review sessions before the big Tolkien show

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO – FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2 – SERIES

In the months preceding the publication of the rings of power, this September 2, the series was shrouded, by Prime Video, Amazon’s entertainment department, in an atmosphere of secrecy rarely seen. Only the price tag stuck out from this mysterious packaging: a budget of one billion dollars for five seasons of a story set a few centuries before The Hobbit and the trilogy Lord of the Rings, the novels of JRR Tolkien, adapted to the cinema by Peter Jackson.

It is not the intention here to give an idea of ​​the rings of power, since only two of the eight episodes of the first season have been shown, simply to chronicle a sumptuous beginning (which one would expect, given the means made available to the production) and perfectly predictable, sumptuous – and inevitably boring.

Reassure the faithful of the saga

The task of the team of screenwriters led by JD Payne and Patrick McKay borders on the impossible: it is necessary both to present the universe to neophytes (the first of Jackson’s films is over twenty years old) and to reassure the faithful of Tolkien . The former are thrown fully dressed into a broth of culture teeming with species (humans, elves, dwarfs, hobbits, orcs, etc.) in territories with complex geography. The latter monitor attacks on orthodoxy with not always benevolent attention, no doubt reassured by the demands that the heirs of JRR Tolkien (his heirs and a foundation) have imposed.

From these constraints springs – for the springing, it will be necessary to wait – an interminable exposition, which is based on the elements provided by Tolkien in the prologue to the Lord of the Rings. Middle-earth, the continent of humans, dwarves and harfoots (the ancestors of the hobbits) is now shared with the elves, who have come to fight the forces of evil. The alliance’s victory seems complete, but an elven warrior – Galadriel (Morfydd Clark, who sounds more like a disgruntled trail instructor than a top strategist) – is convinced that the orcs in the service of darkness are still on their feet. of war.

The spectacular digital and real sets (in New Zealand as for the trilogy) serve as a background for long monologues in voiceover, for explanatory dialogues stated with a seriousness and a lack of passion which undoubtedly make them more intelligible but also boring. .

Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona – author of The orphanage, a horror feature film, and a franchise film Jurassic Park- conforms in every way to the iconography set up by the writer, then by Peter Jackson, perhaps prevented by the safeguards installed at the request of the Tolkien Foundation. Innovations are due to progress in digital imaging, which now allows more finesse. The sometimes provocative bad taste of the New Zealand director has given way to a finesse that often borders on insipidity. It will be necessary to wait until the end of the second episode so that the rhythm accelerates and that the horrific threats finally manifest themselves with a little energy.

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