IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power • Hacker News Board

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

#441

Post by nibbleshifter » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:48 PM UTC

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.

I set aside any/all gripes about canon before I started, knowing what I was getting into, and what got me was the poor quality of costume design/production, and the absolute garbage CGI that looks like videogame cutscenes.

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

#442

Post by SunlightEdge » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:48 PM UTC

To be maybe controversial...

I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine a dragon, so why is a diverse community in a small village not ok? It just feels less immersive. Yes, I can go along with it - but I'm not sure it works. It feels like the modern world superimposed in a fantasy setting. I'd prefer to be sent to an alien world.

It is problematic, as years of discrimination in the real world for women/ethnic minorities were wrong and we should encourage equality in the corporate world. However the entertainment industry I wonder should in some ways be exempt. Maybe. One area where there isnt a discussion on 'diversity' is music and also novels. This is because there are tons of tons of novels and music bands to listen to. No one cares if a particular band is 'diverse'. So I wonder if the only solution out of all of this, is to have more shows - yes, make diverse inclusive European fantasy shows, but also make traditional european fantasy shows too etc. What I think will happen is that in such a scenario most European fantasy fans will choose traditional like shows. Because the story is more immersive and you are brought more into this old world. Maybe. Like I say, I'm still undecided. For modern/futuristic films I find diverse castings just as immersive.

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

#443

Post by burntsushi » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:50 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #91

fredski42 wrote: post #5

Ah. Didn’t know IMDB was owned by Amazon. Put’s all ratings on Prime in a different perspective.

> Didn’t know IMDB was owned by Amazon Yep. That's what enables Prime Video's X-Ray where you can see details about the actors and music of a particular scene while watching, and what also makes it impossible for competitors such as Netflix to have a similar feature. If IMDB were separate, the data would probably be accessible to anyone.

Not sure about that. IMDb has always (and still does) make their movie database available via a dump. But there are pretty severe restrictions on how you can use that data. Basically personal use only.

I've been downloading those dumps for years. Long before Amazon bought them. And their usage policy has always been incredibly restrictive.

Now maybe if Amazon dodn't buy them IMDb would be more willing to sell that data somehow. But, they have always been very very stingy with it. So it's not just Amazon coming in and locking things down.

(Shortly after Amazon bought IMDb, they retired their old whacky dump format and converted to CSV instead. Of which I am thankful.)

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

#444

Post by swayvil » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #92

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…

My friend who isn’t really a TV guy watched it because everyone is making such a big deal about it. He told me today it’s not bad but the main characters are just kinda boring. I’m still on sandman so I’ll do ring next. But it seems people do are actually watching it are not too bothered by it.

Have you seen Severance? It doesn't suck.

Sandman sucks. I liked the comics. Had high hopes for the show. But sucks.

Rings of Power. Haven't seen it. Probably sucks. Movies were gaudy but shallow.

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

#445

Post by nibbleshifter » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

motogpjimbo wrote: post #198

Bakary wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applying Occam's razor, given that this process has repeated for years over multiple franchises, the conclusion is that the core audience is not who you think they are. Online commentary creates a strong visibility bias. Reddit is perhaps the most egregious example of this.

The evidence doesn't back you up here. The Rise of Skywalker made half as much money as The Force Awakens. Rey and Rose Tico merchandise didn't sell. Viewing figures for recent Disney Marvel TV shows have been extremely low. Star Trek Discovery can't be viewed in many countries because no network broadcasts it. Netflix's attempts at woke series tend to get cancelled after the first season. And so on. The poor perform…

It has fuck all to do with "wokeness", and a lot more to do with current production values just not resonating.

Most media today looks the same, over-reliant on digital postprod and fuck all practical effects.

It also tends to just keep recycling the same properties ad nauseum, getting worse each time.

People are, frankly, bored of it.

