The Reel Rejects - THE RINGS OF POWER 2x04 Breakdown & Review!!

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Starting point is 00:01:07 for right now let's hop into the show roll the bump gee we got another fantastic amazing incredible episode under our belts I don't want to hog all the time talking about all the greatness. So what did you think? Keep it under 10 minutes, if you

Starting point is 00:01:34 can. I can do that. Okay. There's a reason why I look like this, because we're not rushing today. No, not at all. Yeah, I feel more fit just sitting next to you. So, yeah, I thought that this was a fine episode, a good installment. It was a real, like, fluctuating experience, as this show generally is for me, because it would have a moment or two. I know, okay, whenever it's going, like dark i tend to be more engaged in what's happening i'll put it like that as whenever they're in like the creepy forest with the elves um even like the onset that was a beautiful moment or when um my god what's um the elf's name aaron deer aaron deer and a seal door are captured underneath like the the sinking mud moment that you find as a creature pulling them in

Starting point is 00:02:26 That was a great moment. It was a very witcher moment. And honestly, that was a really cool fight at the end with Galadrio. That choreography was pretty freaking sick. All right. I know sometimes people crap on their show for a lot of things and even the action itself. But I thought that was a really cool action scene. It's pretty sweet.

Starting point is 00:02:45 And so it's like those are the best parts to me. The medium parts. Supposed Gandalf and Tom Bombadil? Babadil? bombadale oh i i i think that might have been his song they played they credited some tom bombadille song here okay so that might have been that but yes tom bombadale tom bombadale not bad um and yeah no it's like the i just think the it's the same some of the same issues i care over from season one are here and like a dialogue could be better the dialogue could be more

Starting point is 00:03:19 engaging sure and you know it's a little bit cliche in the way of how a lot of like they kind of just go for the most like generic parts of what the outline is sort of requiring and that's the part of it but i think like there's other things that are working stronger than lastly a lot of a lot of the enjoyment is unfortunately coming in the fact of you know like this is better than the prior season you know yeah how would you would just if you would just if this was just season one or something but that's not the reality of the situation the reality situation we had a season one absolutely and so naturally it's like you kind of feel more when you notice when there's notable improvements and the notable improvements with the aesthetics with the darkness i find

Starting point is 00:04:02 to be more interesting sure and yeah i mean do we that stuff with the hobbits or whatever there are the harfits it's like reasonable like there's a lot of stuff that's just like i'm so like nothing here is like bad it's just sometimes it goes from like neutral to a little bit boring to to like to like oh, this is an engaging scene. There's something neat about everything they do, but not everything they do rises above neatness, I guess is how I would describe it, because, yeah, there's not a single plot line.

Starting point is 00:04:37 I was like, oh, get me away from this. But yeah, it's like Norrie and Poppy is not like the most rollicking or like super engaging thing, even though like the little, you know, these desert, I forget what they're called now, but the desert hobbit, hardfoot people. Like, you know, that's interesting.

Starting point is 00:04:54 that's neat, you know, but it's not really like, oh my God, I'm so attached to this yet, you know, and yeah, I liked the Tom Bombadil Gandalf back and forth, partly just because I think that Stephen Graham, whoever that actor is, if it's not him, has such a presence that just seems like everything I can recall about the character from the book and everything I've heard about the character from people since then. It seems like he's just capturing that spirit wholesale, and And I really like the splash of, like, mysterious but jolly presence he has. That worked pretty well on me. But, yeah, you know, there's a lot of, like, nice elements.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And, like, I can always feel the environments and stuff like that. I love, yeah, the spooky ghost dudes. I thought that was neat. I feel like things move. It's weird. Dialogue scenes, you're correct. Often will struggle to tap below a surface, and they often get by, at least with the elves. on like the frill of the language.

Starting point is 00:05:58 There are certain things that I wish they would let breathe more. I'm always taking it back. Like, we started this thing off and they're like, hey, we got a team together. We got to go on this mission. And then they show like one shot of them walking over a mountain crest. And then we're like across the map now. And, you know, things like that.

Starting point is 00:06:14 Just, I don't know, shrink the world a little bit. And, yeah, I don't know. It's decent. It's, yeah, about par with what we've had thus far. And I feel like you can say a lot of the same things. things as we have, like, you know, it's pretty solid. I'm liking the actors. Everything's a little bit more naturalistic. This episode of all four we've seen had the most sort of like that thing with his Sildor where he's like in the mud. You're like, is this supposed to be cheeky? This is like,

Starting point is 00:06:38 this seems kind of unintentionally a little bit silly in a way that I still enjoyed because like it's not a flavor I'm used to getting out of this show. Yeah. So like I'll take it. It's fine. And I was amused. And I like the big creature and stuff. I thought the ends were beautiful. Yeah. Like, there's a lot of cool atmospheric stuff, and I wish that those things could breathe more in a way that felt justifiable, because it's like this season is certainly a bit more, like we said, the last couple, like, you're less prone to checking the clock this season, but I still think, I guess now moving ahead into, you know, season three, I hope that they could find a way to, like, really substantially root into certain things while also maintaining them. the more naturalistic approach they have taken thus far, you know. It's nice not to get so many great, big, massive speeches that we haven't quite earned and all that. And I do feel like, at least with certain of the characters that, like, you can feel the traveling that we're doing. I don't know what it is about this show that I never fully feel like I'm in a world, even though they're really, even though it's aesthetically and CGI, like, so clean.

