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TRAILER & MORE: Amazon Prime’s The Lord of The Rings: The Ring of Power! UPDATED WITH A NEW TRAILER!!!

Published on July 22, 2022July 24, 2022 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

Hey Everyone,

Paul here…

*Check Out The New Trailer Released For This Year’s SDCC At The Bottom Of The Page!

“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky / Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone / Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die / One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne / in the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.”

We’re about a month and a half away from the premiere of Amazon Prime’s new series, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power. This show doesn’t exist in the same continuity as the Peter Jackson’s films. This is it’s own thing, taking place thousands of years before the events of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. This will be really an interesting project to keep an eye on, regardless of how excited you are for the show itself. The entire project has been met with a mixed reception from fans. This is also the most expensive television show ever made. Amazon’s not gonna run out of money anytime soon, but if this doesn’t connect with audiences, the streaming service is going to take a massive monetary hit. I certainly won’t be crying any tears for Jeff Bezos, he’s more of human shaped, pile of dog diarrhea, stuffed into a $10,000 suit than an actual human being. You can be damn sure that when one his companies loses money, it’s the people lowest on the totem pole that pay the price. I won’t tell you what I think of The Rings of Power just yet, so you watch the trailer below and decide for yourself. Take a look…

Here’s the official series synopsis from Amazon:

“This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”

Morfydd Clark as a young Galadriel. Played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. (*Photo from Vanity Fair)*

Right from the jump, there’s already at least one thing I love about this adaptation of Tolkien’s work: The Orcs. From what I’ve seen so far, I love how The Orcs look in this . Peter Jackson is a tough act to follow, but I love that they went 100% practical with The Orcs for this series. No CGI. Which led them to some fantastic designs. They’re unmistakably Orcs, but they’re just different enough from Peter Jackson’s versions, to The Rings of Power to make The Orcs their own. Here are a few of my favorites…

The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power premieres September 2nd on Prime Video.

So what do you guys think? Are you excited for this new incarnation of Middle Earth? Let us know in the comments below!

UPDATE!: Checl out the new trailer released for this year‘s San Diego Comic-Con! In my opinion, much cooler trailer. This has me far more excited for the show then I was before. Take a look…

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-Paul

*WAIT! I almost forgot one more thing!!! I LOVE maps of fictional places. Whether it’s Westeros, Gotham City, or Middle Earth, don’t ask me why, but I love them. This map from the series shows the part of Middle Earth where The Rings of Power will be taking place. Pretty cool, right?

TRAILER: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Fantastic Beasts 2)!

Published on September 25, 2018November 24, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole2 Comments

Hi everyone,

The final trailer for the second installment of Fantastic Beasts dropped about an hour ago, give it a watch and then scroll down to see what I thought about it:

The first thing that I want to talk about is Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne. Newt was amazing in the first one, and I absolutely loved what he brought to the table, but there had been some rumors that he was going to be downplayed in this film due to audience response. I’m glad to see that this trailer looks like that isn’t true.

Newt is a great protagonist because he’s so different from the archetypal male protagonists we’re used to in action films, unlike the universe’s namesake Harry Potter. I mean, I love the original movies, but did you ever notice that Harry’s magical method is shouting his incantations and spells as loud as possible to make them as powerful as possible? He’s a bit of a yeller. Newt on the other hand is soft spoken, and it took people off guard, because they weren’t used to it, but it lent the series some real rounding out. There’s a great video all about Newt and his ‘Fantastic Masculinity’ that I think is really eye opening, and interesting.

So that’s my first big take away, based on rumors and my own expectations. The second is Grindelwald himself. Now, I loved Colin Farrell in the first film, and I have to be completely honest, I was not happy to find out we were getting a Johnny Depp filled film in the sequel (and possible the three films after this). I’m one of the many “Johnny Depp hasn’t been reined in enough” viewers, and was worried we’d get another ‘cartoon-y’ performance. The trailer has a lot of Depp, and it appears as if he’s riding that same sweet spot of eccentric, but not too weird, that launched him into performances like Jack Sparrow. So I remain cautiously optimistic. The bleached white hair, and the accent aren’t a great sign, but he never fully crosses the goofy line.

The third part is Jude Law. I think most Potter fans were excited to see him as Dumbledore when the first pictures were released. However, seeing him in action in this confirms for me that he’s going to be awesome. I think Jude Law is great casting, but also they seem to have Dumbledore in a more youthful, but still Dumbledorian role, relegated to being the chess master in the background again. I think too much Dumbledore could ruin the mystique, and so this is a great decision.

