The Rings of Power: Better in Season 2, but… (review)

Undeniably, the series is making progress. More spectacular, more dramatic too, it is however still far from competing with the Lord of the Rings films. The fault lies in a litany of soporific characters.

Olympic-shaped rings at last? Two years of waiting, and here is season 2 of the most expensive series of all time. The Rings of Power begin their new chapter on Prime Video starting today. Eight new episodes that will run until October and will tell the story of the rise of Sauron and Mordor. Warning: spoilers!

In the wake of the Halbrand revelation, Tolkien's legendary dark lord now comes forward with his face uncovered and presents himself as the unexpected protagonist of this season 2, a damaged and complex anti-hero, far from the elusive demonic figure of Peter Jackson.Sauron thinks he wants the good of Middle-earth by gathering the peoples behind him! He wants to unite them in a sense“, decrypts in First the director Charlotte Brandstrom (in issue 554 of the magazine currently on newsstands). A surprising, almost human approach to the big bad guy of Lord of the Ringswho dances with Celebrimbor the blacksmith and manipulates his world with a rather jubilant malice. Therein lies the central interest of this new salvo of episodes, which begins with a great and joyful introductory sequence: a flashback taking us back to the end of the First Age, just after the fall of Sauron's master, the Vala (a divine figure in Tolkien) named Morgoth.

Fans of the British author will enjoy this digression into the lore Tolkienian, which in fact constitutes the very essence of the series. The Rings of Power is not directly adapted from a novel but is similar to an aggregate of references taken from the Silmarillion and other appendices of the creator's work. A careful extrapolation of the clues given by the writer in his writings, which thus offers an interesting look at Sauron and the creation of the rings in the middle of the Second Age.

The problem is that Sauron is generally the only character to survive in this revisited Middle-earth. Revolving around the growing Evil, Galadriel, Elrond or Prince Durin do not really exist. Weighed down by extraordinarily soporific dialogues, the heroes of the Rings of Power don't give off anything. Never. Like the Welshwoman Morfydd Clarkso powerful in Saint Maud but completely stuck in his elven armor, no emotion transpires from this immense fantasy fresco, which definitely cannot reach the next level: that of the grandiose epic saga which makes your hair stand on end, when Aragorn draws his sword or Gandalf yells “You shall not pass!“

Especially since the political procrastination around the rings is much too poor to take us on board and tease the accuracy of a House of the Dragon in this area. Undeniably, the Prime Video series is still far from the dramatic heights of the genre's references… But there is still some improvement! Compared to a desperately boring first season, this season 2 has found rhythm. A certain style, which relies on a darker, dirtier aesthetic. Less smooth and more spectacular, The Rings of Power finally puts its (very big) budget on the screen by multiplying the impressive sequences, right up to a finale that really packs a punch (we won't say more).

The only question is how the series will be able to last three more seasons after that, to get to the famous battle of Dagorlad – the one told in the preamble to Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson – which will show the fall of Sauron against the army of Elendil. The focus already announced by the authors at the end of season 5. Do they intend to meticulously tell us the fall of Númenor and the creation of the Shire by the Hobbits, following step by step the lore Tolkien's? This visualization of the Middle-earth history books will surely delight fans, but may also stun everyone else in the process. “Not all who wander are lost…” wrote the Englishman. Let's hope that this will also apply to the scriptwriters of Rings of Power.