiar at the end of the First Age (I think I have that right)

Plus, the mountaintop scene’s CGI looked 10X better in this recent trailer than in the Super Bowl one. Galadriel actually looked like a real Elf (though, that kind of is an oxymoron, isn’t it), and not a CGI created character this time.

I still don’t see the reason why there are Hobbi- sorry, Harfoots in this story, but their outfits looked a lot better too. They definitely look like thousand-year-old, nomadic versions of Frodo, Bilbo, Sam, Merry, Pippen and the rest of the modern-day Hobbits.

Okay, now to the grandaddy of all the complaints: Galadriel herself. I must say, I kind of like what Amazon has done with the Elven Queen.

I know, it isn’t book cannon. And I also know that the show is supposed to be adapting book material, but I can’t help it. I just like how Galadriel is presented. It is so different from her character in the Lord of the Rings movies/books, that I think there is potential for a great story and character arc from Galadriel in the Rings of Power.

In reality, that all comes down to Morfydd Clark and the writing. I really like Morfydd Clark’s casting and I think she has done a good job so far, though it has been a small sample size. So, I’m confident she will bring her best effort when playing Galadriel.

As for the writing, I’m not sold yet. The rookie showrunners, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, have an enormous task of creating an excellent, book-lore accurate (mostly), and award challenging show. Plus, unlike the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movie trilogies, they have to compete with HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff: House of The Dragon.

Yeah, not easy.

With what we have seen so far, I think that this show will be polarizing. There will be Tolkien fans who will absolutely hate this show, and there will be Tolkien fans who will adore this show. The goal of the showrunners is to get the casual viewers (such as myself) on board with a compelling story, great characters, and a vast majority of Tolkien-accurate interpretations.

Do I think the story of Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power will be successful? I don’t know. What I do know is that is another story (really, article) for another day.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Amazon/Prime Video YouTube) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Main Teaser | Prime Video – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Amazon/Prime Video YouTube) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Main Teaser | Prime Video – YouTube)

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