Another Prime series - LOTR - The Rings of Power

[Glenn E. Meyer]

To put my mega nerd hat on, one of the themes of the Middle Earth books is the slow collapse of civilizations. Gondor was just a minor outpost of what was the mighty empire of Numinor- an empire mighty enough to conquer Mordor and capture Sauron- and that when he still had the one ring.

According to some of the unfinished material, the armies of Numinor were equipped with "bows of hollow steel". But the knowledge of how to make them, like so many other things, was lost over time.

Well, that doesn't sound like firearms but some kind of bow tech - but the point is taken. Look at Rome, great concrete and that was lost for many years. The Greek and Roman coins were artistic and representative portraits. After the fall of Rome, the coins became cartoon like.

Didn't Numenor get sunk by the Gods when they sailed a fleet towards the Elvish Beach resorts

[Shotgun]

It could be fun. It's been 40 years since I read The Silmarillion. I couldn't remember any specific stories about the rings of power, so I just looked it up. Here's what the great oracle of Wikipedia says:

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
The concluding section of the book, comprising about 20 pages, describes the events that take place in Middle-earth during the Second and Third Ages. In the Second Age, Sauron re-emerged in Middle-earth. The Rings of Power were forged by Elves led by Celebrimbor, but Sauron secretly forged One Ring to control the others. War broke out between the peoples of Middle-earth and Sauron, culminating in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Elves and the remaining Númenóreans united to defeat Sauron, bringing the Second Age to an end. The Third Age began with the claiming of the One Ring by Isildur after Sauron's overthrow. Isildur was ambushed by orcs and killed at the Gladden Fields shortly afterwards, and the One Ring was lost in the River Anduin. The section gives a brief overview of the events leading up to and taking place in The Lord of the Rings, including the waning of Gondor, the re-emergence of Sauron, the White Council, Saruman's treachery, and Sauron's final destruction along with the One Ring, which ends the Third Age.

So, apparently there are about 20 pages of source material that i have long forgotten about the rings of power in the Second Age. That's pretty free reign for Amazon to make up a bunch of stuff. All in all, I'm hopeful but skeptical.

[Moonshot]

I'm a LOTR purist. I've lost count of how many times I've read the books. The movie version, what little I could stomach, was terrible. I tried several times to get thru The Fellowship disc, each time getting a little farther, until my head exploded and I shut the disc off in discust.

The cinematography may have been good, and I admit they got Gollum right, but they totally destroyed the other main characters, and the character development. They changed what happened, what was said and who said it. They changed everything about it that made the story a work of art. The way I described it to some friends who couldn't understand why I wasn't raving about the movie was the movie version destroyed the characters nobility.

Gandalf, Saruman, Aragorn, Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn, Arwen: the movie made them standard cookie cutter versions of wizards and elves. The movies ruined them.

Forget the characters not looking like I pictured them in my mind. That couldn't be helped. They didn't act the way they did in the book. They didn't say what they said in the book. At best it was a movie loosly based on The LOTR.

When my daughters were supposed to watch the movies in middle school, I spoke to the teacher and told him I didn't them to watch the movies, not until after they had read the books. Watching the movies would ruin it for them, and I suspect many who did would end up saying "I don't need to read it - I already know the story". That's too bad, and I didn't want that to happen to my daughters.

As for this new Amazon movie based on what appears to be The Silmarillion, I'm not holding my breath. Even if it's well done, it can't hold a candle to the book, so why waste my time?

[Joe in PNG]

Well, that doesn't sound like firearms but some kind of bow tech - but the point is taken. Look at Rome, great concrete and that was lost for many years. The Greek and Roman coins were artistic and representative portraits. After the fall of Rome, the coins became cartoon like.

Didn't Numenor get sunk by the Gods when they sailed a fleet towards the Elvish Beach resorts

That too is possible.

And yep, when the armies of Ar-Pharazon went to invade the Undying Lands and wrest immortality from the Valar (egged on by his new bestest buddy Sauron). The Valar called upon Eru Ilúvatar who then bent the earth and destroyed Numenor.

Why yes, I have read the Silmarillion a few times.

[ccmdfd]

I need to watch that South Park episode about LOTR being switched with an adult film again.

[Mntneer357]

When I read that the new Amazon series was going to feature more DIVERSITY in the characters I figured it would be a disaster....

Vishnu on a unicycle, does everything have to be "woke" now? Listen, I liked the previous movies as pure, nerd escapism. Cool music, cool fights, cool characters. Yay! Aaaaand then somebody decides we need to "remake" or "re-envision" things. Nope.

Just on the basis of that alone, I can't wait to not see this.

[LittleLebowski]

I tuned out when I saw that guy grab the arrow in slow motion and shoot it back. Plus it seems like most of the characters would look more at home in some bullshit boy band than in middle-earth. Ill give it a go but I'm skeptical.

Try something darker, like Dune

[Bio]

Try something darker, like Dune

The depiction of the Sardukar in that movie was perfection.

[mtnbkr]

Try something darker, like Dune

They should have expanded on that considerably.

Chris

[blues]

It's lamentable how little diversity there is in diversity. Cookie cutter is more like it.