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IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

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Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#81

Post by Kiro »

tgv wrote: post #46
Kiro wrote: post #12

People are upset not because the show is bad but because it's not as bad as they expected. In fact, it's quite good. This ruins their mockery narrative.

Really? Then again, I'm not upset, nor did I find it good. It's quite boring and bland. It focuses on a few characters instead of a large quest, but those characters are, well, empty. There's little to nothing that spells greater things to come. And they talk in this pseudo-archaic English ("What say thee of thy tidings, ye olde Master?", you get the idea), but still use words like the noun "project" in its modern se…

> Are there really that many people with the desperate desire to mock it?

Yes, the most thumbed down trailer of all-time and a big meme culture based on how bad it was going to be, how they ruined Tolkien completely etc. Now when the show is not the 1/10 trainwreck they expected all those memes become invalidated and this infuriates the mob.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#82

Post by ajuc »

notanormalnerd wrote: post #63
pseudo0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems kind of weird to characterize Tolkien fans being interested in a new, high-profile Lord of the Rings show as "brigading". Of course the people with the biggest emotional connection and interest in a franchise will be the ones most active in reviewing, creating YouTube videos, and discussing it online. I think the better question is why so many established sci-fi and franchises seem to be alienating their cor…

Because from a economical business point: * You're getting old and your not spending as much money. * Getting 5$ from 100.000.000 people is better than getting 50$ 1.000.000 people. Especially if you can do it at lower costs. * Getting in new audiences to keep the franchise alive and healthy * And last but not least the average consumer is not interested in it being "true" to some kind of book or whatever. It has to…

The problem is the low effort part not the "not being true" part. If you take a result of decades of loving work of some author and give it to a committee to remake it in 6 months (and people in the committee were chosen by some random criteria like genitals or pigmentation) - you get low quality product with big budget.

Then you blame people who understand what was lost for complaining and call them racist.

Few people have problems with changes for the better. But the changes are usually for worse. In the Witcher season 1 most changes were well received (introducing Yennefer backstory for example). But removing the Ciri & Geralt scene which was the pinnacle of the 2 short stories collecting just so that they can put 30 minutes of Ciri walking with that black elf that has no influence on anything else in the story was just dumb. Pacing was awful, and they had to cut the good stuff.

The story got objectively worse, but people who didn't read the books won't complain cause they don't know what they missed.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#83

Post by dnh44 »

inopinatus wrote: post #70
pseudo0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems kind of weird to characterize Tolkien fans being interested in a new, high-profile Lord of the Rings show as "brigading". Of course the people with the biggest emotional connection and interest in a franchise will be the ones most active in reviewing, creating YouTube videos, and discussing it online. I think the better question is why so many established sci-fi and franchises seem to be alienating their cor…

Tolkien’s legendarium isn’t a “franchise”, brigading is the work of trolls not fans, and the degree to which it panders to an existing audience is the most tawdry, and least interesting, measure of any creative work.

Reducing OP’s argument of “alienating fans” to “pandering to fans” is a logically false and intellectually dishonest argument.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#85

Post by pseudo0 »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #56
pseudo0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems kind of weird to characterize Tolkien fans being interested in a new, high-profile Lord of the Rings show as "brigading". Of course the people with the biggest emotional connection and interest in a franchise will be the ones most active in reviewing, creating YouTube videos, and discussing it online. I think the better question is why so many established sci-fi and franchises seem to be alienating their cor…

Because it’s not the core audience. People who care about the lore and source material are insignificant compared to the amount of people who just enjoy a lavish production in a medieval fantasy setting. Clearly Amazon is targeting the people who enjoyed the movies and want a similar experience in a TV show format. Most don’t really care that it conforms to what Tolkien wrote. Heck, I’m probably unusual compared to t…

I hate to do the "pull out the dictionary" thing, but those people are precisely the core audience for LoTR media (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/core-...):

> the type of people who are most likely to buy a particular product, watch a particular TV programme, etc.

The Tolkien fans don't need a dozen Amazon Prime adverts to watch a new LoTR show, they seek out new LoTR content on their own.

