Okay, so as you all might've heard, Amazon secured - what was it - a multi-million dollar deal to turn The Lord of the Rings into a TV series spanning multiple seasons. If that raises some red flags and sets off countless alarms in your head, I don't blame you; that was my initial reaction upon first hearing the news, as well. Despite what many headlines would have you believe, this isn't - in any way, shape, or form - a reboot of the cinematic masterpiece that is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but rather the coverage of events that take place in between LotR and The Hobbit. That probably won't set too many people at ease (myself included), but, at the very least, I find it to be an interesting prospect. So, with that out of the way, allow me to talk about...
Just to be clear, my ass is still squarely on the fence about this. I can't imagine anyone thinking that this would've been a good idea, and I'm even more baffled as to why no one's trying to tackle any of the events in The Silmarillion with this project. But, by and large, I'm cynical about this idea. As a life-long fan of LotR, however, I feel personally obligated to talk about this.
As of now, nothing else about the show has been confirmed, other than that it's happening, that the events in the show take place in between LotR and The Hobbit, and that it's set to be the most expensive one ever. No one's been cast, brought on board to be part of the writing team, tasked to direct, nada, zip, zilch. Since there's nothing in the way for me to talk about in that department, I'll instead talk about the things I want to see from the series, as far as creative and narrative approaches go.
First on this list is something that I, personally, feel needs to be said, and that would be for this series to...
BE GROUNDED
One of the things that made Peter Jackson's trilogy so revolutionary when it came out, was how well put-together the world was. It was a fantasy setting, for sure, but you bought the things that were going on in it. The movies, while far from being the most realistic things ever, were grounded in some sense of reality and believability that helped heighten the viewer's sense of being immersed in that world. That was one of the original trilogy's biggest strengths.
Sure, we have magic, elves, talking trees, and a flaming eye in the sky, but you never really questioned how much sense each of those things made. Nothing was ever too over-the-top, and everything in the world seemed to be bound to some form of natural order.
This sense of realism was something I think was lost in translation when PJ made The Hobbit trilogy. Granted, The Hobbit and LotR couldn't be further from each other thematically, but the movies should at least feel as if they're in the same world. Some parts of The Hobbit movies tied in nicely to the LotR trilogy, but - especially after looking back on it - there are a lot of things that don't quite gel too well with the aesthetics established in the latter. There are also things in the former that, even in a fantasy setting, make no sense.
Like this f***ing thing...
I love Middle Earth as much as the next guy, and I loved Desolation of Smaug to death, but I'll be the first to tell you that The Hobbit trilogy goes from good, to great, to just really stupid. Instead of coming off as whimsy like the book was, some of the things in The Hobbit movies were dumb - enjoyably dumb sometimes, but dumb nonetheless.
Like I said earlier, only some parts of The Hobbit felt as if they tied in nicely, at least in my book - Bag End, Lake Town, and Smaug come to mind. However, there's just so much they changed that I had a hard time believing that this...
Was the same animal as this...
See what I mean? Aesthetic changes aside, there's also so much dumb shit that goes on - especially in Battle of the Five Armies - that wouldn't even make sense in the original trilogy. I can get that Orcs and Trolls from different parts of the world would, obviously, look different, but Trolls with bricks on their heads, flails for arms, and maces for legs?
Don't get me started on this. Legolas does incredible shit but this is too much.
I might be nit-picking, sure, but at the end of the day, even the 60-foot-tall elephant tanks in Return of the King functioned like real(ly big) animals would.
One of the most important things this series needs to do is to feel as if it's part of the world established in the original trilogy, since it looks like that's the direction the show's going to follow. It's got to look, feel, and sound the part if it wants to play with the big boys and convince us, the viewers, that this is, in fact, an extension of the movies.
This actually creates a nice segway for the next thing I'd like to see Amazon's LotR series do, and that would be for them to...
BALANCE PRACTICAL AND DIGITAL EFFECTS
I'm not here to argue with anyone as to whether or not practical effects are better than digital. That's a tired argument, and it's not the point of this segment. The point I wanna drive at here, is that the show, if they want to really capture that signature LotR magic, needs to find a good balance between practical and digital effects.
