Live data from Hacker News

IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

old.reddit.com

201–210 of 841 posts

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

#201

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…

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 that matter any fantastical role, which is rooted in escapism and alternate realities.)

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

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The show covers A LOT more time than LOtR did, there's plenty of space for character development. The first two episodes of TRoP are 90 minutes each, for a total run time of three hours. Three hours is about the run time of the first LoTR movie (Fellowship): how much story were they able to tell in those three hours? Further, the other epic fantasy series, House of Dragons , also has released two episodes: how much…

If I exclude the credits both episodes are almost exactly 60 minutes long. And the credits are ~5 minutes or so, so the displayed runtime is 1 hour and a few minutes. I have no idea where you get the 90 minutes from, that is simply not true. I have watched both Rings of Power and The House of the Dragon, and both are essentially setting up the story in the first two episodes. There is plot in those episodes of course…

> have no idea where you get the 90 minutes from

>> but having the first two (allegedly: haven't seen it myself)

Not watching something that you critique, and instead basing it on what you saw on Reddit, HN or YouTube, seems de rigueur these days.

I did watch it. Enjoyed it. And will hold my final opinion until I've seen the last episode.

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

#203
post #110
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.

People were up in arms before a single episode aired, because they saw a fictional species (dwarf) had dark skin. many of those people have now pivoted their arguments against the show to being about pacing, writing (note: I’m in no way implying this is you, I haven’t seen any LotR series opinions on HN) - but the racist stuff has already occurred

"some people" are always irrational and unhappy. They are irrelevant.

The new criticism isn't them "pivoting", it is a completely new set of people who dislike the show for entirely different reasons.

You're making the common error of assuming everyone you disagree with is part of some homogenous club.

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

#204
post #178
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People were up in arms before a single episode aired, because they saw a fictional species (dwarf) had dark skin. many of those people have now pivoted their arguments against the show to being about pacing, writing (note: I’m in no way implying this is you, I haven’t seen any LotR series opinions on HN) - but the racist stuff has already occurred

I wonder how well it would go down if someone made a show about slavery in USA with all of the black people being played by non-blacks... For inclusivity you know? Get some Asians there. Maybe gender swap the historical big figures to boot and have them speak Chinese or something.

Dwarves aren't real, historical people. Black slaves were. What the actual fuck are you talking about?

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name a „woke“ movie with likable characters. One. Its a contradiction in terms - you cannot be a spiritual scold or schoolmarm and mold a set of likable characters from this essence.

Wait we’ve gone from the show having diversity hiring to the entire thing being “woke” now? It’s so hard to keep up with the ginned up outrage.

The interesting thing is that the plot is almost entirely about noble elites. The casting is the only woke thing about it.

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

#207
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very astute comment. We are living in some kind of Twilight Zone environment right now. Corporations purchase IP for decades-long, popular franchises, then deliberately alienate their core audience. Then they act as if all these people they just deliberately pissed off aren't real people. Words like "brigading" are a clever way to dehumanize your critics.

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.

There are some people for whom the name Tolkien means something, usually something very specific and beloved.

If those people aren't the core audience, why did they pay out of the nose to use that name in the first place? They could do a fantasy story written all in-house, and save themselves the money. If you're right, the audience should be almost as big, and they get to skip the part where they're accused of grave-robbing.

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

#208

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…

This Galadriel is such a step down compared to the LoTR trilogy... Also, in one of the first scenes wind was blowing so strongly they barely moved ahead. Then one of the company members falls down, she turns back and walks there like there was no wind at all.

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

#209

Well, we live in the age where the story hardly matters. I saw Top Gun the other day, and was shocked at how bad it was. The aerial stuff was superb, but everything else looked so amateurish. Acting was hideous, the story was so predictable and boring there was hardly any substance to the film. And yet it got an 8,5 rating at imdb.

Matt Damon went into some detail about why movies are like this nowadays: https://youtu.be/gF6K2IxC9O8

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

#210
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_... [3] https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-ring...

Post reply on HN