To give my perspective, I also read LoTR as a teenager, but did not finish the Silmarillion, and enjoyed the Peter Jackson trilogy. It doesn't take a LoTR lore researcher fluent in Elvish to realize that Jackson set the bar high, and the new show appears to be falling significantly short. That's just the reality of trying to adapt a beloved franchise with excellent predecessors. The 1/10 reviews might be hyperbolic, but it's ridiculous for Amazon to be removing them while leaving the equally hyperbolic 10/10s.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#87

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

narag wrote: post #74
Karellen wrote: post #41

I don't get reviews saying that TRoP, or some other new prestige TV series, is "terrible", or "a disaster", based on the first couple of episodes. Some really excellent TV series have taken more than a whole 26-episode season before they find their rhythm and get properly good. ST:TNG is a classic example, but I'm pretty sure you can come up with others. And some people are claiming that a new series totally worthles…

I agree. The first two episodes of The Rings of Power are unbearably boring. But let's wait. Anyway, IMDb ratings are getting totally unreliable to me. I wasted hours of my life that won't come back, watching some show called The Terminal List that scored a solid eight. Carnage of Asimov's Foundation is 7.4 and that... thing, The Wheel of Time 7.1. I wonder if there's a way to see evolution of rating, for me Star Tre…

> Carnage of Asimov's Foundation is 7.4

The show is not faithful to the book but it has good production value, a fairly interesting story and is overall very watchable. The passing is sometimes questionable but 7.4 seems like a fair rating to me.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#88

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

glogla wrote: post #50
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am going to rock the boat a little. I am admittedly not a big Tolkien fan ( I think tried reading one book once and, to me, it was worse experience than Ulysses ). I can easily plead ignorance here. Are there any black guys mentioned in those books? If not, not sticking to script is a valid complaint ( see how annoyed people were with Game of Thrones departure -- it is not a question of race; it is a question of mo…

The tricky part is that even if the source material has no non-white people in it, the real world does and representation matters. If you cast diverse actors, you are less precise, but are making the world a (slightly) better place for underrepresented and disadvantaged people. If you don't, you are more precise and are making the world a (slightly) worse place for underrepresented and disadvantaged people. What of t…

You put me in a difficult position. I don't really watch movies anymore ( Joaquin's Joker was ok ). I rarely get into shows ( I was amused by Boys ). I still read a little. That said, I can absolutely guarantee you that never have I ever in my entire existence on this planet read something and thought to myself "If only Geralt was black, or at least a gypsy, the world would be a better place" for several different yet related reasons:

1. It is supposed to be my entertainment and not a social project ( or more accurately, it can be both, but entertainment should be the primary consideration; after all, if I pay, I expect some value )

2. I do not accept the assertion that it does make better place for underrepresented and disadvantaged people. Right now, it is actually making it worse. You may not be seeing it, but counter-culture is rejecting it pretty hard and that is with all the internet censorship in full swing ( granted, currently for corporate reasons, but censorship is censorship is censorship ). If anything, this hamfisted approach creates a whole new generation of actual racists.. I do not think that makes for a better place for "underrepresented and disadvantaged people".

I don't buy the binary framing either. To me, neither is important.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#89

Post by dmix »

selimthegrim wrote: post #49
JadoJodo wrote: post #24

I understand that Bezos spent a TON of money on this, but the way he’s forcing it is kinda crazy. The ads for it are EVERYWHERE. I was trying to check out at Whole Foods yesterday and had to sit through a 5s ad for it when I opened the Amazon shopping app (just to get to the Prime member barcode). Deleting reviews to “guarantee” success is just sad.

Also on the side of Amazon delivery vans.

And the Amazon boxes you get delivered have LOTR graphics on them

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#90

Post by lotsofpulp »

nathias wrote: post #69

the show deserves 3/4 at best, I haven't seen anything so expensive this bad, it's really weird that this much money can't buy quality in any of the aspects of the show

Because too much of the money goes to the intellectual property owner as rent.

And also, prequel/sequel stuff that was not originally mapped out by the author is usually crap.

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