Reviews

I keep getting pleasantly surprised by the show. At first it seems a bit simple which I wrote off because it's for teens/YA and I was basically watching it to pass time. As the episodes progress I am impressed by the increasing emotional and psychological depth being shown. Maybe my standards are low because there is so little well written content these days but I find myself enjoying the script much more than I thought I would. I also like the younger lead actors. They manage to bring teen/young adult realism to the story without coming off as whiny or melodramatic. I think they really do more justice to the original mythological themes and archetypes than most modern adaptations of Greek Mythologies and figures. Right use of power, pride/hubris, family loyalty, absent parents etc. These are big issues in the human condition and the story doesn't just blow through but actually gives them a reasonable treatment. I hope the show continues on this track as I am really enjoying it. Thanks to all the creative folks who make it happen.

One thing I do want to add is that as I got into the middle episodes of the season I noticed that a number of scenes in these episodes are really poorly lit. I know those scenes occur in dark settings but they were so dark I could barely see what was happening with my screen turned fully up and in a dark room. In normal light those scenes are terrible and I could not see 80% of what was happening.

Whether intentional or not, that is unprofessional work.

Very witty and funny. Some characters are written almost over the top but not too much, and bizarre in a refreshing way. Andy Tudyk is always great and everyone else really steps up and delivers good comedy acting. The young actress, Gracelyn Awad Rinke, that plays Sahar is fantastic. I can't say exactly why but I love how she plays her part. I laugh out loud every scene she is in. So yea give it a watch. Good comedy sci fi and lots of redeeming human expression to give it some heart. Not too much else to say but it is nice to find something well written and not low brow. Thanks for the show...

Not really as bad as everyone seems to think would have been a 6 or 7 without the unfunny idiocy of Nick Cannon. Good cast otherwise but he just was so out of place in this film. Everything about him just screams unffunny jerk who thinks he is very funny. And the way he acted and carried himself, no way he could have been an organizer or leader of these people in any way. His narrating was the least annoying thing about his presence, and it still way dumb, but his laugh, jokes and bits were terribly unfunny and annoying. Just removes any flow from the rest of the cast and movie which was pretty good. Also his body language and demeanor just screamed "I am pretending to be a gang banger but I suck at it' Everyone else was fine and the story wasn't bad either.

Not a bad premise for a story but really badly written all the way around from start to finish. From the small details to the larger plot points this is a terribly written story. People act like idiots and the way in which the episode unfolds is literally ridiculous. It makes everyone on Enterprise look like weak idiots. As I re-watch the series I am remembering why I FFed through a bunch of episodes like this. I am going to assume that they intended this to be a blow off episode and knew the writing was bad and didn't care. I like the Xindi/temporal cold war story line, but episodes like this are why the show got canceled after 4 seasons, especially given that they exhausted the good ongoing plot lines at that point. More evidence it was really the show runners that ruined Enterprise not 'Star Trek Fatigue'. The B Boys were really messing the show up. And just to reiterate what everyone know and suffers through, 20 years later the theme music is still horrible and hurts me when I forget to forward it. Another huge B boys error they refused to correct and instead doubled down and cemented their reputation as total jerks who killed Enterprise and any hope of another show for...oh how long was it...16 years.

I generally hate musicals. Some parts of this were tough and not what I look for in Star Trek but they took some creative chances too so points for that. A few of the musical numbers were actually good I have to admit, begrudgingly ;) I Especially liked the Spock, Chapel and La'an ones for sure.

Good that at least one other reviewer pointed out the Bunny/Buffy connection with the musical episode...But I did not see anyone point out that the idea for a Quantum Improbability Drive/Field is right out of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fun and silly Sci-Fi Plot device. But the spirit of fun was good enough to counter act my disdain for musicals and I got through the episode, enjoyably. Lots of important character development from the momentum of the season prior to the finally as well.

Oh Yea .... The Klingons. A few of those moments are also worth the price of admission.

Sometimes ya just gotta sing it out...