Starting point is 00:07:50 And he has something to do with it? Maybe it's the cleanness. Maybe it's just so, it's just so clean. But there's, I do notice that there's actually a nothing really exciting about the camera work in a lot of scenes until they, like, until they choose, like, certain moments to do it. But a lot of times it's kind of shot a little flat when you really think about most of the scenes. They're shot like a regular TV show. Yes. You know, and I think that's part of what kind of holds it back.

Starting point is 00:08:19 Like, I feel like not as really, okay, like an obvious comparison that show has gone on a lot because of airtime of when the first season came out is House of the Dragon, right? And House of the Dragon, a lot of that is just dialogue. And yet they find these like choices with their shots where you could see so much meaning and symbolism. And it seems so, like, specific. Yeah. And a lot of this seems kind of just flat in the way it's shot. And then with the dialogue, I do think the dialogue itself, keeps characters at a distance

Starting point is 00:08:52 from truly feeling like enlivened when I'm watching the scenes and that's the biggest hindrance to me because there's a lot of improvements on other things what I'd say is I think with every one of these scripts they usually have to outline you know what's supposed to happen

Starting point is 00:09:07 and what's seen and what gets as to what scene and what gets as to what's on and I think the outline of each story that we've seen for each of these four episodes is good I think each outline is good the idea of what they need to convey in the scene is good and it's really just some of this execution from both writing and directing that i think kind of makes fall a little flat because don't remember sometimes are like really cool shots for when they choose to do it it's like but generally there's ways to make dialogue scenes feel really engaging and that's why i referenced house of the dragon for that purpose yeah um is that you have to make dialogue scenes feel like you know some type of emotion and make the characters feel real personalities. You have to express through the camera.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And I think, like, this show bridges the gap. Like, it's the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies the Peter Jackson made has, like, a super tangible quality about it, though there are certainly groundbreaking CG effects. Then you go to the Hobbit, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, way too far in the CG direction. I feel like this show generally isn't necessarily as far down the CG rabbit hole as something like The Hobbit,

Starting point is 00:10:14 but I think you're correct in that the rest of the shooting when it's not, it's like you can tell when they cut to a big CGI money shot and then it looks gorgeous, but you'd also know that that's enhanced by CGI. So it almost like decouples the movie magic from the rest of everything because, yeah, the rest of the shooting isn't quite as expressive. It isn't quite as emphatic as, you know, those moments that are supposed to evoke a token painting where you should feel like you're always in a token painting. That's what that's what kind of missed for me on the Tom Bombadale stuff. I can see that. Was like, oh, this. There's stuff happening on screen that's a fancy. I feel like their entire visual style for, like, communicating his wonder. It's very point in shoot. And they just kept having him walk into some, like, really amber, like, sunlight, some really, you know, lush backlighting and then turning around so that he always has that, like, Jesus, halo light. And I'm like, this is starting to feel like a meme as you're keeping employing it across the sequence.

Starting point is 00:11:16 And, like, some of these things we're pointing out might be, there might be some people who, I've seen some people talk about when they can't really understand what it is. That's not really working for them. I think some of this might be a subconscious thing that maybe we're pointing out that you might not be thinking about that maybe that's like, oh, maybe that might be it. Or you just completely disagree with us. And that's totally cool. They were like, actually, no, I felt all that, you know, and I totally feel for them, which is great. I'd much rather be there. Give it a chance.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Yeah. Give it an episode. I think no one could accuse us of not giving this show. All of the chances and hey, the chances are slowly paying off. It's decent, and I hope people are happy that Tom Bombadillo's finally showed up. If they just embraced the dark horror visuals, I think if they just made it mainly that, they just went like all two towers on this thing. It would be so down.

Starting point is 00:12:09 Probably be a much stronger show. Yeah, like I don't. Especially with this whole like, there's darkness everywhere. and they keep pointing that out and they Galadryl keeps up your goddamn lines again just like all right

Starting point is 00:12:21 yeah I get it you know yeah I feel that show don't tell please oh guys what did you think of season two episode four are you enjoying it as much as we are

Starting point is 00:12:33 are you enjoying it more less leave it in the comments and we'll catch you next week for episode five hoping they continue on an upward trajectory no matter how gradual pieces

Starting point is 00:12:44 Thank you.

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The Reel Rejects - THE RINGS OF POWER 2x04 Breakdown & Review!!

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