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Amazon to unveil its $1bil bet with 'Lord of the Rings' prequel launch

30 Comments
By Andrew MARSZAL

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There's an arc that Tolkien has given us for the Second Age. So there are certain things we know," Daniel Weyman, who plays a mysterious man billed simply as "The Stranger," told AFP.

Nope Tolkien gave us The Hobbit the as the Prequel to LOTR and this isn't Tolkien's.

The simple fact that from the start the producers and PR had to point out that "diversity" was very important in writing and producing tells us this isn't Tolkien's

9 ( +16 / -7 )

Nope Tolkien gave us The Hobbit the as the Prequel to LOTR and this isn't Tolkien's.

There are 6 appendices published at the back of the Return if the King. This show is based on the information presented there, covering thousands of years of back history.

It is not exhaustively detailed, which does little to support current claims of “This show is not Tolkien”.

If course it isn’t, he died and his son Christopher has himself personally added to the canon.

If you read the Appendices you have to use your imagination to fill in a lot of blanks, which is what Amazon are attempting.

At the end of the day it’s a fantasy story, not factual.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

It looks awful, and this from someone who's been a Tolkien since the late '90s. Will not watch.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Copy that! Mostly

It looks awful, and this from someone who's been a Tolkien since the late 70’s. Will not watch.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Is bezos playing the real life Sauron?? His treatment of staff at amazon has shown where his loyalties lie $$$

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Just don't watch it. Don't even pay any attention to reviews.

Cool.

The basic ‘review’ from those upset about this is either “everyone knows dragons have 4 toes, not 5” or “why are there brown people in my fantasy entertainment?”

Both of which deserve no attention.

It’s a tv show. Don’t like it, don’t watch it.

Plenty of people avoided Peter Jackson’s adaptations because they preferred to keep their imagination of the books as they imagined it. Nothing wrong with that.

You can’t tell people what they should or should not imagine.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Don’t even hate-watch this latest Amazon abomination. Don’t indulge whatever curiosity you might have about precisely how bad it happens to be. Don’t think that you’ll score points with anyone by oh-so cleverly pointing out its copious problems that even a half-wit could have anticipated. Just stand back, ignore it, and leave it to burn.

Turkey is not the word. No turkey, however bloated and stupid, could ever be big enough to convey the mesmerising awfulness of Amazon’s billion dollar Tolkien epic.

This is a disaster dragon – plucked, spatchcocked, with a tankerload of Paxo stuffed up its fundament, roasted and served with soggy sprouts.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power (Amazon Prime) is so staggeringly bad, it’s hilarious. Everything about it is ill-judged to a spectacular extreme.

The cliche-laden script, the dire acting, the leaden pace, the sheer inconsistency and confusion as it lurches between styles – where do we start?

One disconnected style follows wildly after another. A static scene in which elves journey by ship is conceived as a PreRaphaelite painting – each actor stock still in silver armour, swords clasped to their chests, long hair rippling, eyes fixed on the horizon in pious awe. Inspired by a flock of birds, they lift their voices in a heavenly choir.

There’s a lot of this quasi-religious imagery. The first episode begins with a cod Bible reading: ‘There was a time when the world was so young, there had not been a sunrise, but even then there was light.’

Popular culture invents blether like this to replace real religion. It’s scientology for the superhero movie era.

‘Year gave way to year, century gave way to century,’ the narrator continues, and already this reviewer was giving way to laughter. Soon, every fresh clunker provoked such hoots that I had to keep pausing to gather my composure.

It will be beneficial for the world to observe, yet again, what inevitably happens when SJWs are permitted to acquire the rights to well-loved intellectual property.

If this show fails, say insiders, executives could be forced to shut down Amazon Studios.

Let it fail. Let it fail in such a proverbial manner that it will replace Heaven’s Gate as an industry byword for complete and utter catastrophe.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Mr. Kubrick's comment is certainly interesting. Puts Mr. Jackson's accomplishment in perspective.

As for the new movie, I will wait and see.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Lord of The Diversity.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

I couldn’t care less about whether it is or isn’t representative of Tolkien…. I will certainly give it a try and hope it is entertaining.

I’m much more supportive of Bezos frittering away his billions on something like this than joyrides up to space in his phallic rocket ship.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Don’t even hate-watch this latest Amazon abomination. 

Just stand back, ignore it, and leave it to burn.

Is that what you’re doing? Lots of angry triggered folks ‘ignoring’ a new TV show by ranting on the internet about it.

Some people lost their minds when Dylan played an electric guitar. Can’t please everybody.