What can I say about how foolish and tropy this episode is. Just a bunch of useless drama. Very little to advance the already tired story that continues to depart from any real similarity to the source material. Just to be fair: I have no problem with lots of mixed ethnic casting. I actually like seeing it and it in no way takes away from story. I also don't mind a reasonable amount of re-gendering of characters if it also does not detract from the story, which I do feel it does a bit in Foundation, but not so much that I really care either. Most of the female actors are good at their craft so no real problem there. With that out of the way... the writers and show runners just create a bunch of needless soapy drama and tropes that they must think makes the story more compelling? Not. Or perhaps they think young people will not watch SciFi if there are not adversarial shoot out battles, big explosions of spaceships, and love scenes that last more than 15 seconds. All of this just sucks screen time away from actual plot development and story advancement. Foundation (yes the show not the books) albeit with some needed changes for screen adaptation, should be about the story not the characters. Sure we need some characters to like and root for, but they should be devices to advance the story, Not the actual story. I expected better from Apple and was hoping given the unique position that AppleTV+ has they might have gone for a more nuanced and cerebral show and not just defaulted to the easy Space Opera genre. I think they are underestimating their audience. I wrote this now because I am rewatching the show before the next season comes out this summer and episode 5 is most definitely the perfect example of the the points I am looking to make. So my 3 rating is for this episode and I would give the whole show a 6 or a 7 as a standalone, but compared to the book's story and what the show could be it is maybe a 5. I do want to say that I like and respect most of the cast and their work, as well as the high quality production values and visuals which are exceptional.

...But Kit is still a punk. This was funnier and I am starting to see that many of the flaws are actually intentional decisions by the writer/director meant to be what? Satirical? Nonsensically funny? Anachronistically Ridiculous Jokes? Attempts to be edgy as in, look how cool we are mixing modern snark with fantasy genre? Look how hip we are not being bound by traditional fantasy culture and daring to be modern?

I'm not really sure but clearly they were going for cool young and hip. I think this would have gone over better on the CW maybe? I did like the trolls though and their language and site gags were actually refreshingly funny if also a bit out of place. Time will tell if we look back at this and decide they took a chance trying to something different and came out cool or just foolish. Oh Yea, Kit is still a punk. I mean I kinda like Ruby Cruz. I now don't think it's her acting that's the problem. She's not bad, has some stage presence, and she's attractive. But they wrote and directed her character that way, so blame the show runners, because, you know, Kit is still a punk.

This show happily surprised me. Good acting. Good writing (in a time of pulp trash writing) that attempted to be honest to the source material (at a time when most companies are using established IP to draw viewers while disregarding the original stories). Balanced casting (in an era of overcompensation.) So yes it is nice to write a good review for a well made show. If you like this genre and/or anyone involved in creating it, give it a watch. If Netflix can hold more closely to this kind of production model, i.e. Quality over quantity with good writing, they may have a chance of continuing to be an industry leader.

NOTE - after finishing the series I downgraded my rating to a 3.

Ok So where to begin. I gave it a 2.5 stars or a 5 out of 10 because I don't want to seem like I am review bombing. I notice the positive reviews seem very general whilst the mediocre and bad reviews seem much more specific, which I find telling. Yes the Cinematography is great and most of the production values are also very good, though some are off key as well. After two episodes I have little idea where the plot is going and the scene writing seems very weak. The dwarves are pretty well represented but all the humans except the one lead female seem like idiots. The Harfoots/halflings are kinda cool. The elves seem very poorly represented and very off key on so many levels. So yes, I have read just about everything JRR wrote himself, but I don't mind some adaptation for TV/Film either, but this really seems to miss Tolkien's tone. Most of the Elves just don't look or act like.. well...Elves...Period. That's a big problem. Sorry but it is. Many are miscast. Elrond? Come on. No dis to the actor, just wildly miscast and badly written. Most of the Elves are poorly written and directed, and they are the backbone of the story here. I like the actress playing Galadriel, but the way her character is written is ridiculous and not very engaging or likable. It seems everyone making entertainment content from classics wants it to be something it isn't. They would have been better off making a different show that was original or based on something they actually wanted to be somewhat faithful to in their representation. Instead it feels like a rip off.

Most of the dynamic and action based scenes have way too close in camera work and are jolting and unclear. And they jump back and forth too quickly between story lines so it is hard to get invested. Written for people with really short attention spans perhaps? The CGI is ok but I honestly don't see where they spent all the $ unless it was in a critic payoff slush fund. Or perhaps most of the critics are not really familiar with the source work at all and don't know the stories and tone that this is supposed to be based off of.

