Kevin Krane

Pleasantly surprised so far. Here are my observations and criticisms: - Especially compared to Jackson’s Fellowship, it starts out very slowly, although I already forgave The Hobbit: Unexpected (Journey) film for the same issues. + RoP Episode 2 was a relief. The episodes improve as you continue. I’m expecting a strong conclusion. +/- Silmaril backstory is glazed over. This is for the best here. The Elves have accepted Mandos’ ruling at this point, canonically. + Appearance wise, the hobbits are especially accurate to book descriptions. Scenery is second to none. - Warg (wolves) are not blended well visually or as believably as other beasts. Rushed cgi. C’mon, Amazon. + There are few characters created just for the show, and they work. I love Tolkien’s lore, but admit a lot of secondary and tertiary character brackgrounds from the First and Second Ages are less 3D compared to Middle-earth’s Third Age. Ringwraith identities from the Second Age are a strong example. Tolkien only gave a human name for one of the Nine, and it’s not even the Witch-King. I’m being generous, but I think other fans should be, too. This is beautiful and we deserve to enjoy it.