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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

#341
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Contrast Galadriel who acts like a self righteous dickhead with Aragorn who was reluctant to accept his calling spent and three movies proving himself to be worthy of honor and love You mean three books, right? The difference here is that Aragorn was written by Tolkien, this show wasn't and has completely betrayed the original material. Race or gender swaps are not a big issue, but they become one if the purpose is…

Isn't it the case that race is acceptably mutable if it isn't germain to the story and that making all audiences feel more accepted and therefore happier is a laudable goal. Nothing woke about greater non white representation. Plenty snowflake about not wanting this.

Yup, the Witcher series did a great job at that (I say this as a fan of the books but not the game). E.g. Elves are discriminated because of pointy ears, not skin color, so no reason to limit the cast the story works equally well.

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re now equating a pseudo historical character with a children’s book? Oh brother… I was not born in Italy, but I am of Italian descent btw. Not sure why that matters, but it probably does to you :-/ Also, I guess you mean only true northern Italians can play the character lol why don’t you phrase it like that as well. See how absurd it sounds?

> So you’re now equating a pseudo historical character with a children’s book? So you're not aware that Pinocchio is a metaphorical book about Italian society and the need for free, universal, public schools in Italy? > only true northern Italians "true northern Italians" do not exist. They are like any other Italian. It is absurd to think the contrary. Probably even "Italian" as a distinct ethnicity doesn't exist. C…

I think you're right. Italian is not an ethnicity. Italy hasn't been a unified political entity for very long. There are Italians from all sorts of different ethnicities and races. Would it be okay for a Black person to play this role if they were Italian? If not, why is it okay for non-Italian white actors to play other roles?

Is a Corsican person Italian? Is an Italian-American? Is Mario Balotelli (for example)? Why does any of this matter?

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

#343
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…

1. Older audiences have more money and spend more of it.

2. There’s only 68 million Gen Z compared to 72 million Millenials.

3. You keep a franchise alive and healthy by protecting the core IP and making the fans happy not by alienating them and making terrible renditions of the story. If you do that then all you have left is a name that is increasingly associated with bad writing and acting and eventually it becomes a joke that no one will turn out for.

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

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

This is not about race, is about culture. You can have any black character in middle earth, --any--, as long as is Southern. Nobody would bat an eye. You can made this character as heroic and positive as you want. Having a black elf is a miscast, because most races in LOTR depict real groups of people or real cultures in Europe. Elves are tall and blonde and represent the Germanic and Scandinavian traditions that Tol…

Just really cannot fathom this if you are serious. There are literal tree people and talking eagles and giant evil wizards in this world for godsakes! It is a fantasy world! Like truly, how can you care about this? Do you not feel any dissonance in your logic here? It is just beyond parody.

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we need spoilers here? Didn't know that was Gandalf. Aside from that I agree, so far TRoP has been close to or better than expected. I'm not sure what people expected here but at any rate it's too early. You would't want to judge LotR based only on the initial chapter either.

> Do we need spoilers here? Sincerely sorry. And yet... > Didn't know that was Gandalf. My point, exactly.

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

#346

I choose to ignore user reviews/ratings altogether. On IMDB right now 60% of the ratings (not reviews) are either 1 or 10 [1], and that's completely ridicolous. I much prefer the critics' scores - and right now they're 84% on RT [2] and 71 on Metacritics [3]. Which are reasonable numbers. [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7631058/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt [2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_lord_of_the_rings_the_..…

Critics are the experts. A fanatic, while crazy, has skin in the game. Their time and money. I'll take a fanatics POV over an experts everyday of the week and Sundays too.

In an ideal world, where everyone votes sincerely (and using an agreed-on scale), sure.

But that's not the real world: here people are declaring a whole season of a show either a 10 or 1, after _maybe_ seeing 25% of it.

In other words, this data is too noisy and so not trustworthy.

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

#347
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I found pretty much everything not directly involving the Empires pretty awful in Foubdation… Particularly the parts set on Terminus were just 90’s scifi junk.

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

#348
post #338

I thought it was mediocre overall but Amazon is doing this to prevent review bombing. Presumably because the IMDB rating appears in the Prime app

> Amazon is doing this to prevent review bombing

I think that's the complaint.

Is review bombing somehow illegitimate? If so, what separates a "bomb" review from a legitimate review?

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

#349

Amazon, which owns IMBD, is pushing this thing hard. I have turned off every single setting in Alexa related to hunches, promotions, suggestions, etc. I loathe when I ask for the weather and she concludes with “…by the way, I can also…” But I still got a reminder that this show was available when I asked what time it was the other day.

That sounds awful, having ads read out to you. Makes me glad I’ve never been tempted to get an Alexa

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

#350

Say something nice about TRoP. The thing that's got me interested is the entrance of Gandalf (I presume.) Dropped in from the heavens like an alien, found in a smoldering crater, clearly baffled by up-close Arda, can't speak "the" language, mystified by corporeal-ness, almost simian. The writers had enough of a clue to see the opportunity in making Gandalf's backstory a meaningful subplot, so they're developing it wi…

Do we need spoilers here? Didn't know that was Gandalf. Aside from that I agree, so far TRoP has been close to or better than expected. I'm not sure what people expected here but at any rate it's too early. You would't want to judge LotR based only on the initial chapter either.

We don't know if it's Gandalf. It's only speculation. He mimics Gandalf-isms from the movies (cupping a bug and talking to it), and generally looks like him. It could easily be misdirection for someone else like Sauron or maybe even a blue wizard?
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