Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This series is so atrocious I don't even know where to begin. With the exception of the incredible CGI (which I will admit is absolutely stunning) there is literally NOTHING redeeming about this pile of garbage. Let's start with the acting. It's shocking to me that with a production budget as big as they had, they couldn't find better actors. There are a few who aren't cringe worthy on screen, but overall the performances are appalling. The casting is dismal as well. The actor who plays Isildur, arguably one of the most important characters in LOTR canon, is embarrassingly bad and his character is written like a whiny teenager rather than the man who would eventually defeat Sauron. Every time he opens his mouth it's painful. The dwarves are basically caricatures, the elves bear no resemblance to the beautiful creatures of LOTR, and the humans are essentially one dimensional bigots with no understanding of their own history. The absolute worst part of this entire show however, can be blamed squarely on how atrocious the actress is who plays Galadriel. Maybe its the terrible writing, but she's the worst. She's impetuous, demanding, unrealistic and a drama queen. Every single scene that she's in is heavy breathing and overacting. Zero subtlety and no depth. It's so disappointing because she's the linchpin for the whole show. Elrond is equally bad, and looks like he just came from the salon, not like he is on his way to becoming a critally powerful player in his own right. This is the second worst casting decision they made. How they went from Hugo Weaving to this guy is beyond me. (As an aside, this is also the actor who was tapped to play a young Ned Stark in GOT season 7, he was equally as poorly cast in that role as he was in this one). Now let's talk about the writing. GOD IN HEAVEN IT'S HORRIBLE. It comes off like bad fan fiction written by a 15 year old in his mom's basement. There is no connected storyline, giant plot holes, the pace is either ridiculously slow or moves to fast to make sense for the story. Every scene is written like a soap opera, with zero nuance and little to no true character development. Amazon should be embarrassed they produced this. At least HBO had the decency to shelve their first GOT prequel because it wasn't going to work. This monstrosity bears NO resemblance to the beautiful work Peter Jackson produced, or to Tolkein's vision. Shame shame shame. Save yourself the frustration and disappointment and just rewatch the trilogy. Zero stars if I could.