I Think We Can All Agree That Amazon’s ‘Rings Of Power’ Gets One Thing Just Perfect

One of the big questions fans are asking themselves as they watch Amazon’s The Rings Of Power, is does it feel like Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings? (Or sometimes, does it feel like Peter Jackson’s movies?)

In my review of the first two episodes, I certainly felt that way. The building blocks were all there: A sweeping and beautifully realized world filled with elves and their glittering cities, dwarves in their mountain halls, and hobbits—called Harfoots here—that were every bit as charming as those of the Shire.

Admittedly, I’ve started to question my initial assessment somewhat after a pretty disappointing third episode, but I still find myself intrigued by many of the characters and curious to see where their stories go, from Arondir the elf, to Nori the Harfoot and her mysterious Stranger friend, to Durin and Disa of Khazad-dûm and Halbrand in his cell. I’m certainly curious to see what goes down in Númenor and Eregion (even if the timelines are a bit wonky).

Other issues have arisen—Galadriel is not winning me over, for one; nor is the writing we encountered in Episode 3—but I’m willing to give the show a chance and find its feet. A bit of stumbling out the gates isn’t the end of the world.

But I’m not here to speculate on what the show might get right or might get wrong. I’m here to thank the Valar that this show’s orcs look like the handsome devil at the top of this post and not this poor, unfortunate sap from The Hobbit trilogy:

Jackson’s second Tolkien trilogy lacked much of what made The Lord Of The Rings so great, including a reason to be three movies long. Following in the footsteps of George Lucas, CGI replaced many practical effects and many scenes were filmed in front of green-screens rather than on real set.

Indeed, the process of CGI-ifying The Hobbit made Gandalf actor Ian McKellen “pretty miserable” at the time.

“It was so distressing and off-putting and difficult that I thought ‘I don’t want to make this film if this is what I’m going to have to do’,” McKellen said of his work on the films. “It’s not what I do for a living. I act with other people, I don’t act on my own.”

Wizards weren’t the only ones suffering . . . clearly.

As you can see from the orc above, CGI simply cannot replicate what you can achieve with prosthetics and make-up. Even if Amazon’s orcs are touched up with computer SFX, they show’s creators have clearly taken a great deal of care to make these hideous creatures . . . honestly, quite beautiful.

I was—to put it mildly—concerned about what the orcs would look like after watching The Wheel Of Time and its Troloccs, which looked decent enough in some scenes, and then jarringly fake in others, especially when they were running.

The orcs of The Rings Of Power, on the other hand, suffer no such shortcomings—not yet anyways. These are works of art:

I mean just look at this orc slave-driver! He’s monstrously delightful! Everything from the disfigurement near his right eye to the crooked, blackened teeth to the rust-bucket of a helm on his gnarled, grey head is wildly detailed!

If this show can achieve the same quality of writing that the make-up and visual effects teams have achieved with these orcs, it will blow us all out of the water—even the critics. (Okay, maybe not all the critics; some people will always hate the show—but I’d be won over by an awesome script to go with these disgusting masterpieces!)

This is a gorgeous shot of an ugly, ugly bugger. But man do I love it. I hope people cosplay as these gobsmacking goblins.

You can almost see how the evil bastards first created orcs out of tortured and ensorcelled elves when you look at this guy. And truly, while the elves (other than Arondir) all just look like people with pointy ears, these orcs really capture an otherworldliness that this story deserves.

In any case, if it wasn’t already clear, orcs are one of the highlights of The Rings Of Power for me. The orcs in Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy were also fantastic, but these are even more elaborately detailed.

Hopefully they get a chance to shine. Or whatever it is creatures of evil do while they plan the creation of a realm of evil and all that. Shining is probably not high up on the list of orcish virtues, what with the sunlight sensitivity and all. Bedazzle us with darkness, oh thou elegant atrocities!