Lord of the Rings on Prime Updates (Thanks Varking!)

[Radaghast]

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/vyjcxn

 

[d4rk3lf]

Is this The Bridge of Khazad Dum?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Looks possible.

 

[d4rk3lf]

Sons of Feanor?

 

[Gothmog]

Final trailer.

Interesting show. I wonder what it is based on?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

That's what I asked about the Hobbit movies.

 

[Bahnz]

The trailer looks great. Loved the shots of the oath, what I’m assuming is the first kinslaying, and the first glimpses of Gil-galad, Elendil and Pharazon.

 

[HenryVIIII]

The trailer looks great. Loved the shots of the oath, what I’m assuming is the first kinslaying, and the first glimpses of Gil-galad, Elendil and Pharazon.

How do they possibly have the rights to depict the Oath or the Kinslaying though?

 

[Bahnz]

How do they possibly have the rights to depict the Oath or the Kinslaying though?

They’ve said they’re able to request the use of bits and pieces from the wider lore from the estate, provided that nothing they portray contradicts anything in the source material.

 

[d4rk3lf]

They’ve said they’re able to request the use of bits and pieces from the wider lore from the estate, provided that nothing they portray contradicts anything in the source material.

Yeah, I've heard that too.

Tolkien Estate do a really poor job protecting Tolkien legacy.
The phrase: "nothing they portray contradicts anything in the source material", is not really something that will stop butchering professors work.
Aliens and giant robots, doesn't necessarily contradict middle earth, but they still don't belong there.

 

[d4rk3lf]

LOL
Yeah.. Peter Jacksons already did something like that with that giant mountains fight in Hobbit.
It's literally how: "nothing they portray contradicts anything in the source material" can go wrong.

 

[Aldarion]

LOL
Yeah.. Peter Jacksons already did something like that with that giant mountains fight in Hobbit.
It's literally how: "nothing they portray contradicts anything in the source material" can go wrong.

Eh, the entire Hobbit trilogy is an example of that. Though I'm not certain how much of that is actually Jackson's fault - wasn't he brought in fairly late? I think del Torro worked on it previously... he might have wanted to have Jaegers fight, hence the stone titans.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

They're in the book, so he can't be accused-- at least in this case -- of making things up. And if you have a guy in charge whose idea of directing is to put everything on steroids, this is what you're going to get.

 

[Aldarion]

They're in the book, so he can't be accused-- at least in this case -- of making things up. And if you have a guy in charge whose idea of directing is to put everything on steroids, this is what you're going to get.

Aren't stone giants just trolls? In Croatian translations at least, words for giants (divovi, orijaši) is in different places used for ents and for trolls.

So yes, Jackson's stone giants are "only 99%" invented.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

The Hobbit specifically calls them "stone-giants", so however various translations may render the words, they're differentiated from "trolls" in the original, where admittedly they're portrayed as playing a came of catch, rather than fighting.

Compare the similar sequence in LOTR, which makes The Hobbit's imagery more ambiguous, and open to "naturalistic" interpretation:

They heard eerie noises in the darkness round them. It may have been only a trick of the wind in the cracks and gullies of the rocky wall, but the sounds were those of shrill cries, and wild howls of laughter. Stones began to fall from the mountain-side, whistling over their heads, or crashing on the path beside them. Every now and again they heard a dull rumble, as a great boulder rolled down from hidden heights above.

'We cannot go further tonight,' said Boromir. 'Let those call it the wind who will; there are fell voices on the air; and those stones are aimed at us.'

In any event, PJ didn't invent the sequence in the movie out of whole cloth; he just amped it up to 11, as he does everything.

 

[d4rk3lf]

It's one thing when you have giants throwing and catching large stones.
It's completely other thing, when you have the whole mountains in shape of the human, fights.
That PJ interpretation was just crazy imho, and very unrealistic.

And yeah.. he does like to invent (stupid) things that doesn't exist, like these giant Dune type worms at the battle of fife armies.

 

[Annatar]

Aha, so now it's definitely and officially a pure sitcom series. This is probably the most ridiculous and hilarious "Arda" picture I've ever seen.
(Well almost. The antler guys are still in first place).

Here are a few more leaked images from Amazon's Numenor and Middle-earth:

Did you also notice that the pseudo-hobbits waddle like penguins because of their oversized prosthetic feet.

 

[Radaghast]

Those pics (in my post) have a distinct CW feel to them.

 

[Annatar]

By the way, during my further research I discovered the secret of how the proto-Harfoots evolved from the humans. This here might be the very first specimen and thus the progenitor of all Harfoots:

Spoiler:
The first Haarfoot is the third from the left.

 

[Annatar]

In the other, you see a few more nice looking snippets of Numenor and a couple of Elven cities in between confused action scenes. One of the Elven cities looks architecturally very similar to Peter Jackson's Rivendell, which I already found too cheesy at the time, especially since it also has nothing to do with Tolkien's own drawing. Still, the cities in this teaser are a small ray of hope. (We probably have John Howe to thank for that. So at least you can get some nice screenshots out of it as Tolkien inspired art.)

I have now watched the last trailer again in HD and paused more often. I have to say, if you don't see people (or only from a distance), these are indeed beautiful landscape shots and excellently designed CGI cities (seen from a distance or from above, the close-ups look cheap again). Detached from this series crap, these images could definitely be used as artistic accompaniment to the books:

This must be an Elven city, the only question is which one (click to enlarge):

Numenor:

Probably Tirion:

Wandering elves?

Numenor (confirmed):

Perhaps Mithlond?

Numenor:

Khazad-dum:

Maybe somewhere in Rhovanion?

Well, that might have been the best you can get out of the series...
And don't forget, Sauron also had a beautiful appearance at first.