The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it is the most expensive series in the history of television. Amazon paid less than $715 million to finance the first season, including $250 million to acquire the rights to Tolkien’s work. She thus dethrones Game Of Thrones and its $500 million budget for all eight seasons.

The first two episodes of this television blockbuster are available today, September 2, 2022, on Prime Video, from 3 a.m. Then, the other episodes will be added one by one, every week, on Friday at 6am, until October 14.

With this pharaonic project, Jeff Bezos is taking a lot of risks. Firstly because the series is not taken from a book by Tolkien but on the writer’s few creations aimed at preparing The Lord of the Rings. In fact, the showrunners had to take up a major challenge. That of remaining faithful to the universe created by Tolkien while bringing a wind of modernity. Successful bet ?

We had the chance to watch the first two episodes of the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Where does the series stand in relation to the films?

Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is appropriate to place the history of the series in the work of Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power therefore follows the creation of the rings of power, including the coveted one in Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

The story therefore tells of the rise of Sauron, the Last alliance between Elves and Men, and the rise and fall of the kingdom of Númenór. Jeff Bezos not having bought the rights to the previous works The Lord of the Ringsthe showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne therefore had to be creative in relying on the “appendixes” written by Tolkien on the sidelines of the Lord of the Rings.

The series therefore takes place before the adventures of Frodo and his friends, during the Second Age. So we are after the Great Wrath War. The very one that ended the First Age of Middle-earth. Thus, We follow the creation of the rings of power: for the Elves, for the Dwarves, for the Men and the famous single ring to govern them all at the hands of Sauron.

Don’t expect to see Hobbits, they don’t exist at this point in the story. The main characters will therefore be mainly elves, dwarves or even Numenoreans, ancestors of Aragorn. As for Sauron, it is the great mystery that Amazon will make us discover throughout this first season.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: our review (without spoilers)

As we explained, we had the chance to preview the first two episodes of the series. Manon and Romain give you their impressions, without spoilers. Attention, masterpiece in sight!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power… What can we say except that the new program signed Prime Video has clearly not stolen its place in our list of the most anticipated series of this year 2022. This series inspired by the universe of JRR Tolkien has given us put a good slap, ideal for the start of the school year. While the end of Game Of Thrones left a void on the side of fantasy series, this end of summer is marked by two behemoths: House of the Dragon on OCS and Rings of Power on the side of Amazon. If you like the genre, you have to treat yourself.

Visually, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a little gem. Photography, plans, frames, sets, visual effects. Prime Video flatters our retina with these first two episodes. Everything is aesthetically pleasing. We navigate from one country to another with ease. If there are a lot of characters and so many places, it’s not too annoying. Indeed, it gives a rhythm to the series. Neither too frantic nor too slow. But all the same, you will have to concentrate a minimum. Rings of Power is not one of those series that you watch out of the corner of your eye. As for our ears, they are not left out: the music of the series is captivating, and epic. Something to please fans of the genre.

The different plots, which will end up recrossing in a few episodes, we are sure, are captivating. Whether on the side of the wise Galadriel, determined to track down Sauron when most imagine him fallen, of an unexpected duo of an Elf soldier and a Human and their strange discoveries or even among the Pievelus with a confusing encounter, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power gently (but not too much) involves us in a universe that we know to be rich and marvelous. It remains to be seen where the series will take us but the beginning is promising. The range of characters we’ve encountered so far is interesting. Better, the latter are even already endearing for the most part. The actors chosen respect the participation of the creators and it is a success.

Watch on Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power should appeal to fans of the world of JRR Tolkien, delighted with this return to Middle-earth, as well as neophytes who are not familiar with the saga, both literary and cinematographic. At the end of these first two episodes, the bases are laid and the big show is there. Prime Video didn’t make fun of its subscribers with Rings of Power.

Series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the event that we have been waiting for for several years on Amazon Prime – the firm of Jeff Bezos has indeed bought ruby ​​on the nail the rights to the franchise drawn from the universe of JRR Tolkien. We knew from the outset that the powerful firm had planned to put the means there… and after seeing the first two episodes, we are simply amazed.

Music, actors, sets, special effects… great cinema invites itself into a fascinating and bewitching series. We put our hand to cut: you will want to see each episode several times. Whether it’s to glean a detail that you missed or simply admire the grandiose landscapes, the photography is so breathtaking.

© Prime Video

The quality of this series is so high that it would be almost unfair to compare it to the other event of the last few weeks, House of Dragons, which we nevertheless loved. That is to say the magnitude of the event. It immediately gives us the feeling that even diehard fans of JRR Tolkien’s universe will love it.

It must be said that this is apparently the most expensive series in history with a cost of 465 million dollars for eight episodes. The first few minutes of the series are dense with fantastic imagery, looking back on centuries of history and wars and struggle against the chief agent of Evil Morgoth and his lieutenant Sauron. In the twilight of the Second Age, many elves believe that Sauron was swept away by Morgoth’s defeat.

But the future queen of the elves, Galadriel, is convinced that Sauron is still hiding somewhere. She will spend centuries tracking him down. Without revealing the plot too much – which goes beyond the saga written by JRR Tolkien – the first two episodes plunge us into the different peoples of the universe. The Pievelus (ancestors of the Hobbits), the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, or even the fantastic characters of Númenór.

Of course, it will still be necessary to discover all the episodes to really form a more global opinion on this unprecedented incursion into Middle-earth. But from the outset, we must face the facts. Even if the first episodes gently set up the plot, we are already completely glued to our screen. Rare are the series that manage, in such a short time, to make us want to go to the end of such a rich and complex story.

It is therefore for all these reasons that we warmly recommend that you watch Rings of Power : if we had to choose only one essential series to watch this year, it would be this one!

Watch on Prime Video