Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Two major faults with this show: Correlation to Tolkien & Entertainment Value. With several episodes out, it's clear the showrunners essentially used the names of Tolkien characters/locations and applied them to entirely unrelated characters/locations. The show is largely not based on Tolkien's work and what little is, is unrecognizable. They're trying to make a success out of themselves by producing a show with a modern ideological bent piggybacking off the name of the 20th centuries most successful author. For entertainment value, I was surprised how poorly the show was executed. I had believed in advance no matter how true to Tolkien they might end up being, they had the budget to produce some excellent media. Unfortunately, the cinematography lacks realism such as that captured GoT/HoD or even the two decade old LOTR movies. I assume this is due to their decision to shoot in a higher FPS than the typical industry standard but no matter the reason, it just looks fake in ways other fantasy series are able to appear real. The gorgeous landscape shots are never followed by zoom ins (you'll see a large-scale shot of a town but the characters generally appear in rooms or generic spaces. You see little in the way of a bustling space of various people, merchants, operations, etc. It's not alive, more so an empty picture). The dialogue is horrendous with either an incredible amount of repetition or lines that just produce an eye roll. Speaking of writing, much of what happened in the world between Galadriel being a child and an adult is left out and what little is explained, is explained so poorly the viewer doesn't have any clear idea of how things got from A-to-B. Acting isn't a terrible component. I may not be a fan of character portrayals because they are not Tolkien's characters in this show but I'd say a fair share of the actors do a good job at their assignment. The exception being Galadriel. The character as written and the actress both are insufferable and an injustice to the character from the books who is a fan favorite in them (survey online and you'll find she's the least liked character in this show). I wont get into the problematic items like how they denigrate the Irish in this series. It's already too long of a review. The people behind this show appear to have no appreciation for Tolkien, his literary works. Which is a problem since they were banking it's success on his name and those very works which they appear to despise or at the very least mistakenly believe themselves capable of improving upon.