The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power (season 2)

Season 2 of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power has learned nothing from the mess that was its first season.
59/10069465
Starring
Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers
Creators
Patrick McKay & John D. Payne
Rating
TV-14
Genre
Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Release date
August 29, 2024
Where to watch
Amazon Prime
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Story/Plot/Script
Visuals/Cinematography
Performance
Direction
Non-Wokeness
Rating Summary
The first three episode of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power should be a mandatory class for film school students because it's a study in how the strength of a brilliant IP can hold together even the weakest of productions.

In Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the story picks up where Season 1 left off. Nori and the Stranger journey to the Eastern land of Rhûn, while Isildur is presumed dead in Middle-earth. The Númenoreans, including Elendil and the recently blinded Queen Míriel, return to Númenor. Arondir aids the displaced Southlanders, and Prince Durin faces conflict with his father, King Durin III. Meanwhile, Galadriel grapples with the revelation that her friend Halbrand is actually Sauron.

The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 2: Episodes 1-3) Review

So far, this season is a Frankenstein’s Monster of plot contrivances stuck together by Knievel chasm-leaps of logic. As middling performers espouse a 7th grader’s attempt at Tolkien prose, and unlikeable characters perform uncharacteristic actions, The Lord of The Rings has been gloss-filtered into a sepia-toned billion-dollar soap opera.

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The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 2: Episode 4) Review

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James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.

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  1. slayerformayor September 10, 2024 at

    3 stars is much, much, much too generous for this garbage.

  2. worthitorwoke.steadily283 September 10, 2024 at

    This was a show to laundry money, that’s all.
    Don’t you get it? It is all a scam. They don’t care about the story or anything else.
    Money machine. Terrible show. And I was thinking it could not get worse after the first season. I was wrong.

  3. Selrisitai November 16, 2024 at

    I think it’s funny, but isn’t it odd to screen-cap an Asmongold video and also leave Asmon in the frame? Lol.

    1. James Carrick November 16, 2024 at

      Didn’t realize he was there. Just quickly grabbed an image off of Google and it was the clearest one. Oops.

  4. Bigwig30 December 14, 2024 at

    I gave up on the show midway through season two then read summaries of the remaining episodes alternatively patting myself on the back for quitting when I did and cursing myself for watching the show at all. Just awful stuff. I can’t believe the Tolkien estate allowed this garbage to be made. But hey, with the amount of money Amazon is throwing around, I guess anyone can be bought. It is so sad to watch Hollywood ruin everything I love.

  5. Christopher Richard December 29, 2024 at

    A good season, but one whose source material (while for the most part treated with reverence in this show) provided a berth of potential left unexplored. The acting from Vickers (Sauron) and Edwards (Celebrimbor) were high caliber — the two actors’ dynamic relationship reaches a larger-than-life pitch that fittingly captures Tolkien’s themes. Special nod to Hazeldine’s convincing, passionate performance as Adar, leader of the Orcs. There were many well-executed scenes to recommend in every narrative from that of Numenor to that of The Stranger and the Harfoots. However, as with Season 1, this season suffers from uneven directing and script-writing and some very awkward casting of extras who often resemble your local Walmart shoppers, lacking the charm and gravitas of Tolkien’s Elves, Dwarves, or Halflings.

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'); targetWin.document.close(); } } return false; }; // Unified capture-phase share handler. Chrome incognito can allow the visual // pointer animation while another script prevents the later bubbling click // handler from ever running. 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This prevents two square // outputs or mismatched gallery states in the Share Options window. built = await buildShareImage(row, { force:true }); builtSquare = await buildShareSquareImage(row, built.cycle_image_url || '', built.poster_url || '', { force:true }); if (!built || !built.image_url) { throw new Error('Landscape share build failed.'); } if (!builtSquare || !builtSquare.image_url) { throw new Error('Square share build failed.'); } } else { built = await buildShareImage(row); } var shareUrl = built.share_url; var postUrl = (row.getAttribute('data-post-url') || '').trim() || shareUrl; var postTitle = (row.getAttribute('data-post-title') || '').trim(); if (!postTitle) postTitle = 'this'; var shareKind = (row.getAttribute('data-share-kind') || 'critics').trim().toLowerCase(); var upperTitle = postTitle.toUpperCase(); var lineTwo = (shareKind === 'audience' || shareKind === 'audience-teaser' || shareKind === 'audience-question') ? 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'Audience share options' : ((shareKind === 'ratings' || shareKind === 'ratings-admin' || shareKind === 'ratings-question') ? 'Ratings share options' : 'Critic share options'); window.__wiowLastShareOptionsContext = { row: row, heading: heading, win: previewWin }; var shown = renderShareOptionsWindow(previewWin, built.image_url, (builtSquare ? builtSquare.image_url : ''), shareUrl, heading); if (!shown) { var copied = false; if (navigator.clipboard && window.isSecureContext && navigator.clipboard.writeText){ try { await navigator.clipboard.writeText(shareUrl); copied = true; } catch (copyErr) {} } if (!copied) { var ta = document.createElement('textarea'); ta.value = shareUrl; ta.setAttribute('readonly', 'readonly'); ta.style.position = 'fixed'; ta.style.opacity = '0'; document.body.appendChild(ta); ta.focus(); ta.select(); ta.setSelectionRange(0, ta.value.length); copied = !!document.execCommand('copy'); ta.remove(); } } } if (statusEl) statusEl.textContent = (platform === 'copy') ? 'Ready.' : ''; } catch(err){ if (previewWin && !previewWin.closed) { previewWin.close(); } if (statusEl) statusEl.textContent = (err && err.message) ? err.message : 'Could not share.'; } }, true); })();