With Dumbledore, many of the fans were nervous that he wasn’t going to be directly expressing his homosexuality in this film, and I don’t know how overt it will be in the film (I’m personally game for any level), but he does tell Newt, that he cannot be the main one to oppose Grindelwald, and there is a shot that seems to show Dumbledore sadly pining for his lost love. I imagine this is included in the trailer to appease the nervous fans, and basically say “you may not see them making out, but Dumbledore loves Grindelwald.” Which I personally think makes sense, because it seemed as if their love happened as children and it’s over at this point.

The last thing I want to touch upon, is that they’re bringing back the main cast from the first movie and I’m thrilled about it. I loved the three supporting characters, and I really think they helped to flesh out the differences between the muggle and wizard worlds. While also differentiating Newt from Harry.

I’ve been very excited about this film since I saw the first one, but today after watching this trailer I’m more excited than ever. This looks awesome to me. Comment below and let us know what you think about the trailer, whether or not you’re psyched for the movie, and whatever else this trailer stirs up in you!

FIRST LOOK: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Published on December 30, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwright1 Comment

3394D278-42D2-43FF-A7D6-B42216018730 — The cast of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald

I haven’t spoken much about it on any of our podcasts or written about it in any of my articles, but I’m a huge, huge fan of the Harry Potter books. I really believe they’ll go down in history, remembered as some of the best fantasy literature of our time. For the most part, I’m also a big fan of the films as well. There were some things that were fundamentally flawed to them, but to get such a beloved series done that well, over eight films is a huge accomplishment. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Parts One and Two were probably the best of the films.
But my favorite moments in the books were always quiet, character driven moments. Like an emotional and distraught Harry venting to Dumbledore in his office after the death of Sirius Black. Or seeing the real reason Snape hated Harry so much, when Harry gets a glimpse in a pensive that shows him Snape’s worst memory. Which included being humiliated by Harry’s father when they were both students at Hogwarts. Harry had to come to terms with the idea that his Dad wasn’t the perfect, ideal image in his head, but a real, flawed person. For the most part I felt some of the most powerful moments in the Books were passed too quickly, if they were even touched on it all.

Now we have this new series of films that take place in the Harry Potter Universe set in the late 1920’s: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”or as Mr. Sunday Movies calls them “Fantastic Creatures, Have You Seen Them, Where Are They, Are They In The Case? I Bet They’re In The Case. They were In The Case”. EW.com had a bunch of great character photos from the upcoming movie, which I have posted throughout the article. I enjoyed the first film well enough, but what that really hurt the film for me was the reveal that Collin Farrell‘s character was actually Gellert Grindelwald, infamous dark wizard in disguise, played in ridiculous make up by Johnny Depp. Shortly after the first Fantastic Beasts film came out it was announced that the over arcing plot of the series would be the growing threat of Grindelwald and the magical war that takes place in this universe roughly around the time of our WW2 in the muggle world.

370A09CA-C040-48FC-920F-C4EBAEA30BC0 — Johnny Depp (UGH) as Gellert Grindelwald

I really like this concept from a storytelling standpoint because in the Harry Potter books and films Dumbledore is such a world renowned, respected wizard because he cut his teeth being the man who took down Grindelwald, who was at that time the darkest and most dangerous wizard the world had ever seen (at least until He Who Must Not Be Named came along). Dumbledore has always been one of the more fascinating characters in the Harry Potter universe, so getting to see more of this character in a very different part of his life is really intriguing to me. Another interesting wrinkle in this backstory is the fact that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were romantically involved. They were kind of like Charles Xavier and Magneto, they were two men who were gifted magicians and had a lot of the same ideas, but Grindelwald felt that Muggles should bow down and be subservient to the wizards of the world. Grindenwald felt that magic users were inherently superior to non-magical humans. That’s where he and Dumbledore parted ways and their friendship became increasingly antagonistic until Grindelwald gathered followers and was basically in open war with the rest of the world. You’ll see in the photos that they cast Jude Law as young(ish) Dumbledore, which I think is excellent casting.

B8D12960-2690-4F77-A92A-FC237750893A — Jude Law as Prof. Albus Dumbledore

Still, I can’t help think it was such a missed opportunity that they swapped out Colin Farrell for Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp hasn’t put in a compelling performance in years. He relies on absurd visual gimmicks, just like you see in these photos. Colin Farrell was genuinely menacing in Fantastic Beasts. He’s a great actor and would’ve made an excellent Grindelwald. I still hope they keep him around and use him in the series in someway (I forget his character’s name). Because the only way a wizard can turn into another person is by creating a potion called pollyjuice but that requires the person they are impersonating to still be alive. So the real Colin Farrell has to be out there somewhere. Anyway I thought these were some interesting photos that I thought you’d find interesting. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald opens in theaters 11/16/2018.

Thanks for reading!
-Paul