IN REVIEW: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (S1 – EP6) Udûn

Synopsis: In Udûn, Adar and his army march on Ostirith. The battle for the Southlands begins. Meanwhile, Galadriel and Halbrand set sail for Middle Earth.

The Story

Picking up from last week. Galadriel, Halbrand, and the armies of Numenor have set sail for middle earth. Meanwhile, the battle for the Southlands begins as Adar and his Orks start their attack on Ostirith. But the first battle does not go their way as Arondir traps Adar and his Orks in the tower, which allows Brownyn and the rest of the humans to escape to their old Village and prepare for battle. 

Taking advantage of the calm before the storm. Arondir looks to hide the strange key, that Adar wants. Unbeknown to him Bronwyn’s son Theo follows him while he is hiding the key. As Theo has a powerful connection to the key, which is similar to the connection that Bilbo and Frodo would develop with the ring of power in middles earth’s future. Just as Bronwyn is getting her people ready. Adar’s Orks attack and the humans are able to fend them off only to find that Adar had sent humans to attack them in the place of Orks. As Bronwyn and Arondir realize what has happened they are once again attacked, but this time the attack is the real deal. The humans are losing the battle and Bronwyn has been seriously injured. Thankfully, Galadriel and the Armies of Numenor arrive and are able to turn the tide and capture Adar.

The Acting

Ismael Cruz Cordova gets some really strong scenes as we see Arondir shares the leadership of the humans with Bronwyn. I loved the scene that he shared with Theo where he tries to offer some guidance to the troubled youth. I also loved the scene where Arondir is obviously a little starstruck by the arrival of Galadriel. We also get a great performance from Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn who gets a fantastic speech that she shares with Arondir to rally their people for the coming fight. It is a brilliant scene.

I also quite enjoyed the interplay between Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers as Galadriel and Halbrand. I particularly enjoyed the scenes where they pretty much hold each other back from killing Adar. The scene where Galadriel stops Halbrand is pretty strong. I also quite enjoyed the scene that Galadriel had with Isildier at the start of the episode.

Overall

Udûn brings us a couple of really good battle scenes that would likely give Game of Thrones a decent run for its money. Indeed it’s pretty obvious that Amazon spent a ton of money on this production and it really shows. The sequence at the beginning where Arondir burns down the tower and locks the Orks inside is a great thrill ride.

Also great is the soundtrack for this series. I’ll most likely get myself a copy at the earliest opportunity.