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

#446

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:51 PM UTC

tjpnz wrote: post #84

I think people with legitimate criticisms are starting to get really tired being called a racist or a misogynist. 99% of the reviews aren't about wokeness at all. They're about the writing, the pacing and the how unbelievably dull the show is.

[deleted]

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

#447

Post by sensanaty » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:53 PM UTC

keepper wrote: post #216

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #167

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…

>Another example is the new Disney's Pinocchio, were the Blue Fairy is portrait by a black woman. The problem is not that she is black of course. but that the original story is set in Italy, Tuscany, mid 1800, were no black woman was ever seen It’s quite clear that that is YOUR problem. It’s funny when people like yourself claim “I’m not X” while then clear laying the case. And for the récord, i hope you open up a ge…

> There’s been black people in Italy for pretty much all it’s history. You may want to also read a few history books. (Black moors, Alessandro de' Medici, etc )

I've always hated this disingenuous line of arguing. Yes, technically there were some black people in Italy, but these types of arguments always frame it in such a way that it seems like it was a common thing to witness for the average citizen. The large, large majority of Italians (we're talking in the past obviously) have never seen anything other than other Italians, and those few foreign black people were very much a rarity.

Hell, go to places like Serbia today as a black man and you'll be gawked at like you're an alien, even in the capital Belgrade, yet alone in the smaller cities. Or do the flipside, go to a remote part of a country like Indonesia as a white man, like a random village in Papua or even a city like Jogja (and it's not exactly a small or unpopular city either), and you'll similarly be gawked at.

I'm a Serb (so corpse-white when I don't tan) but lived in Indonesia my whole life, I can't tell you the number of times I've been in situations where people have looked at me in fascination because of my white skin, even in places where tourists are common. If you go to Borobudur as a white person, you're going to be asked to have your picture taken by a dozen curious Indonesians who have never in their lives seen a white person in real life, and this is a massively popular tourist spot in a pretty massive city with plenty of foreigners coming and going.

So sure, there were some black people in Italy, but let's not pretend like that was anywhere near the norm or something you could expect to see every day in 1700s Italy as an average Italian.

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

#448

Post by thrown_22 » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #80

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no obsession about racial segregation and I don’t care at all about the fictional universe of Tolkien. I can tell you that the first time people saw black people in my very small hometown in the French countryside during the Second World War, they stopped to ask questions and at least one photo was taken. It’s not racism. It was just completely out of the ordinary which is exactly how I imagine seeing black…

I think it very much depends on the tavern. In many places sure, it would be unknown. Could a random village have a black resident, maybe a sailor or member of a trade expedition that happened to settle there? Absolutely. Adventure fiction is often centred on unusual characters with exceptional back stories or circumstances, and people like that did exist.

> Could a random village have a black resident, maybe a sailor or member of a trade expedition that happened to settle there? Absolutely.

No, because they would have died from the novel diseases the village would have had. There's a reason why when Europeans went anywhere they died by the boat load and pretty much everyone they brought back to Europe also died.

It's always fun to remember that Pocahontas died in England after being there less than a year.

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

#449

Post by swayvil » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #380

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…

Yeah, the writing is the issue. I have no problem with ethnicity or even gender swaps. Honestly, a gender swap of a male character would have been better than changing Galadriel The problem is that they’re more focused on tying the series to Peter Jackson’s work and ensuring that children can watch it. The original stories were better.

Funny how these people have 500 zillion to invest then hire shit writers.

We have an old and well-established culture of writers and system for rating those writers. You'd think they'd consult that.

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

#450

Post by UnpossibleJim » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

SunlightEdge wrote: post #442

To be maybe controversial... I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine…

Well, in Tolkien's case it was meant to be proto European mythology. It would also look out of place to place a lot of European or Asian characters in a proto African mythology story. I don't think it's racist to have a story set in a place where peoples of a particular race are all that habitate there.

The modern world is just that, modern. A medieval fantasy world has to play by those rules, in its own sort of ways. They're still walking and riding on horses, and magic is exceedingly rare in Tolkien's world. People don't just travel about.