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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

#361

Post by aaaaaaaaaaab »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #20
pseudo0 wrote: post #6

Interesting to contrast the IMDB rating with Rotten Tomatoes, not owned by Amazon, which currently has an audience rating of 38%. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_lord_of_the_rings_the_... In my opinion, Steam does the best job of handling this tricky problem by leaving all reviews up and transparently letting the user pick whether or not to include periods of "unusual activity".

Quoted post unavailable.

Oh no! Those pesky Tolkien fans!

Maybe don’t call it a Tolkien adaptation if you’re bothered by Tolkien fans? Just call it “generic fantasy movie with elves and shit”, and Tolkien fans will leave you alone.

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

#362

Post by peoplefromibiza »

Fnoord wrote: post #329
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What difference does it make if they cast another non-Italian actor to play a role? Who said anything about being Italian? I've only quoted the author words (Collodi) The fairy is pale white not because she is a white person, but because she's pure. Pale white skin is not an Italian trait, so I don't understand what Italianness has to do with anything. If anything, the fact that she is pale white makes her obviousl…

By translating the origin from Italian into English another crowd is reached, and movie adaptations often differ from books. In this case, casting was chosen to be diverse at the expense of a detail barely anyone cares about. Whether such behavior is -all things considered- a win or loss depends on if such choice hugely hampers the popularity. IOW, vote with your wallet.

> In this case, casting was chosen to be diverse at the expense of a detail barely anyone cares about.

Sorry, but that's like saying that nobody cares about Gandalf the white in LOTR, and you can cast whoever you like for the role and make his robe rainbow colored.

In fact Amazon didn't do that, the actor playing Gandalf in Rings of power is a white man. For obvious reasons, that have nothing to do with being against diversity.

The blue fairy has a central role in Pinocchio and she has long blue hair.

They knew that casting a shaved woman would be much more than simply adapting a story. it's like if in a Nausicaa in the valley of the winds adaption Nausicaa is a black disabled boy. It would simply not be the right choice, casting as a job is exactly that, choosing the more apt person for the role, which includes appearances.

Of course the colour of the skin is not a fundamental trait, unless it is in the story.

A white Apollo Creed would be highly controversial, like a black Abraham Lincoln, an Asian Sitting Bull or an Italian Malcolm X that only eats spaghetti and says "mamamia" with the hands.

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

#363

Post by danaris »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #285
danaris wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings books shows none of that. You only learn about it if you read the Silmarillion (and the other History of Middle-Earth books). It's not at all unreasonable for her portrayal in the movies based on the LotR books to be...based on her portrayal in the LotR books, and not attempting to incorporate largely irrelevant details of her backstory from Tolkien's other writings.

It's true there's nothing about what she really got up to, but there are hints that she's hardly benign, e.g. in the speech discussed here https://reprog.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/i-wish-jackson-hadnt... (that was just the first result I found on Google).

Ehh....Gandalf himself says that if he took up the Ring he would in time be corrupted. I'm not going to say it's wrong to read Galadriel's speech there as, in some way, referring to her checkered past, but I've never read it as indicating that.

Basically, anyone with a personality built for command, taking up the Ring, would become a tyrant of some sort. That's part of why it was so important that it came not just to hobbits, but to these hobbits, whose strongest desires were about protecting, and gardening, and living their hobbity lives. (I imagine if Lobelia Sackville-Baggins had gotten her hands on it, she wouldn't have fared so well. Not a Dark Queen by any means, but still something much more dark and dangerous than what became of Bilbo, Frodo and Sam.)

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

#364

Post by kasey_junk »

concordDance wrote: post #289
kthejoker2 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean ... she's a fairy, not a human .. what does her skin have to do with the time period or place in which she appeared? And there's literally zero reason to insist that Collodi's description is the only way a fairy character can be portrayed in a staged version of his book. The real problem is getting upset over the skin color of the actors and actresses playing fairies (or stormtroopers or elves or angels or for…

Actors should be a good match for the role they play. That includes accent, build, height, sex, attractiveness, characterization (Will Smith couldn't play Sauron) and skin colour.

