What has Amazon Prime Video done with all the money? That is the question after the two opening episodes of “The Rings of Power.” The price tag for the first season (of the planned five) is 3.9 billion UVI, so why does “The Rings of Power” feel more like a luxurious version of “Xena: Warrior Princess”?

The series takes place 3,500 years before JRR Tolkien’s books when the elves left their homeland of Valinor and went to war against the evil Morgoth in Middle-earth. Why? He was cruel and had orcs, which seems to be the answer. And he left behind a new evil: his subject Sauron.

The details are scarce, to say the least, perhaps because Amazon does not own the rights to Tolkien’s book “The Silmarillion,” which tells how Middle-earth, its gods, and legends were born.

The series is instead based on the appendix that Tolkien wrote at the end of “The Return of the King.”

Everyone in “The Rings of Power” has forgotten the threat of Sauron when the series starts. All except the elven warrior Galadriel, who tracks him down with the stubbornness of a fool, even though no orcs have been seen in years. Ultimately, she gives up and is grudgingly praised by the elven king for “fending off” the threat. But soon, of course, the powers of darkness begin to return to Middle-earth in various places.

This happens in parallel with the politically ambitious elf Elrond hanging out with the dwarves in their mines, and the “harfoots” — proto-hobbits with worse table manners, are visited by a confused man who fell from the sky.

The conservative vein of “The Lord of the Rings,” with dreams of “a lost kingdom,” feudalism, and inheritance rights to be protected, still worked under Peter Jackson’s direction. His (first) film trilogy managed the boys’ book content as a fantasy-inducing ride.

The black-and-white morality still feels rather muddy in 2022 after “Game of Thrones” has nuanced the fantasy genre in gray, where cynical self-interest surpasses beautiful words about heroism.

In “The Rings of Power,” banal lines such as “The same wind that can blow out a fire can also spread it” or “beauty has the power to heal the soul” are still hatched.

The streaming war has led to a widespread lack of ideas. Experimental projects are scrapped. Secure cards should lead to fast money. An Amazon source recently told Business Insider that Prime Video’s future depends on how “The Rings of Power” fares.

Given this quality, it seems anything but safe. Was the computer-animated ice troll worth it?