There are lots of things I don’t like. I make my life easier by avoiding them instead of searching them out and telling everyone else not to like them either.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

I tried to like GOT, but I kept falling asleep. It must have taken me 5 attempts to get past the 3rd episode. I gave up and went back to watching my documentaries and reading books at night.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Bob FosseToday  04:07 pm JST

Don’t even hate-watch this latest Amazon abomination. 

Just stand back, ignore it, and leave it to burn.

Is that what you’re doing? Lots of angry triggered folks ‘ignoring’ a new TV show by ranting on the internet about it.

Some people lost their minds when Dylan played an electric guitar. Can’t please everybody.

There are lots of things I don’t like. I make my life easier by avoiding them instead of searching them out and telling everyone else not to like them either.

It's called free speech. What have you got against it. You're way too sensitive and triggered by people's opinion on it. Just watch it and don't get so bent out of shape by opposing opinions.

Your analogy to Dylan playing electric guitar is beyond poor. He's still the one playing the guitar whether it's acoustic or electric.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

It's called free speech. What have you got against it. You're way too sensitive and triggered by people's opinion on it. Just watch it and don't get so bent out of shape by opposing opinions.

The irony here is off the charts.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Bob FosseToday  09:46 pm JST

It's called free speech. What have you got against it. You're way too sensitive and triggered by people's opinion on it. Just watch it and don't get so bent out of shape by opposing opinions.

The irony here is off the charts.

I never said to watch or not watch it and gave a rationale why it's not Tolkien or LOTR. All you're doing is getting bent out of shape because people don't like it. But I wouldn't be surprised if you don't understand the difference.

But I guess you agree that your Dylan analogy was poor.....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It looks awful, and this from someone who's been a Tolkien since the late '90s. Will not watch.

I agree, it looks like total garbage.

Is that what you’re doing? Lots of angry triggered folks ‘ignoring’ a new TV show by ranting on the internet about it. 

Some people lost their minds when Dylan played an electric guitar. Can’t please everybody. 

There are lots of things I don’t like. I make my life easier by avoiding them instead of searching them out and telling everyone else not to like them either.

Maybe, Now apply that same philosophy to politics as well

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I thought the prequel was called "The Hobbit". Is it going to be a prequel to that? or a sequel and prequel to LOTR? In either case, it'll no doubt be another dud that is just milking the success of other movies/shows in the franchise. And why bother? We know exactly where it's going -- we know what happens. Prequels are very rarely worth watching, and this one will not be an exception.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Money money money.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I never said to watch or not watch it and gave a rationale why it's not Tolkien or LOTR. All you're doing is getting bent out of shape because people don't like it. But I wouldn't be surprised if you don't understand the difference. 

Incorrect. I’m saying people have a choice.

Those telling others what to watch are bent out of shape.

What you are doing is called gaslighting.

But I guess you agree that your Dylan analogy was poor.....

No. it was an example of unbalanced people over reacting to change they didn’t like. Happens a lot unfortunately.

Lenny Henry playing a hobbit is not the end of western civilization. If you don’t like it, just read the books instead. Win win.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Maybe, Now apply that same philosophy to politics as well

You are comparing a TV show to global politics. Listen to yourself.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I tried to like GOT, but I kept falling asleep. It must have taken me 5 attempts to get past the 3rd episode. I gave up and went back to watching my documentaries and reading books at night.

Everyone insisted that I had to watch GOT; I saw the first episode, and while Sean Bean was good in it as a Boromir-esque reprisal, everything else was downright corny. I had no interest in continuing and never have to this day.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Nope Tolkien gave us The Hobbit the as the Prequel to LOTR and this isn't Tolkien's.

Actually he gave us LOTR to be the sequel to The Hobbit.

“This show isn’t Tolkien”

Of course it isn’t. Tolkien died 50 years ago and wrote books. It’s an adaptation as were the radio show, records, animation, films etc all of which deviated from the books.

Adaptation; has the word adapt in it.

If people want to watch the show, fine. I’ll try it and reserve judgement until after I’ve seen it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I never said to watch or not watch it

Yes you did.

*It's called free speech. What have you got against it. You're way too sensitive and triggered by people's opinion on it. *Just watch it

Remember?

and don't get so bent out of shape by opposing opinions.

No-one who is saying it’s awful has seen it yet.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Could be spent better on Amazon workers

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I've watched two episodes. This is a 180 degree gender-switching opera. Women and girls are the main characters with disastrous results. Just my opinion but the series isn't salvageable even with a strong performance by the main character.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I've watched two episodes. This is a 180 degree gender-switching opera. Women and girls are the main characters with disastrous results. Just my opinion but the series isn't salvageable even with a strong performance by the main character.

As usual, mainstream entertainment is still trying to wokewash and "subvert the audience's expecations".

Don't give these people your money or time.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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