People can feel any sort of way about the way movies are made. Posting all over Maggie and Corey's YouTube video comments that they are shills for Amazon and sell-outs simply because they did not decry everything about this project is...a bit much. I don't mind labeling those people trolls, as they did not show up to discuss, but to get their jabs in. Corey said he's excited to discuss this adaptation going forward - that's not exactly an endorsement of every choice made by the project!
I agree that Tolkien's stories are not exactly post-modern, and so much can be lost in an attempt at 'updating' them for a modern audience. But some of the concerns seem to be unfounded at this point. For instance, the early announcement that they were hiring an intimacy coordinator led to speculation of sex scenes being included. I have not heard anything since that bears that out, so remain cautiously optimisitic that this wasn't made by people who are attempting to make 'Game of Thrones in Middle-earth' or somesuch. Westeros and Middle-earth are very different places, and I would hope that no one could confuse Numenor for King's Landing! Even Númenor in its decline should not be interchangeable with that world.
Does the show capture any of the essence of Tolkien's stories? Is it about the types of things his stories are about - hope piercing the darkness, friendship between unlikely people, nobility of character and goodwill perservering in the face of temptation to despair? Pride and fear leading to falls? Death and deathlessness? Risks and daring quests and eagles?
It doesn't necessarily have to have all of these things to win me over, but if it's lacking the core of Middle-earth while adding a bunch of new/foreign concepts, it's not going to be very reminiscent of Tolkien for me.
(Someone who was at the same premiere as Corey and Maggie mentioned that there was pretty consistent on-theme content, with one major exception, which related to a change in the story, so...that's one of those 'where is this going??' situations.)
We shall see!
I haven't watched the more recent trailers. I've decided to watch the first two episodes of the show (and, unless I really hate it, the first season most likely), so I don't need to be sold any further - the image of the Two Trees is enough for me to give it a chance. We'll see where it goes from there.