Hey all, Giving RoP a try as i miss having fantasy to watch. I have read all the books related to this world but not for decades. So i dont think im a purist, and im a liberal so no culture war stuff for me but did bounce hard off S1.
However decided to give S2 a try and some things definitely feel better (i am up to s5 i think) - moria is done well and i think some of the sauron/celebrimbor stuff is done well too.
But the combat is not working for me at all, it feels as if they are shot as a sequence of close up 'cool tricks' with no actual sense of the space in the battlefield, and people doing things that you just wouldn't do in a fight because it 'looks cool'. For example in the last episode i finished Galadriel threw a lamp into the air and shot it with an arrow, which killed some orcs. Its stylism over making it feel like a real battle. It feels like the opponents are standing there waiting their turn, heck she even made a short speech in this scene from what i recall.
It may be simply my tastes are different to the intended audience if i think of good fantasy fight scenes i think of Cavill in the Witcher, or the blood snow scene in WoT. You can see the combatants using physics and logic in their fighting rather than 'close up, cool acrobatic'
Just curious if you guys are enjoying the combat? maybe it is simply i have different stylistic preferences?
Edit, s2E5 is a genuine improvement.
Cheers.