I don't really feel inclined to draw any comparisons between what are two distinct IP's, regardless of the shared fantasy elements and the obvious inspiration of LotR on D&D. Some good points were made here on the depictions of the fantasy races as a potential guideline for Larian's interpretation of the same D&D versions but at this stage I don't expect Larian to digress from their vision of said races.
As for the show itself, it didn't really look or feel like Middle Earth to me but I appreciate that is a subjective take. It seems to me that Jeff Bezos' obsession with having his own Game of Thrones is quite evident in this production.
Above all I felt the writing/dialogue was distinctly bad with this line from Galadriel being a prime example:
When she says to Elrond: "Are you going to stand there breathing like an orc?"
I mean, seriously? A race of ageless, eternal, ethereal creatures of great beauty, grace and wisdom and this is the line they give to one of the principle characters in the entire history of Middle Earth? Tolkien, that great lover of words , so much so that he invented fictional languages for fun and included them into his attempt at creating a mythology for The British Isles, borrowing heavily from Nordic mythology, amongst others, as inspiration.
I also thought the acting a bit wooden.
As for the casting, I'm only going to touch on that lightly because to have reservations about it is to be immediately tarnished as a racist and worse. I think there were ample ways they could have incorporated diversity into the cast without shoe-horning diversity into the fantasy races, mostly because Tolkien did write other ethnic humans into the world he created. I would have loved to have seen these other realms explored and could have provided ample room to look into the history of the South and other areas; people who eventually sided with Sauron in the Third Age. Surely not all of them were evil? Perhaps they were tricked or enslaved against their will? A fertile plot to create your own stories from if ever I heard one. I appreciate people will disagree with this and I'm fine with that.
My main take is that I would have loved for the source material to be a bit more respected.
Am I the only person who thinks that the characters (as portrayed by the actors) sound a bit too...contemporary?
I couldn't agree. I don't expect the writers of this show to have Tolkien's grasp of language and character but they could have at least attempted to pay homage in their portrayals.