I had trouble getting through both episodes. Honestly, most of the adult characters seem whiney, immature and kind of stupid. Many of these folks are already classic adult developed characters at this point in the timeline, not the whelps they seem to be here. Again, very poor writing and character development. I am struggling to like or care about anyone in the show, though I do like Arondir & Nori.

I will probably keep watching the show for the visuals and the pastime but it seems like it should be so much more than it is. I really don't mind creative license to fill in the plot development if it's well done. It just seems like it is not well done here. They could make things up that match the gist and tone of Tolkien's second age, but instead it almost seems like a completely different world/story which is not how they presented the show in the lead up marketing campaign. I mean they have been hawking this thing mercilessly for months and months like the second coming of Tolkien. And really building on that point, It seems like they used the name to capture an easy audience when they did not have enough of the rights, or the desire to do a solid adaptation. Seems like a marketing gimmick. Meanwhile Amazon has bought and tied up the rights to many fine 20th Century SciFi and Fantasy works by the top talent of the time and then failed to bring them to market. The works of Roger Zelazny and Marion Zimmer Bradley are two great examples of fantastic properties that they have bought and then let languish, where they could be first to the table in high value adaptations of the Chronicles of Amber, or the Darkover stories just to name a few. Instead they went for the easy name recognition and then made a visual spectacle with little real substance. What a shame, and a squandering of both opportunity and a ridiculous amount of $.

I could say more but I don't want to just rag on the show. I know many fine people put their talent and hard work into it, and taken as a stand alone perhaps it is not so bad. Unfortunately for everyone except people who just take whatever they are given, it was not presented as a stand alone, but rather and important adaptation of Tolkien's work, which it clearly is not.

If you don't care about Tolkien much or any continuity of the world building or tone, then one can watch it as reasonably entertaining eye candy I suppose, in an entertainment world that is long on content but short on quality.

I wrote this to inform not to simply be critical.

Cheers.

I would echo what the other positive raters had to say while at the same time mentioning that he is not that average actually in that he seems to be humble, kind, and he treats her like a real person and not just a hot chick, which honestly many attractive women do actually like, and is not all that common with men these days. Can be a bit juvenile at times but that is part of this genre to some extent so there you go.

Clearly the low ratings are coming from people who don't like a mirror shown up to their ugly side, but if you have spent time in conservative rural places like that in AZ or TX they did not miss the mark by much with this movie. For the budget and design of this movie they did just fine, and yes Val plays that role pretty well, as do others. Yes it's a movie so things might be just a bit dramatic, but not unrealistic surprisingly enough. Go for it.

The first 2 movies were way better. Perfect example of Hollywood knuckleheads trying fix something that ain't broke.

What you see is what you get. Good cast. Well acted. Some of the Marine drama is a bit much but I guess those guys in his unit were young with no combat experience so that is how it can go. There were a few obvious tactical blunders, but again, gotta have some drama. Entertaining and well paced. Fun watch. Enjoy.

Acting was not bad actually. Set production and macro cinematography also not bad. The script is really stupid, unbelievable to the point of ridiculousness. Oh yea and the scene direction is horrible. I mean really really bad. The first 30 mins or so fools you into thinking it might be a good movie, but then these supposedly brilliant and experienced people act like low IQ teenagers with no training. Also the terrible scene setups kill any interest as well. Bad strobing lighting used way too much, bad camera angles, and any time any action occurs we get the asinine "shaky camera" to the point of wishing you might run into the director in some dark side street so you can have the satisfaction of punching him or her out. Seriously. Don't believe any of the high reviews. They are either from people involved with the project on some business level or from people who are... well people you don't want to take recommendations from. Sorry to burst your bubble or offend anyone, but I am just trying to prevent the emotional and psychological anguish that comes with actually watching this film.

Where to start... The writing went down the tubes for this season and not impressed with the direction either. I like the cast and they did fine with what they had but... OMG most of the major plot points were either rehashes of the last 2 season and very boring, or complete turn arounds for characters that make no sense. The season finale felt like a sick joke honestly. Now just another poorly written soap opera now after 2 really good seasons...sigh, what else is new with TV.