Nick1Ø66

Gotta admit, I was bored about 30 seconds into what was only a two-minute clip. Just looks like more of the same.

That said, after Titanic & Avatar, both of which were predicted to be flops, you really can't bet against Cameron. 

I watched the first two episodes and stopped. But then heard a lot great things about the last episode and decided to skip to it with a friend.
 
Genuinely cracked out loud at the ending...how does this kind of shit get past the writers' room?
 
 
Bhaha is this for real? Jeez...what a mess.

Don't forget putting a sword into a rock to create Mordor.
 
Usually it's pulling a sword out of a stone that causes all the fuss.

Don't forget putting a sword into a rock to create Mordor.
 
Usually it's pulling a sword out of a stone that causes all the fuss.

Are you trying to tell us something with your Avatar, Chen?

I mean, he is the character I identify most with (not project myself upon - actually identify) in the cycle, a lot of it precisly because of these flaws.
 
Some of it is also a heritage thing: we all know Tolkien had put something of the Jews into his later conception of the Dwarves, and for an Israeli Jew, there's something very endearingly familiar both about their uprooted existence and yearning for home (honestly, The Misty Mountains ensemble may well have been the Israeli national anthem), but also in their grudges and secretiveness.

So tell me this...why didn't Thorin take Thranduil's offer of help in return for the White Gems Of Lasgalen? Thorin says he doesn't trust Thranduil, and fair enough, but it seems to me he didn't have to, it was in fact Thranduil who would have to be the trusting one, by releasing Thorin without any assurance he'd live up to his end of the bargain (indeed, something Thorin failed to do with people of Laketown). 
 
None of it really made any sense from Thorin's point of view. Either spend a few hundred years in an Elf prison or be set free and then do what you please. Hmmmmm....

Yeah, but according to the movie, in Thorin's eyes Thranduil helped in the massacre of his people.
That's not quite the same level as trusting Elrond to take a look at his map.
Thorin will swallow his own pride if it helps his ultimate goal, but bowing to Thranduil would have meant not only swallowing his own pride, but betraying the lives of his fellow and fallen dwarves.

Yes, I think by the time we get to Thranduil's, Thorin's decision-making proces is starting to become more than a little bit compromised (as well it should - he's a tragic hero!) but I think audiences can understand his rage and his mistrusting of the Elven king who, we learn from dialogue, refused to help Thorin's people not once but twice. We also know Thranduil is duplicitous: he tells the Orc he'd set him free and...well...
 
But I think after Thorin's brought back to the cell, its pointed out that one of his calculations was his awareness that Bilbo is still out there and working towards their release, which works to endear him to the audience again.
 
Certainly, by the time we get to Laketown, I think Thorin is in the wrong. For any number of reasons, I think Bard is making a lot more sense in that sequence than is Thorin, who is very clearly and cynically playing on the greed of the Master; and, of course, as we know, Bard is ultimately proven right.
 
Again, no such luck with Galadriel: we all know she's going to be proven right; whereas Thorin is proven wrong, and pays the ultimate price for it.

More like a weird off-putting gnome than an elf

Right...
 
 
Right!
 
 
So I guess we're getting The War of the Rohirrim before Season Two. It is interesting to see some more believable budget figures: so this cost around $400 million to make, with that budget spread across 8.5 hours. So its big, but its not that big.

There is no point discussing this, but this is absurd.
 
Then I guess Galadriel should have sailed the ocean for 5 hours worth of TV straight.

which is done more economically and, I would suggest, a lot more effectively.

That's a character Setup, and not a plot.
Galadriel loses her Brother to Sauron, so she vows to destroy him.
It's the equivalent of The Hobbit's prologue setting up Thorin's hate for elves and journey back to Erebor.

Yes, it's a good observation. Thorin has more reason than most to distrust the Elves, and this distrust (and his own stubbornness) is the root of his demeanor towards Elrond.  But it's never taken too far. Yes, Thorin is stubborn and distrustful, but not unreasonably or aggressively so (well, perhaps somewhat unreasonably), and he never veers into the outright hostility that the character Amazon is calling Galadriel does.  I get where they're going with Galadriel, they want us to write off her hostility to this obsession with Sauron, but it just doesn't work. Jackson wisely never makes Thorin unlikable to the extent Amazon does (and credit to Armitage for playing these scenes deftly), and I don't trust the writers of ROP with the deftness to redeem her character.
 
In fact, for all of my complaints about The Hobbit, Richard Armitage's performance as Thorin is not one of them. While far from the book Thorin, Armitage realises Jackson's tragic-hero vision of the character perfectly.  One scene in particular has always stood out to me. When the Dwarves are having dinner at Rivendell, Elrond explains the storied history of Orcrist to Thorin, and concludes by handing the Elvish blade back to Thorin saying "may it serve you well."  The nod of acknowledgement that Thorin gives Elrond in this moment is played brilliantly by Armitage. It's a subtle moment, but to me conveyed several things at once...surprise on Thorin's part, because he may have feared Elrond would want to reclaim such a fabled weapon back for the Elves (and perhaps rightfully so, given Thorin found it in a troll hoard), along with respect...respect for the gesture, and mutual respect for the respect Elrond afforded him as one leader of his people to another. It's a brief, subtle moment in what is otherwise not a great dinner scene, but remains one of my favourites in those films.