The cast of Hamilton has a few things to say to you.

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

#365

Post by DSMan195276 »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #247
rchaud wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It becomes clear that the black blue fairy was put there to check a box The movie is in English, using exclusively non-Italian actors , which in itself is checking a box. What difference does it make if they cast another non-Italian actor to play a role?

> What difference does it make if they cast another non-Italian actor to play a role? Who said anything about being Italian? I've only quoted the author words (Collodi) The fairy is pale white not because she is a white person, but because she's pure. Pale white skin is not an Italian trait, so I don't understand what Italianness has to do with anything. If anything, the fact that she is pale white makes her obviousl…

> The fairy is pale white not because she is a white person, but because she's pure.

Right, because of all of parts of the story that have been changed, _this_ is the part that must be kept - using white skin to equate to purity.

Do you agree that in our modern diverse society a black woman can be used to represent "purity"? Because if you do, then surly we can keep the author's original intent without tying it to skin color like he did in 1883.

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

#366

Post by canuckintime »

thom wrote: post #252
vkazanov wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The show is kinda OK if you ignore the book, I.e. for general public. Expensive, good CG, etc. What does feel painful though is the wasted opportunity: chances are that Foundation will never get its Peter Jackson.

The only way to faithfully film the book would be to make some sort of anthology series, and I don't think that format works well for big-budget prestige drama. As I've said elsewhere, might have been better to start with Prelude to Foundation, perhaps.

> The only way to faithfully film the book would be to make some sort of anthology series, and I don't think that format works well for big-budget prestige drama.

It wouldn’t work on traditional TV but this is streaming on AppleTV. Budget was not a barrier AND ‘ratings’ don’t really matter for Apple either. That was the best opportunity during the period of PeakTV to just do what works artistically best for the adaptation with no constraints…

If I were the producer I would have spent Apple’s money on actors instead of special effects. Every episode ~60 mins to 90 minutes~ would end on a Seldon Crisis. Hari Seldon, the mayor, the trader, the Mule, etc would be played by the biggest movie stars (Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Chris Evans, Will Smith… or Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry etc) and that’s your hook for the mainstream audience. You offer the actors movie scale pay checks for limited season requirements and thats how you attract them. That’s an easy hit.

Or hire David Simon to make ‘The Wire in space’. Update Asimov’s theory of empire evolution to acknowledge newer works like Guns, Germs and Steel. Easy Prestige TV adaptation.

Instead we got this abomination of an adaptation where it’s clear this only exists because they shopped around for IP to make an action series to fight the streaming wars

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

#367

Post by thfuran »

appleflaxen wrote: post #345
topspin wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Quoted post unavailable.

It's not nearly as antisocial as demanding that all discussion of a show be catered to your frankly preposterous standards.

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

#368

Post by stevievee »

topspin wrote: post #151

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…

Definitely not Gandalf

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

#369

Post by jeromegv »

samatman wrote: post #304
oblio wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pale white skin is a well known proxy for ethereal/angelic beings In European and European derived culture...

Yes. An Italian was talking about an Italian story. They're Europeans. What did you intend this statement to contribute?

The reality is that at least as a North American, nobody even knows it is an Italian story. We all know Pinocchio from our childhood. Nobody knows it’s Italian.

So watching a Disney movie, I’m not watching an Italian movie featuring an Italian story, just watching Disney.

I’m watching a common fable. And in that case, I really don’t see why everyone HAS to be white.

Not asking to change the original Italian book here. But the reality of Disney as a global storyteller is that it became a lot more than an Italian story.

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

#370

Post by skywhopper »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #167
farleykr wrote: post #61

My issue with the show has nothing to do with the “woke” stuff mentioned here. I don’t like it because none of the heroes are likable. All of them have some form of sticking it to the man and doing what they want as their story line. True heroes are self-sacrificial and reluctant. Contrast Galadriel who acts like a self righteous dickhead with Aragorn who was reluctant to accept his calling spent and three movies pro…

> 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…

This is a really disgusting and ignorant take. You should ask yourself why it matters so much to you what color skin the “Blue Fairy” has.
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