[StanislavPetrov]

> I can totally see where you're coming from, too, but I think it's pretty disingeous to give a bunch of opinions and then slap the word "objectively" on them.

Whether something is entertaining or not is purely subjective. However, speaking in my capacity as someone who has worked in the film industry for the last 30 years, the writing of the first two episodes was objectively "not good". I think Hesh Rabkin put it better than I can, on Season 1, Episode 10 of the Sopranos when he said, "There’s one constant in the music business...A hit is a hit...and this, my friend, is NOT a hit." The same holds for tv shows.

[Morgawr]

> speaking in my capacity as someone who has worked in the film industry for the last 30 years, the writing of the first two episodes was objectively "not good".

You keep using the word objectively but it doesn't mean what you think it means. You did not like the writing, that's fine. I don't think it's fair to call it "objectively" not good. There were some awkward parts and some awkward scenes, but I personally found a lot of the dialogues to feel quite natural and compelling. The elves are a bit of a stiffer but that's part of the characters. It is plagued by some of what I call the modern "marvel" adventure quirky speech (especially some exchanges with Galadriel) where a lot of exchanges turn into funny quips back and forth but that's par of the course in the current movie industry.

On the other hand the cinematography, environments, special effects, sound stage (sauron's whispers in a 3D home theater system were just SO GOOD), and a lot of other stuff is absolutely amazing.

[pclmulqdq]

Art has many different dimensions that people evaluate when they experience it, and many of them are subjective, but many of them are not. The objective ones are ones I will call "craft," and relate to the demonstrated skill of the artist. I will ascribe the rest of the dimensions to "vision." Craft is about how well the artist can convey the vision.

I am not in the film industry, but I am a musician, so here are a few examples from classical music: A performer who tends to rush the slow sections of music will often give bad performances: the vision of the piece is for that section to be slow, and a weakness in the performer's skill compromises the vision. A composer who writes music that is impossible to play has bad craft. A conductor who gives unclear cues and doesn't keep an orchestra together has bad craft.

I can still enjoy a performance where the slow sections are a little rushed if I like the piece, but that doesn't make it a good performance.

[roody15]

True but without a solid story and good writing no amount of special effects can make it good. At the end of the day the most important factor is a compelling good story IMO