In recent years, we've seem how good movies can look with a nice blend of practical effects and CGI. Star Wars and Mad Max: Fury Road have managed to pull this off very well, and Blade Runner 2049 was an absolute master-class in visuals. Since the upcoming show has - for a lack of better terms - a massive-ass budget behind it, it would be nice to see them taking that same approach.
Especially since blending the two was integral to the look of the original trilogy in the first place.
It might sound like an argument a hard-to-please hardcore nerd would make, but there is credit to it. Having real costumes and prosthetic work made the best battles in LotR as believable and exciting as they are. Having live elements in those action sequences helps pull the viewer into the world you're trying to build.
Using CGI is perfectly fine for embellishing other practical elements and for doing things practical effects can't do (such as make Trolls and Dragons), and can also be used (to great effect) to build things, but an over-reliance on it can lead to the whole thing feeling artificial, which is not something anyone wants to hear when they talk about LotR. The series was revolutionary for a reason, and that was because the world felt like a real place. If they really wanna make this show, they have to get the world right.
A gritty, grounded world, with a great blend of practical and digital elements.
It sounds like a bit of a stretch to ask for it, but given that this would be the most expensive series of all time, I feel like this is the least that they could do.
Just so I don't bore you, I'll get straight to what I feel like is the most important thing that needs to be addressed about how they should go about making this show. I mean, sure, some other thoughts might pop into my head after I finish posting this, but what I'm about to say now, is the most important thing (to me, anyway) that the show-runners need to do to make this whole series work, and that would be...
DON'T MAKE IT LIKE GAME OF THRONES
Okay, look - I love Game of Thrones as much as the next guy (despite having found the previous season quite disappointing), but the last thing a LotR-based TV series needs to do is to be like GoT. While there are more mature high-fantasy adaptations out there that should borrow elements from GoT (I'm looking at you, Witcher), LotR is not and should never be one of them. It seems like nerd blasphemy for me to be saying this, but I honestly feel that Middle Earth does not need to go down that road.
There's actually a really simple reason behind why I feel this way - it's because LotR has never been this adult-oriented piece of literature. The books and the movies (which might have their own moments of gratuitous violence) have always held universal appealed, which is why they're so loved and revered all over the world. The themes of LotR are, while mature, universal and can be appreciated by anyone with a soul. Middle Earth never needed to show skin or slit throats to succeed or draw attention to itself - it succeeded on its merits of containing great, well-crafted stories.
But - but, you love Cate Blanchett!
Yes, I do worship Cate Blanchett to some degree, but that doesn't mean I feel as if she needs a story arc that would require her to show some skin. I don't hate that GoT has a lot of edge to it - it's certainly very brave for doing so, and I like the show quite a lot - but I just don't think LotR really needs that sort of edge to it. Even if you did wanna mess around with the material just a little bit, I still feel as if it would be unwarranted, and, on top of everything, kinda disrespectful to Tolkien himself (who, by the way, was a devout Catholic and hid some religious undertones in his writings).
Even other spin-offs that play around with the source material hardly ever sexualize anything within the mythos. Shadow of Mordor (which was a great game, by the way) was incredibly violent, but was never sexual at all. And while there is a lot of sexualization in mainstream film and television these days, I still don't feel as if one necessarily needs sex to tell a great story.
The reason I bring this point up is because quite literally every outlet that's covered this announcement has either said that this was going to be, or that Amazon said it was going to be a "rival to Game of Thrones". As far as production values go, sure. Go ahead - be as bombastic with your budget as you like. Just, you know, leave the Game of Thrones-ing to George RR Martin. Like I said, I love Game of Thrones, but I just don't feel like Lord of the Rings needs all that edge.
In the end, I still can't say I'm too optimistic for this going forward. I just hope they have a good writing team behind it, and pay the right amount of respect to the source material, while still trying something new. To quote Gareth Edwards - one of my favorite directors working today...
If you're too respectful of it, and you don't dare do anything new or different, or take a risk, then what are you bringing to the table?
It looks like there's no stopping this, and the best I can do is hope. So, those are just some of the things I'd like to see Amazon take into consideration - or just plain do - when getting their new Lord of the Rings TV series into production. Do you agree with some of the points on my list? Do you disagree? Is there something I might've missed?
Did you think I ragged on Battle of the Five Armies too much?
Leave a comment below, let me know. As always, this has been Rafa. Stay classy.
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