Yes, it's a good observation. Thorin has more reason than most to distrust the Elves, and this distrust (and his own stubbornness) is the root of his demeanor towards Elrond.  But it's never taken too far. Yes, Thorin is stubborn and distrustful, but not unreasonably or aggressively so (well, perhaps somewhat unreasonably), and he never veers into the outright hostility that the character Amazon is calling Galadriel does.  I get where they're going with Galadriel, they want us to write off her hostility to this obsession with Sauron, but it just doesn't work. Jackson wisely never makes Thorin unlikable to the extent Amazon does (and credit to Armitage for playing these scenes deftly), and I don't trust the writers of ROP with the deftness to redeem her character.
 
In fact, for all of my complaints about The Hobbit, Richard Armitage's performance as Thorin is not one of them. While far from the book Thorin, Armitage realises Jackson's tragic-hero vision of the character perfectly.  One scene in particular has always stood out to me. When the Dwarves are having dinner at Rivendell, Elrond explains the storied history of Orcrist to Thorin, and concludes by handing the Elvish blade back to Thorin saying "may it serve you well."  The nod of acknowledgement that Thorin gives Elrond in this moment is played brilliantly by Armitage. It's a subtle moment, but to me conveyed several things at once...surprise on Thorin's part, because he may have feared Elrond would want to reclaim such a fabled weapon back for the Elves (and perhaps rightfully so, given Thorin found it in a troll hoard), along with respect...respect for the gesture, and mutual respect for the respect Elrond afforded him as one leader of his people to another. It's a brief, subtle moment in what is otherwise not a great dinner scene, but remains one of my favourites in those films.

Yes, it's a good observation. Thorin has more reason than most to distrust the Elves, and this distrust (and his own stubbornness) is the root of his demeanor towards Elrond.  But it's never taken too far. Yes, Thorin is stubborn and distrustful, but not unreasonably or aggressively so (well, perhaps somewhat unreasonably), and he never veers into the outright hostility that the character Amazon is calling Galadriel does.  I get where they're going with Galadriel, they want us to write off her hostility to this obsession with Sauron, but it just doesn't work. Jackson wisely never makes Thorin unlikable to the extent Amazon does (and credit to Armitage for playing these scenes deftly), and I don't trust the writers of ROP with the deftness to redeem her character.
 
In fact, for all of my complaints about The Hobbit, Richard Armitage's performance as Thorin is not one of them. While far from the book Thorin, Armitage realises Jackson's tragic-hero vision of the character perfectly.  One scene in particular has always stood out to me. When the Dwarves are having dinner at Rivendell, Elrond explains the storied history of Orcrist to Thorin, and concludes by handing the Elvish blade back to Thorin saying "may it serve you well."  The nod of acknowledgement that Thorin gives Elrond in this moment is played brilliantly by Armitage. It's a subtle moment, but to me conveyed several things at once...surprise on Thorin's part, because he may have feared Elrond would want to reclaim such a fabled weapon back for the Elves (and perhaps rightfully so, given Thorin found it in a troll hoard), along with respect...respect for the gesture, and mutual respect for the respect Elrond afforded him as one leader of his people to another. It's a brief, subtle moment in what is otherwise not a great dinner scene, but remains one of my favourites in those films.

And in perfect prequelitis fashion, in the 3 hours that I've seen it gave me absolutely no reason to care about any of its characters or places or events other than attempts like "ooh remember this from LotR? Ooh she's in LotR! Wow, they go here in LotR too! Ooh he's like someone in LotR! Neat, isn't it, they will be the folks you know from LotR!"

Good grief, that was awful.
 
The show is just full of poorly written, cliché-ridden TV tropes has little to do with Tolkien. It's getting worse, not better, by the week.  It has the same beats, and flaws, of any other average streaming show, except that it has that huge budget. And what of that budget?  Yes, the settings are spectacular and very well done. But the big, epic battle they were leading up to felt decidedly small scale, and even...amateurish. And the writing...my God...when you start having your supposedly brilliant and heroic main characters act stupidly in order to move the plot forward (e.g. the misdirection with the evil sword that was obvious from the get go) you know you've hit rock bottom.
 
I’ve seen people praising episode 6 as “one of the greatest hours of TV ever”, and to each their own, I don’t begrudge anyone enjoying the show. But to me, at this point all ROP is doing is taking away the mystery and magic of Middle-Earth by strip mining its history to facilitate made up "origin stories". 
 
If there's anything that's surprising, it's that it's even more fan fiction than I suspected it would be. The whole story is basically TV writers making up, well, everything. The show is not going to get better, the DNA on this one is coded. I might finish the season, because I hate leaving things unfinished, but after that I'm out. 

To be honest, he does look like an elf.

I think he does marvellous work as Elrond, for what its worth.

It varies. I'm not feeling Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad: too self-conscious. Also Arondir is played too stoic by Cruz-Cordova, and Galadriel too beligerent by Clark. Can't stand the Brandyfoot parents.
 
But Elrond is a revelation! Now, if only he wasn't embroiled in a project involving getting Mithril Indoor Tanning...

They do, except for Galadriel. There is nothing behind her eyes and that's where most of the acting should take place.